The 2026 PWHL Draft was held at Detroit’s Fox Theatre on June 17, 2026, beginning at 5 p.m. ET, with the Vancouver Goldeneyes owning the first overall pick.
The event ran on a fixed six-round order and produced 72 selections from a pool of 235 eligible players, with each of the league’s 12 teams taking turns under the same order in every round.
Broadcast and presentation details were set: the Detroit event was presented by Upper Deck, the first two rounds were carried on Scripps Sports platforms in the United States and on TSN2 in Canada, and complete coverage of all rounds was available on TSN+ in Canada and on the PWHL YouTube channel worldwide.
The draft order reflected on-ice results and the league’s expansion procedures. Vancouver earned the top slot by finishing first in the PWHL’s Gold Plan standings during the regular season; the Seattle Torrent drew second overall after finishing last in the regular-season standings.
The league’s four expansion teams were assigned the next four selections after a randomized draw conducted in the presence of all general managers. Remaining non-playoff clubs were slotted in inverse order of their final regular-season standings, while the four playoff teams were placed by playoff result in inverse order. That order remained constant through all six rounds.
A notable roster wrinkle at the draft was Detroit’s absence from the first-round selection pool: PWHL Detroit had traded its first-round pick on Tuesday to acquire five-time Olympian Hilary Knight. The team also moved the third-overall pick in a trade with Las Vegas to secure Knight. Detroit’s pre-draft moves further reshaped its draft positions — the club acquired Boston’s second-round pick, the 22nd overall, and Boston’s third-round pick, the 34th overall, in a separate deal that sent forward Ella Huber to Boston, and it received the 27th overall pick as its own third-round selection after another trade involving the draft.
The league had announced the draft order two days earlier, on June 15, giving general managers and fans a clear map of where teams would pick when the draft opened on Wednesday evening. With order and broadcast windows set, teams moved through the prescribed six-round sequence without an alternation of order between rounds.
The practical stakes were straightforward: 12 franchises filled 72 roster slots from the same 235-player pool under a repeatable order designed to balance regular-season results, expansion parity and playoff outcomes. That structure framed every selection and every trade discussion ahead of and during the event.
What remains unresolved in the draft-order notice is the specific identity of the 72 players selected; the pick-by-pick names were not included in the order release itself. Viewers looking for the complete list could follow the live and on-demand coverage on TSN+ in Canada or on the PWHL YouTube channel worldwide to see which prospects and veterans filled the draft’s 72 slots and how those choices will influence each roster going forward.
