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The PWHL has added teams this season in hockey-mad Detroit; to a booming women's sports market in the Bay Area with San Jose; and to the fast-growing hockey landscape of Las Vegas. By September, the league, which is entering its fourth season, secured a U.S. television deal with Scripps Sports to expand its footprint into more than 128 million households. Bilka is blown away by the wave of growth she's experienced in her stints with the Boston Fleet and Seattle. This season, the native Texan will join Detroit. "It brings you chills," Bilka said of the crowds. "You want to win for the fans. They're taking time out of their day to come support you. You kind of grow with the city. It's really exciting." At the 2026 draft, a parade of generational talents—Caroline "KK" Harvey (Vancouver), Abbey Murphy (Seattle), Laila Edwards ( S a n Jo s e ) , Te s sa Ja n e c ke and Lacey Eden ( both Las Vegas)—were selected with t h e fi r st fi ve p i c k s. E m m a Peschel (New York), Kirsten S i m m s ( To r o n t o ) , G r a c e Dwyer (Boston) and Vivian Jungels (Ottawa) heard their names called by the end of the first round. " Yo u'r e n ot g o i n g t o s e e a d r a f t c l a s s l i ke t h i s ve r y often," said John Wroblewski, who coached the U.S. Olympic Women's Ice Hockey Team to gold at the 2026 Milan Games and wil serve as head coach of the U.S. Women's National Te a m t h r o u g h t h e 2 0 3 0 O l y m p i c W i n t e r G a m e s. "Actually, it might be the only time you ever see a group like that and probably the last time that you'll ever see a collection of NCAA players making the jump from a gold medal to pro hockey and have instantaneous impacts on the league." The gold rush for the United States women's hockey program extended beyond the Olympics. The U.S. is the defending Olympic, World and Under-18 champions for just the second time, the first coming in 2017-18. Meanwhile, at the grassroots level, participation among girls and women topped 100,000 for the first time last season, and organizations across the country helped host more than 120 Girls Hockey Weekend events this October. Many of the girls at those events will have their eyes locked on the upcoming World Championships and PWHL season. The Americans expect to return a nearly identical roster to the one which dominated in Milan. Captain Hilary Knight, who looks to make her 16th appearance at a World Championship, aims to extend the all-time records she holds for most medals (15), goals (67), assists (53) and points (120). Meanwhile, the rest of the roster remains hungry for even more success. "You wouldn't know if we won or lost," Bilka said. "Everyone came in (to camp) really prepared. It wasn't like we just won an Olympics." P 24 // NOV/DEC 2026 USAHOCKEYMAGAZINE.COM 1 Caroline "KK" Harvey Vancouver Goldeneyes USA 2 Abbey Murphy Seattle Torrent USA 3 Tessa Janecke PWHL Las Vegas USA 4 Laila Edwards PWHL San Jose USA 5 Lacey Eden PWHL Las Vegas USA 6 Nelli Laitinen PWHL Hamilton FIN 7 Emma Peschel New York Sirens USA 8 Kirsten Simms Toronto Sceptres USA 9 Sara Swiderski Minnesota Frost CAN 10 Grace Dwyer Boston Fleet USA 11 Vivian Jungels Ottawa Charge USA 12 Petra Nieminen Montréal Victoire FIN The 2026 PWHL Draft was a showcase of red, white and blue with the first five picks selected all being American-born players. This Rookie Class Is Special You're not going to see a draft class like this very often." – JOHN WROBLEWSKI PHOTOS BY Getty Images C A R O L I N E H A R V E Y L A I L A E D W A R D S Team USA won gold at the 2026 Olympic Winter Games and 2025 IIHF Women's World Championship. Watch: U.S. women's hockey defeats Canada in OT to win Olympic gold Watch: PWHL Draft Stories | KK Harvey