PWHL 2025-26 award predictions: who will hoist the hardware in a historic 8-team league?

The puck drops on the first 8-team season in Professional Women’s Hockey League history this Friday, and the race for year-end silver has never been more crowded. Vancouver and Seattle have raided established rosters through the expansion draft, returning powers have re-tooled around franchise cornerstones, and a bumper crop of NCAA graduates is ready to make an immediate impact. With 32 extra games on the schedule, every point, save, and highlight-reel assist carries new weight, and the usual suspects suddenly feel a little less usual.

Below is a full rundown of PWHL 2025-26 award predictions—MVP, top forward, top defender, top goalie, rookie of the year, and coach of the year—complete with the analytics, narratives, and intangibles that could swing the vote when the PHWA meets next spring.

Billie Jean King MVP: Daryl Watts, Toronto Sceptres

Daryl Watts finished third in league scoring last season (27 P in 30 GP) while playing through waves of opposition match-ups designed to stop her. Toronto lost Hannah Miller and Sarah Nurse to expansion, so head coach Troy Ryan is expected to ride his 25-year-old centre even harder in 2025-26. Watts averaged 2.05 points per 60 at 5-on-5 in ’24-25, the best mark among returning forwards, and the Sceptres’ power-play shot rate with her on the ice jumped from 42.8 to 58.9 events per 60—a 37 % spike that no other star managed.

If Toronto secures a top-three finish in a re-jigged Eastern pod, voters will point to Watts as the engine. Expect a 30-plus-point pace and the first MVP banner in Sceptres history.

Finalists:

• Sarah Fillier, New York Sirens – 1.87 P/60 as a rookie, lethal on zone entries
• Marie-Philip Poulin, Montréal Victoire – still the league’s most complete 200-ft force

PWHL 2025-26 forward of the year: Sarah Fillier, New York Sirens

The award almost always mirrors MVP, but Fillier’s two-way eruption gives her a separate path to hardware. She led all rookies in expected goals above replacement (xGAR) last season and was the only first-year forward to top 50 % on offensive-zone possession starts while still breaking up opposition cycles through the neutral zone. New York added speed on the wings during free agency, opening space for Fillier to push 25 goals. If she hits that number, the narrative of “saving hockey in the Big Apple” writes itself.

Finalists:

• Daryl Watts, Toronto – duplicate candidacy keeps her in the conversation
• Alex Carpenter, Boston Fleet – 89 shots in 24 games a year ago; shooting luck normalises

PWHL 2025-26 defender of the year: Claire Thompson, Vancouver Goldeneyes

Thompson left Minnesota’s deep blue line for Vancouver and instantly becomes the focal point of a 21-year-old defensive corps. She posted 18 points in 30 games last season despite the third-lowest offensive-zone start ratio (45 %) among regular defenders. Her micro-stats are even tastier: 58 % controlled exit rate, 64 % controlled entry denial, and a league-best 3.2 shot assists per game at even strength.

Expansion franchises historically ride their marquee defender—think Vegas and Shea Theodore in 2017-18—and Thompson’s 25-minute projection should pad counting stats enough to edge reigning winner Renata Fast.

Finalists:

• Renata Fast, Toronto – 22 points, but tougher minutes with Nurse gone
• Micah Zandee-Hart, New York – quietly posted 56 % Corsi on a bad possession team

PWHL 2025-26 goalie of the year: Maddie Rooney, Minnesota Frost

Rooney finished second in GAA (2.07) and tied for second in shutouts (2) while shouldering a heavy workload during Minnesota’s Walter Cup run. The Frost lost both starting defenders to expansion, which sounds scary until you realise Rooney’s high-danger save percentage (.833) was tops among goalies with 15-plus starts. More rubber is coming, and the 27-year-old has the athletic profile to turn volume into Vezina-level counting numbers.

Finalists:

• Gwyneth Philips, Ottawa Charge – rookie-year .918 SV %, elite post-play metrics
• Kristen Campbell, Toronto – bounce-back season behind a retooled top four

PWHL 2025-26 rookie of the year: Kristýna Kaltounková, New York Sirens

The first-overall pick out of Colgate tallied two points in two pre-season games and displayed the same north-south directness that produced 68 NCAA points in 72 outings. Kaltounková’s 6-foot frame wins wall battles, but it’s her catch-and-release shot—clocked at 84 mph at the league’s combine—that separates her from fellow freshmen. New York will feed her 17 minutes a night with veteran Allie Thunstrom doing the dirty work in the corners.

Finalists:

• Ella Huber, Boston Fleet – power-forward vibe, 3.1 shots per game in pre-season
• Haley Winn, Boston – undersized but posted 57 % possession in limited sample

PWHL 2025-26 coach of the year: Brian Idalski, Vancouver Goldeneyes

Idalski inherits a roster that selected Claire Thompson, Sophie Jaques, and experienced NCAA scorers in the expansion draft. He guided China’s Olympic team through the 2022 bubble and spent 14 seasons in NCAA Division I, implementing an up-tempo, layered neutral-zone trap that morphs into an aggressive forecheck. Vancouver projects to finish around .500—an achievement that would feel like 100 points in an inaugural context—and coaches love voting for the fresh success story.

Finalists:

• Troy Ryan, Toronto – must integrate 10 new faces and still contend
• Carla MacLeod, Ottawa – tactical wizardry turned Charge into a top possession side

Key storylines that could flip the script

1. Goaltending chaos in Seattle
   If new franchise Seattle Torrent lands a surprise 1A—say, a healthy Maschmeyer trade—the Pacific time-zone spotlight could swing the goalie race west.

2. Schedule compression
   An extra four games per team means back-to-back tilts and third-string goalies spotting starts. Durability may decide scoring titles.

3. Olympic-year hangover
   The 2026 Milano-Cortina Games sit just outside this voting window, but national-team camps start in February. Fatigue could ding stars like Poulin or Fast down the stretch.

4. Analytics vs. narrative
   The PHWA has begun publishing micro-stats on its ballots. Expect tight races—especially defender of the year—to hinge on shot-assist and entry-denial data rather than raw points.

What it means for the league

Accurate or not, these PWHL 2025-26 award predictions underscore a broader truth: women’s professional hockey is deep enough that expansion did not dilute star power—it redistributed it. Toronto’s reliance on Watts, Vancouver’s gamble on Thompson, and New York’s youth movement all create fresh plot lines that will keep casual fans hooked and hardcore metrics buffs arguing deep into May.

When the dust settles, the 2025-26 hardware haul will not just crown individual greatness; it will mark the moment an eight-team league officially felt like the most competitive ice on the planet.