Purple Reign

To wrap up our second season we hand out each of the Inaugural Six their report cards as the Purple Trio give their thoughts on how each team performed throughout the 2024/25 season and as always we don't hold back

It's that time of year again when we dust off the gladrags and discover who takes home the trophy at the PWHL Awards 2025 however this year's awards season was a bit of a dull affair as all of the winners were fairly obvious from the start

A huge historic moment took place in the day of the Entry Draft in Ottawa as the Hockey Hall of Fame announced the 2025 Class which includes Montreal Victoire general manager Daniele Sauvageau who becomes the first woman to be inducted in the builder category This is a huge moment for women's hockey in general and as such the entire Purple Trio comes together to share their thoughts in fact there...

Courtney Kessel has pplayed a huge role behind the bench of the Boston Fleet on the league's first two years which is why her departure is a huge blow for both the Fleet & the PWHL as she joins Princeton as their new coach However I totally understand her reasoning as when your heart wants something you have to go for it and as she said herself the job in Princeton was the only thing that woul...

It's the return of the playoff show on Purple Reign as we get to look back on an entertaining Walter Cup Playoffs that saw your Frost defend their crown despite the fact the odds were stacked in Canada's favour with the VIctoire, Sceptres and Charge all booked through In Part 1 we look at the first semifinal which for the second year in a row saw the league champions get knocked out by the team th...

The 2025 edition of the PWHL Entry Draft was an eventful night not just because we had two new teams make their first selections but there was a lot of trades on the floor that made Cassie look like a pantomine villain The Purple Trio come together to look back on the first round, talk winners and losers and our reactions to those blockbuster trades

Earlier in the year we found out not just which countries got the final spots to the Olympics but also the groups however at the time we did not know what the situation was regarding Russia But a few weeks ago we got a massive update and to my delight Russia are out and in their place will be France who compete in Group B alongside hosts Italy and the three countries that qualified in February

For the second year in a row the New York Sirens won the Gold Plan again by default as the playoff races went right down to the wire literally as we congratulate New York on earning the right to select the first overall draft pick Speaking of which as the draft is right around the corner I take a look at sone of the candidates who are most likely to be taken in the first round and name the one I w...

I didn't think we would be making this episode yet as we currently don't know if the Takeover Tour will be coming back but an interesting article over the weekend made very interesting reading among the Purple Trio And so not only do we go over the markets mention but also throw out our own suggestions along with some markets that we want to see get another game from this year's tour Read the arti...

The PWHL Entry Draft 2025 in Ottawa is right around the corner and we now know how the draft order will go down and whilst Pluto & Lady might not be too pleased with us picking sixth in all rounds I actually think this way is fairer basing it off the playoff dtandings especially as we're not going to be Walter Cup champions every year Draft Order1. New York Sirens (Gold Plan Winners) 2. Bo...

To quote Taylor Swift "You Need to Calm Down" Let's face it the first ever expansion in the PWHL hasn't gone down as well as lots of fans feel it puts both Vancouver & Seattle at a compettive edge over the Inaugural Six teams A lot of the response has been a bit too fiery for my liking as even I got dragged into the caranage and so I feel it falls to me to be everyone's s...

A few days on after the first ever Expansion Draft the Purple Trio are back together to go through all of the shocks and jaw dropping drama that has unfolded since the process began As well as recapping the draft as a whole we'll also look back on what was a fast and furious Exclusive Signing Window which set the tone for what was to come

Regardless who won the Walter Cup there was only one candidate for the PWHL Playoff MVP Award and so it was no surprise when the Charge's Gwyneth Phillips was named the recipent But what caught Lady's attention was how Phillips went to accept the trophy unlike NHL superstar Connor McDavid when he was in this exact same position 12 months ago

During the Walter Cup Finals a very interesting article was released and it was full of promise for a very bright future highlight more expansion to come along with the promise of growing its footprint in Europe as the league continues to tease us those potential exhibition games It is absolutely well worth the read and it's good to see that someone shares my passion and the belief that the PWHL i...

The first pieces for any expansion team is general managers and for both Seattle & Vancouver they have got some of the very best and well respected candidates in women's hockey which bodes very well for both franchises as the expansion process gets underway

The calendar year of 2025 saw a massive moment for the PWHL with their first ever Takeover Tour which saw the Inaugural Six play across nine markets that did not have a PWHL team The tour was an almighty success as not only did fans show out they also engaged with the league proving my point that everyone watches women's hockey as a combined 123,000 attended one stop on the tour Not only that but...

With the nominees being revealed while I was in Philly and then during this year's Walter Cup Finals this edition of Purple Reign is my first oppertunity to see who has been nominated for each award with the ceremony taking place on June 25 at Hard Rock, Ottawa

The first step of the roster building process for Seattle and Vancover are underway as the Inaugural Six teams submitted their protection lists which caused quite the shocks and surprises As for the Purple Trio we did extrenely well as most of our choices that we made were the eventual picks with only one or two from our list that didn't make the cut and most likely could be taken Check out th...

With just 24 hours to go before the process begins for the PWHL Expansion Draft 2025 the Purple Trio come together to draw up their protection lists for each of the Inaugural Six This was not easy and as you'll see it caused quite the comotion amongst our trio, if you would like to see our lists then you can find them on my official instagram account - https://www.instagram.com/georgehandmusic/

The first thing I saw when I got back from my mentally compromising trip in Philly was the details on how the first ever PWHL Expansion Draft but given how I was heading to Kylie I only got to read it at my seat in the AO Arena and it sounded confusing even without the jetlag Check out the official article to see the details for yourselves and find out which players from your team are up for grabs...

The day after the Minnesota Frost makes history by becoming back to back Walter Cup champions the Purple Trio who are still exhausted from the celebrations come together to look back on what has been another historical season in Minnesota We also mention some surprises including very big plans for what we as a trio would like to achieve in Year 3

Going into the final stretch of the regular season it was literally do or die for the defending champions and oh how did they thrive under pressure In particular Nicole Hensley who has struggled throughout the year but rose to the task shutting out the Charge and then only letting one goal past the Fleet as our Minnesota Frost booked thier place in the Walter Cup Playoffs Bur vefore we recap the f...

During the World Championships the league confirmed the date and location of the PWHL Entry Draft 2025 which will take place in Ottawa on the 24th June but with expansion teams from Vancouver & Seattle entering the league and the Sirens winning the Gold Plan again there's still a lot we don't know

As we expected a second expansion team for 2025/26 was indeed coming and with Vancouver joining from Canada it made complete sense that Seattle would join them Unlike BC the press conference held in the Emerald City was more of a party atmosphere with even getting athletes from Seattle's womens sports teams making speeches All in all we couldn't be more thrilled to see Seattle join our ever growin...

It took the league almost all of Year 2 but finally our Inaugural Walter Cup champions Minnesota Frost have finally recieved their championship rings and they are absolutely beautifulThe jewel captures the historic moment of our team claiming the first Walter Cup in Boston on the 29th May 2024