PWHL writer Rob Del Mundo will summarize the projected lineups for each of the two new expansion teams in a two-part series.. Today we look at PWHL Seattle.
PWHL Seattle general manager Meghan Turner has assembled a capable lineup in advance of her team’s inaugural season. Meanwhile, she still has some work to do in filling out the bottom six forwards.
Projected forward lines:
Hannah Bilka – Alex Carpenter – Jessie Eldridge
Lexie Adzija – Julia Gosling – Hilary Knight
Jenna Buglioni – Danielle Serdachny – Natalie Snodgrass
Mikyla Grant-Mentis
Unsigned 2025 draft picks: Lily Delianedis, Jada Habisch, Olivia Wallin
Hilary Knight on the *second* line…wait, what? Relax, “Knighter” fans (and I’m one of them). Alex Carpenter is no doubt the number one centre on this team. It’s a toss-up between flanking Carpenter on the right side with either her ex-New York teammate Eldridge, or her Team USA countrywoman, Knight.
For now Eldridge – seventh in league scoring last year – gets the top line nod, not because she’s necessarily better than Knight (yes, tied for the *leading* scorer in 2025), but because the overall grouping of the top six forwards provides two pairs of teammates from last year: Carpenter and Eldridge from New York, and Knight and Adzija from Boston.
Centring the second line is Gosling, the 24-year-old Team Canada rising star who will be vying for one of the coveted spots on her country’s Olympic roster for the 2026 Winter Games. While in Toronto, Gosling was on the bottom rung of the depth chart in a lineup that included 2022 gold medallists Sarah Nurse, Blayre Turnbull and Emma Maltais. Gosling would have the opportunity to showcase her talents playing alongside the future Hall of Famer in Knight.
Projecting the bottom six is a bit tricky, only because Seattle has just ten signed forwards listed on its official page at the time of this writing. For now we’ll place the team’s first round draft pick Buglioni on the left side, playing with Snodgrass at right wing and Serdachny in the middle, the latter player looking for a fresh start after a substandard rookie season in Ottawa.
That leaves Grant-Mentis, a veteran of two PWHL seasons with both Montreal and Ottawa, available to mentor whichever of Delianedis, Habisch and Wallin make the team.
Defence pairings:
Cayla Barnes – Anna Wilgren
Emily Brown – Aneta Tejralova
Megan Carter – Mariah Keopple
In Barnes and Wilgren – two American standouts – Seattle inherits Montreal’s top defensive pairing from last season. Barnes will be expected to be her team’s power play quarterback, and is all but a lock to play for her country in Milan and Cortina. Wilgren is a dark horse candidate to make the Olympic roster.
Tejralova, a two-time bronze medallist at the Women’s World Championship, will represent her native Czechia at a second straight Olympics. A workhorse who logged 19:24 of ice time per regular season game last year with Ottawa, Tejralova is paired on our depth chart beside the solid, defensive-minded Brown.
On the third pair, Carter is a physical defender who would complement Keopple, one of the team’s two right-shooting rearguards (besides Barnes).
Goaltenders:
Primary: Corinne Schroeder
Backup: Carly ‘CJ’ Jackson
Schroeder, a relative veteran of two PWHL seasons, heads to the Emerald City after a couple of years in New York. Amazingly, Schroeder has posted a career winning record of 17-15-1-5 despite playing on a team that finished last in the standings in both 2024 and 2025. Jackson, meanwhile, will be duelling Seattle’s second round draft pick Hannah Murphy for the backup role.
