Frank Mills, Women’s Hockey Scout
The PWHL has announced the cities and dates for its 2025-26 Takeover Tour. Sixteen neutral site games will be played across North America with eight in the United States and eight in Canada. Seven new cities (Calgary, Chicago, Dallas, Halifax, Hamilton, Washington DC, and Winnipeg) will be joining returning Tour stops Denver, Detroit, Edmonton, and Quebec City. The addition of cities from non-traditional hockey markets offers an opportunity for the PWHL to amplify girl’s hockey in communities across the continent, bringing attention to local clubs and emphasizing the connection between youth hockey and the collegiate and professional levels.
Several of these cities are likely being considered for league expansion, especially in areas where the Tour is making a return stop. For the new locales, it’s an opportunity to prove to the PWHL that women’s professional hockey can draw a crowd in their area.
Calgary
Calgary’s Scotiabank Saddledome will play host to the Toronto Sceptres and Ottawa Charge on April 1. Calgary native Jessica Kondas of the Toronto Sceptres starred for the Edge School before making her way to Minnesota State. Ottawa rookie Sarah Wozniewicz also played for Edge, as well as local club the Airdrie Lightning. Malia Schneider, now playing for the Vancouver Goldeneyes, is from Millarville. Before going off to the former Pursuit of Excellence Hockey Academy (now RINK Academy in Kelowna), she got her start with the Millarville Wildcats.
Although Hayley Wickenheiser hails from Shaunavon, Saskatchewan, the four-time Olympic gold medalist played most of her hockey in Calgary, where her family moved when she was a youth player. She starred for the Calgary Oval X-Treme, Team Alberta, the University of Calgary, and the Calgary Inferno of the CWHL.
Ontario natives and now PWHL captains Brianne Jenner and Blayre Turnbull will be making a homecoming appearance of her own. With the CWHL’s Calgary Inferno, they led their team to two Clarkson Cups in 2016 and 2019.
Besides the Edge School, the South Alberta Hockey Academy and the Calgary Fire are producing top talent from the area. The Alberta Female Hockey League (AFHL) is an elite league that has propelled many players to NCAA Division I, Division III, and U Sports hockey.
Chicago
Chicago will play host to the Minnesota Frost as they take on the Ottawa Charge on Dec. 21. Illinois natives Kendall Coyne-Schofield (Minnesota) and Taylor House (Ottawa) will be making their hometown debuts. On March 25, the New York Sirens and Seattle Torrent will battle as Hilary Knight, who grew up in Lake Forest, will be welcomed by her hometown fans.
Chicago has been a girls hockey magnet for many years. Three of the greatest American players of all time, Cammi Granato, Hilary Knight, and Kendall Coyne-Schofield, grew up playing youth hockey in the area. Before playing for girls’ AAA teams, they played boy’s hockey, with Granato skating for the Downers Grove Huskies and Knight playing for the Highland Park Falcons. Coyne-Schofield was inspired for greatness when she attended Granato’s girls’ hockey camp at the age of seven.
Chicago hosts a number of high-level girl’s AAA programs including the Chicago Mission, Windy City Storm, Chicago Fury, Chicago Young Americans, and Team Illinois. At the tier-two level, Chicago boasts of a number of strong tier-two teams, including the North Shore Warhawks, Chicago Hawks, Glenview Stars, West Dundee Leafs, St. Jude Knights, and Naperville Sabres.
The Mission can claim Coyne-Schofield, Jesse Compher, Savannah Harmon, Ella Huber, and Lyndie Lobdell among their alumni. U.S. National team star Abbey Murphy hails from Evergreen Park and played for St. Jude and the Mission before her college career at Minnesota. Coyne-Schofield also played for Team Illinois, as did Megan Bozek and Shay Maloney (who also played for the Young Americans). Joliet’s Taylor House played for the Chicago Fury before her college career at Quinnipiac.
Dallas
Dallas will host the New York Sirens and Seattle Torrent at American Airlines Center on Dec. 28.
Two local players will be facing off in this Texas homecoming. Seattle’s Hannah Bilka, a native of nearby Coppell, and New York’s Allyson Simpson, born in Fort Worth and raised in Frisco, both played for the HC Dallas AAA boy’s team before playing at Shattuck-Saint Mary’s in Minnesota.
Elite girls’ hockey in the area is now centered on the Dallas Stars Elite program, which has consistently gotten girls into college hockey. A couple of hours south, the Houston Girls Hockey Association’s HTX Storm is a strong development program for girls in their area.
The NHL’s Dallas Stars have been influential in growing the game for girls in the area. The Dallas Stars Rookie Girls Program offers a free four-week program for girls aged 4-14 who are interested in trying hockey for the first time (with all equipment provided). This combined with USA Hockey’s Girls Try Hockey for Free Days has helped to grow the game in non-traditional hockey markets.
Denver
Denver will host two games on the Takeover Tour, a hint that it could be a front-runner for an expansion team in the future. Vancouver and Seattle will face off on Jan. 25 and New York and Minnesota will battle on March 15 at the Avalanche’s Ball Arena. Two Colorado natives, the Frost’s Nicole Hensley and Peyton Anderson, will be making their home-state debuts.
Hensley hails from Littleton, Colorado where she played at the Edge Ice Arena for the Littleton Hawks. She later played for the Colorado Selects before going to Lindenwood University. Anderson, an Arvada native, played for the Lafayette Locomotives, Colorado Evolution and Team Colorado before starting at Northeastern.
Team Colorado, led by their Director of Hockey Karen Rickard, who was a standout at Wisconsin, plays against the best tier-one girls’ talent across North America. Colorado is also home to a wealth of amazing tier-two girls’ programs, including Mountain Select, the Rocky Mountain Lady Roughriders, the Steamboat Stampede, Aspen Leafs, Vail Mountaineers, Colorado 14ers, Durango Demons, Hyland Hills Jaguars, and Colorado Springs Tigers, to name a few.
Detroit
The Motor City has been a girl’s hockey hotbed for many years and it’s looking like it may be rewarded with a PWHL team in the near future. Two games will be played at Little Caesar’s Arena this season with Vancouver taking on Boston on Jan. 3 and New York playing Montreal on March 28.
The number of PWHL players from the greater-Detroit area is quite impressive, with Farmington’s Megan Keller of the Fleet leading the list. Amanda Thiele (Milford), Shiann Darkangelo (Royal Oak), Elle Hartje (Detroit), Taylor Girard (Maycomb Township), Callie Shanahan and Anna Segedi (Commerce Township), and Mellissa Channell-Watkins all hail from the metro area. Emma Gentry, Clara Van Wieren, and Kirstin Simms (NCAA standout at Wisconsin) all hailed from outside the metro area, but all played for Detroit-based teams. Lisa Brown-Miller (Union Lake) and Shelly Looney (Trenton) played on the 1998 U.S. national team that won its first gold medal in Nagano, Japan.
The Detroit area is best known for its corporate-sponsored tier-one teams that typically top the national rankings for girls’ hockey programs. Little Caesar’s, Honey Baked, and Belle Tire have set the standard for excellence, with clubs like Bigby Coffee and Fox Motors following suit. The area is also home to some excellent tier-two programs, including the Kensington Valley Ravens, Superior Ice Breakers, St. Clair Shores Saints, Traverse City North Stars, Livonia Knights, Midland Hornets, and Metro Jr. Jets.
Edmonton
Edmonton will be seeing lots of women’s hockey in the next couple of months, starting with the USA-Canada Rivalry Series as well as two PWHL games. Minnesota will be taking on Vancouver on Dec. 27 and Boston will play Vancouver on April 7. Edmontonians won’t get a chance to welcome back local prodigies Danielle Serdachny, Dayle Ross, or Stephanie Markowski, but they will get to see the Goldeneyes’ Emerance Maschmeyer play twice.
Maschmeyer grew up in nearby Bruderheim where she learned to skate on the backyard rink. As a youth player, she was only the second girl to play in the Brick Invitational and later played in two exhibition games in the AJHL before going off to Harvard. Two-time gold medalist Shannon Szabados, another Edmontonian, was a hero to the young Maschmeyer.
The Edmonton area has several outstanding girls’ programs including the Edmonton Jr. Oilers (formerly Pandas), St. Albert Slash, Northern Alberta Xtreme, Okanagan Hockey Academy Edmonton, St. Albert Sharks, Sherwood Park Fury, and the Edmonton Ice.
Halifax
Halifax will play host to Montreal and Toronto on Dec. 17 and then Ottawa and Boston on Jan. 11. Locals will get a chance to see Blayre Turnbull (Stellarton) and Allie Munroe (Yarmouth) skate for the Sceptres and Jill Saulnier (Halifax) compete for the Fleet. Other PWHL players from the area include Seattle’s Carly Jackson (Amherst) and Minnesota’s Mae Batherson (New Minas). Victoire head coach Kori Cheverie (New Glasgow) starred at St. Mary’s University in Halifax before playing for the Toronto Furies of the CWHL.
Local teams developing top girls’ talent include the Lindsay Surge, Northern Subway Selects, Greenfoot Capitals, Cape Breton Lynx, and the King’s Edgehill School. The Nova Scotia Female Hockey League is a top producer of young hockey players. Nova Scotia will be featured in January as it hosts the 2026 IIHF U18 Women’s World Championship.
Hamilton
Seattle will take on Toronto on Jan. 3 at the TD Coliseum in what amounts to a home game for the Sceptres. The Hamilton area, including nearby Burlington and Oakville, is a hockey hotbed. The OWHA, which fields elite girls’ hockey teams at all ages, puts more girls in Division I college hockey than any other league on the continent. The Burlington Barracudas, Stoney Creek Sabres and Oakville Hornets are top teams that produce top talent. Other nearby OWHA powerhouses include the Etobicoke Dolphins and Mississauga Hurricanes.
Local star Sarah Nurse played youth hockey in the Hamilton City Hub League, as well as for Ancaster and Stoney Creek. Renata Fast played for the Barracudas and continues to work with that club today. Brianne Jenner, Kayla Vespa, and Kristin O’Neill also played for Stoney Creek. Emma Maltais played for Oakville, as did American Hayley Scamurra, whose dad drove her over from Buffalo to play in the elite OWHA. Cheryl Pounder grew up playing in nearby Mississauga, as did Ohio State head coach Nadine Muzerall.
Quebec City
Beautiful Quebec City will play host to Vancouver and Montreal at the Videotron Centre on Jan. 11 which I personally hope will be a celebration of all things Marie-Philip Poulin. The Victoire and Team Canada captain was born in Quebec City and raised in nearby Beauceville, playing with boys until moving to the Montreal Stars of the CWHL and Dawson College. The Victoire’s Catherin Dubois is also a Quebec City native, playing in Cégep for the Cégep Limoilou Titans.
Goaltender Ann-Renee Desbiens from up the St. Lawrence River in La Malbaie, was the first female player drafted into the Quebec Junior AAA Hockey League. The city of Clermont honored her with a statue installed outside the town’s arena. Beauport native Manon Rheaume, another goaltender known for famous firsts, was the first female to play in the Quebec Pee Wee Tournament, the first to play in the QMJHL, and the first to play in an NHL exhibition game.
The city will play host in 2027 to the IIHF Women’s World Championship, highlighting the many excellent players coming out of the province. Team Quebec’s U18 Women’s team made history in November 2025, winning their first-ever gold medal at the Hockey Canada U18 Women’s National Championship.
Washington, DC
The Washington Capitals, led by their superstar goal-scorer Alex Ovechkin, have turned the nation’s capital into a hockey town. Girls’ hockey has grown exponentially in the area, thanks in part to the Capitals Stanley Cup victory in 2018. Capital One Arena will play host to Montreal and New York on Jan. 18.
Gold medalist Hayley Skarupa is a local legend, having played for the Washington Pride before moving to Boston College, the national team and the NWHL. Future PWHL star Lacey Eden, who now plays for Wisconsin, got her start with Navy Youth Hockey before playing for the Washington Little Caps boys AAA team.
Another player who, although not originally from the Washington, DC area, calls it home in the offseason is the Victoire’s Hayley Scamurra, whose dad played for the Capitals in the 1970s and whose mom is a local. Scamurra can often be found at local rinks in the offseason and runs a camp out of the Ice Gardens in Laurel in the summer.
The Pride are the only tier-one girls program in town, but there are a number of excellent tier-two programs developing players, including the Montgomery Ice Devils, Tri-City Eagles, St. James Hockey Club, and Reston Raiders.
Winnipeg
Winnipeg will host Montreal and Ottawa at the Canada Life Centre on March 22 where they’ll get to see local heroes Kati Tabin (Winnipeg) and Jocelyne Larocque (St. Anne) face off. Other PWHLers from the area include Corinne Schroeder (Elm Creek), Raygan Kirk (St. Anne), Ashton Bell (Deloraine), and Kristen Campbell (Brandon).
Winnipeg’s most-famous female player, Jennifer Botterill, now a mainstay onHockey Night in Canada, was recently inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, but she got her start skating outdoors at the Wildwood Community Centre. Her longtime teammate and friend Sami Jo Small, an Olympic gold medalist at Salt Lake City, is also a Winnipegger.
The RINK Hockey Academy is now operating in Winnipeg and developing top-tier players. Balmoral Hall can boast of Schroeder and Tabin among their alumni. Other top teams in the area include the Pembina Valley Hawks, Eastman Selects, Westman Wildcats, and the Shaftesbury School.