The Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) announced last week that they have chosen Hamilton as the location for their latest expansion team for the 2026-27 season, which begins in only a few months.
Las Vegas and Detroit will also be joining the league, which will now have 11 different teams.
The Hamilton-based team will play out of the newly renovated TD Coliseum, which will also be home to a new men’s American Hockey League (AHL) hockey team starting in the fall.
The men’s team is the farm team for the New York Islanders of the National Hockey League (NHL).
PWHL officials said that Hamilton “boasts one of the largest and most concentrated areas in the world for girls’ hockey participation,” so it makes sense that the city has a professional women’s team.
They added that more than 15 per cent of PWHL players are from the Greater Golden Horseshoe.
The league brought their 2026 Takeover Tour to TD Coliseum in January, which was attended by 16,012 fans, making it one of the top 20 attendances in league history.
The league launched its first season in 2024 after the collapse of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League led to the establishment of a new league.
The league also revealed that Hamilton’s PWHL team will have gold, maroon, and cream as their official colours.
A press release states that “the gold is a hat tip to the uniforms worn by the CFL’s Hamilton Tiger-Cats and the former NHL Hamilton Tigers, while maroon pays homage to Steeltown by representing the colour of aged steel.”
The team name and logo will be announced at a later date.
Jayna Hefford, Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations with the PWHL, commented, “Hamilton and its surrounding communities have long been central to the growth of girls’ and women’s hockey, producing generations of talented players and passionate fans.”
“This is a region with deep hockey roots, and the response we saw during our Takeover Tour game at TD Coliseum made it clear that fans in the region are ready to rally around a team of their own.”
Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horwath and Ontario Minister of Sport Neil Lumsden were at the PWHL announcement on Thursday.
Lumsden said, “It’s an exciting time for women’s sports in Ontario, and bringing a new PWHL team to Hamilton is a major milestone for the game, for this city, and for our province.”
“With Ontario now home to three PWHL teams, this expansion reflects the growing momentum behind women’s sport, and this new Hamilton team will help inspire the next generation of athletes and create more opportunities for girls and young women to pursue a career competing in professional sport.”
At the press conference last week, officials also announced that the new PWHL team will practice at Morgan Firestone Arena in Ancaster.
The arena is currently home to five local organizations, all of which will continue to use the site.
The new women’s team will bring new community-focused opportunities to the local arena, including public and fan access and developmental clinics.
The team roster also remains to be seen.
It should be noted that Hamilton’s Sarah Nurse, who plays in the PWHL, is set to become a free agent.
Other PWHL teams include Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, Boston, Minnesota, New York, and Seattle.
Based in Hamilton, he reaches hundreds of thousands of people monthly on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. He has been published in The Hamilton Spectator, Stoney Creek News, and Bay Observer. He has also been a segment host with Cable 14 Hamilton. In 2017, he received the Chancellor Full Tuition Scholarship from the University of Ottawa (BA, 2022). He has also received the Governor General’s Academic Medal. He formerly worked in a non-partisan role on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
