The Vancouver Goldeneyes may have lost out on making the playoffs, but by every non-hockey metric, the team’s debut season in the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) has been a winner.
And for that they can thank the fans who proved that — to borrow a baseball-inspired metaphor — if you build it in Vancouver, they will come.
“Every game was so exciting because [the fans] brought the energy every night,” said captain Ashton Bell, speaking at the team’s season-ending press conference on Monday. “From our home opener to our last game, they showed up for us.”
Vancouver led the PWHL in regular-season attendance, outpacing the league’s per-game average of 9,200 by about 2,000 fans.
That includes this past Saturday when 11,310 filled the Pacific Coliseum for the final Goldeneyes game of the season, an overtime win over the two-time defending Walter Cup champion Minnesota Frost.
In other leagues, that victory would have been meaningless with Vancouver already out of the playoffs. But because of the PWHL’s unique “gold plan” system, which rewards the team that earns the most points after being eliminated from post-season contention with the top pick in the draft, it meant everything.
The Goldeneyes edged the Seattle Torrent for the first overall pick on the final day of the regular season.
“It’s very exciting to have the first pick, and that includes the first pick in each round,” said Cara Gardner Morey, Goldeneyes general manager. “There’s a lot of great talent in that class.”
Gardner Morey didn’t tip her hand, but topping the list of draft-eligible players is American defender Caroline Harvey, who has been piling up the hardware.
As part of the gold-medal winning U.S. women’s hockey team, Harvey was the leading scorer at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, and was named the tournament’s most valuable player and top defender. The 23-year-old was also named top U.S. college player earlier this year while helping her Wisconsin Badgers repeat as NCAA champions.
The PWHL hasn’t released plans for the 2026 draft, nor has it confirmed details about which cities and how many — two or four — will be awarded expansion franchises for next season.
The uncertainties leave Vancouver with a lot of unanswered roster questions, including whether fan favourite Sarah Nurse, who came to Vancouver on a one-year contract, will return.
“First and foremost it’s about the rules around expansion. Right now we don’t have a ton of information,” she said. “Obviously when you expand that means you need new players in new markets. Whether it’s two or four teams, that’s a lot of new players that this league needs.”
Nurse said one area Vancouver players want improved is travel. Along with Seattle, Vancouver spent the most time on the road this past season, racking up frequent flyer points travelling east to face other PWHL teams.
“In our unique situation, obviously we’re three time zones away from most of the teams and a lot of travel days ended up being eight-plus hours at the minimum,” she said.
“I don’t think we were ready for the nuances of individual airports and airlines and aircrafts.”
