The PWHL released the 2026 Draft Order of Selection on Tuesday, setting the path for Wednesday’s PWHL Draft in Detroit. The Vancouver Goldeneyes will pick first overall, the Seattle Torrent will go second, and the same order will hold through all six rounds.
The draft begins at 5 p.m. ET at Detroit’s Fox Theatre and will run for 72 picks. That gives the Goldeneyes the first shot at the board after they finished first in the Gold Plan standings, even though Seattle ended the regular season last and still lands just behind them. The rest of the draft is shaped by the league’s expansion and postseason format: the four expansion teams take the next four selections, the remaining non-playoff teams follow in inverse order of their final regular-season standings, and the four playoff teams are slotted in reverse of their playoff results.
The order was set through a randomized draw conducted in the presence of all General Managers, a detail that matters because it leaves no room for guesswork about how the opening rounds were assigned. For fans trying to track how the board will move, the answer is simple: it will not move much at all. In a six-round draft, the same order repeats every time, so the first decision in each round matters more than a changing sequence would.
That makes the first overall pick the biggest unanswered question left on the table. The league has not said which player will go first, or how the early selections will reshape the roster picture for the teams at the top of the board. If recent interest in the draft is any guide, fans are already looking well beyond the order itself, with attention also on broader draft coverage after PWHL Draft Draws 235 Players as Olympics, NCAA Names Stack Field.
Broadcast plans are split by round. The first two rounds will be available in the U.S. on Scripps Sports platforms and in Canada on TSN2, while complete coverage of all rounds will stream on TSN+ in Canada and on the PWHL YouTube Channel worldwide with no blackouts. Fans in the Detroit area can watch live at the Fox Theatre, and the PWHL Draft Fan Zone on Columbia Street runs from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. ET before the selections start.
By releasing the order now, the league has done more than fill in a bracket. It has fixed the route to 72 picks, given the expansion teams their place in line, and left the next step where the real draft stories begin: the names called when the clock starts in Detroit.
