Going into the 2025–26 PWHL season, expectations were sky high for the Vancouver Goldeneyes and Seattle Torrent. However, the two sit at the bottom of the league this year, with Seattle officially eliminated from the playoffs after last night’s loss. Here are the struggles Vancouver and Seattle faced in the PWHL this year.

The travel problem

The PWHL was an East Coast league until this year, with the lone exception being the Minnesota Frost. However, expanding to Seattle and Vancouver added two completely isolated franchises to the fold.

Both teams were required to take at least a three hour flight, crossing at least two time zones to play any away game, and the results spoke for themselves. Seattle won their first away game this last week, taking down the Ottawa Charge 5–3 on April 8th. Prior to that, they went 0–11 in away games against teams other than Vancouver.

The Goldeneyes weren’t much better, winning two road games against teams other than Seattle, one against Toronto and one against Boston.

Every team needs to play half the season on the road, there’s nothing new there, but having to travel cross-country for nearly all of those adds additional weight to West Coast Teams. This study done on NHL players between 2013 and 2020 found a correlation between travel and on-ice performance. Undoubtedly, the same exists in the PWHL.

There isn’t much that the league can do to equalize this, short of introducing more expansion teams in the West, but even Goldeneyes Head Coach Brian Idalski called this out, saying, “There’s something there. There’s something with the travel and us going back and forth that’s happening to our bodies. We need to learn how to manage that better.”

This is far from the only factor, but it conditions some of the lack of production from the two West Coast teams.

Talent was there, depth was not

Both teams were built through the Expansion Draft, with Seattle undoubtedly coming away with an immensely talented roster. Having Hillary Knight, Alex Carpenter, and Hannah Bilka on the roster is a ton of offensive firepower.

The challenge was that the team hasn’t been able to put it all together. The top of Seattle’s lineup, Julia Gosling, Alex Carpenter, Danielle Serdachny Jessie Eldridge, Theresa Schafzahl, and the injured Hilary Knight and Hannah Bilka all produce well, but the rest of the team really struggled. The rest of the lineup of 17 players of combined for just 14 goals and 29 assists so far this season. For reference, Carpenter and Eldridge combined for 17 goals and 30 assists.

Seattle can’t run their top stars all game long, and when they aren’t on the ice, the team struggled. Most of the team’s top players were around even in plus-minus, but their bottom of the roster was on the ice for vastly more goals against than for.

Vancouver’s scoring issues

Vancouver did not have a secondary scoring issue, they had a forward scoring issue. Over 20% of their goals came from defencemen, the highest in the league. On top of that, they have averaged just over 26 shots per game, the fewest in the league. Even in last night’s 4-1 win over Seattle, they had just 24 shots on target.

Despite having tons of offensive strength on the blueline from Claire Thompson and Sophie Jaques, who have 29 points between them, the team did not have the offensive firepower to match the rest of the league.

Vancouver also hasn’t been able to figure out either side of their special teams. On the power play, they are an abysmal 9.2%, second worst in the league. They scored just six times on the (wo)man-advantage, three of which came from Thompson and Jaques at the blueline. They also lead the league, allowing three shorthanded goals against.

Their penalty kill also hasn’t been much better, averaging 82.1%, but allowed 12 goals against when down a person. Really not great results.

Injuries were the icing on the cake this season

While injuries are a part of the sport, both Seattle and Vancouver faced more than their fair share of injuries this season. For Seattle, it was both Knight and Bilka facing extended injuries that really hurt their prospects this season. The two played just 33 games this season to this point. This left them combining for 20 points, a far cry from what was expected.

For Vancouver, it was the loss of Sarah Nurse that hit hardest. The forward played just 16 games, recording 12 points in that time. With her in the lineup, undoubtedly, the team would have performed better.

The loss of Nurse was more than the on-ice presence. She was the talisman for the Vancouver team, and losing her in the locker room was a huge loss. GM Cara Gardner Morey called this out earlier in the season when she said, “We went on such a long road trip right off the bat and it was our first one and she wasn’t there… I think that had a huge impact where we could have used her just for culture and locker room and just a steady kind of presence.”

This loss set the tone for the season, and while Vancouver did rebound as the season went on, they dug themselves in too deep of a hole without Nurse that they couldn’t come back out of.

Can the 2026–27 PWHL season be different for the Vancouver Goldeneyes and Seattle Torrent?

While this season was a rather forgettable one for both teams, the hope is that next year should be better. For Vancouver, it feels like this was a blip. The team got stronger as the year went on, with bad luck, injuries and acclimatizing to the season being the biggest barriers the team faced.

A genuinely strong blueline mixed with a full year of Nurse should help them be competitive next year. If they can find a way to get more shots from the dangerous areas of the ice, and add a couple of forward pieces to the group, they should be competitive for next season.

Seattle is a little more complicated. The team has some really strong pieces, but there seems to be a lack of chemistry on this team. Whether it’s a coaching issue, a personality issue, or a mix of the two, it’s an issue that the team will need to resolve for next season.

The other issue for Seattle is that age is going to start catching up to this roster. Carpenter is 32 as of this week (happy belated birthday) and Knight turns 37 this season. This is a core that needs an infusion of youth. If they get the first overall pick in the 2026 PWHL Draft, which they should get through the Gold Plan, this will be a massive help, but they will need more young talent to be competitive next season.

Where do Vancouver and Seattle go from here?

With Seattle officially eliminated, the Gold Plan starts now. The team will be in a fight to pick up as many points as they can before the end of the season to earn the first overall draft pick. Despite winning this week against Seattle, Vancouver remains six points back of the last playoff spot with three games remaining. While they are technically still not eliminated, the odds of them passing the Ottawa Charge, Toronto Sceptres, and New York Sirens is slim.

It’s a matter of time before both teams are hanging up their skates for the summer, and the respective management teams are meeting to debrief the year and plan for next season. Both teams have possibility, and with the right chemistry adds and better health, we should see more competition from the Pacific teams next season.