Girls on ice: PWHL’s third season aligns with youth hockey surge
Head to a local hockey rink these days, and you will quickly find that it’s becoming a girl’s world. The Seattle Kraken are bracing for another boom in youth registrations in the coming months, as they experienced when the team debuted in 2021. This time it’s because of their new “sister” team, the Seattle Torrent.
The Torrent will drop the puck on their inaugural Professional Women’s Hockey League season on Nov. 21, and a surge of young girls eager to get on the ice is expected to follow — as it has in every city where the PWHL has taken root. While the Torrent aren’t part of the NHL teams’ ownership group, the Kraken’s youth programs and others across the Seattle area stand to benefit from the league’s arrival.
Kraken youth coach Julia Takatsuka led a rink full of young skaters in a “Try Hockey for Free” class in October, which is a preview of what’s to come. Takatsuka grew up in the Seattle area when there were just a handful of girls playing the sport and told Straight Arrow News she started by playing on boys’ teams.
“I was either the only one or one of one or two on the team playing, ” Takatsuka said. “I did switch to a girls’ team when I was in middle school, so I was pretty lucky there. There were three girls’ teams in the entire state, and they were three different age groups. One of them played in a coed league, and two of them played against other girls up in Canada, so I was going to Canada every weekend to play.”
How many girls are playing hockey?
Girls in Washington don’t have to make that multi-hour drive up north anymore. There are now teams and leagues in every age group, from 6 to 18 years old. The same growth is happening across North America in record numbers. USA Hockey youth registrations grew by more than 5% across all female age groups in 2024, with 4,784 new members. Total female registrations in the U.S. are now at 98,394.
In Canada, where hockey is the national sport, girls’ participation increased by 30% in the last three years, with more than 70,000 new players. Takatsuka believes those numbers will continue to rise with the PWHL’s expansion, allowing more girls to see a path to college and the professional ranks.
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USA Hockey girls’ youth registrations grew by more than 5% across all age groups in 2024 with 4,784 new members.
“They’re gonna be able to see their future selves,” Takatsuka said. “You can see that role model and have someone to root for and have a team to root for and be like, ‘OK, this is where I wanna go.’ You can see that whole track right in front of you instead of having to just kind of make it up as you go along.”
Takatsuka flashed a big smile when U.S. National Team icon Hilary Knight was mentioned as a role model for young kids. She was signed away from Boston by the Torrent as a PWHL expansion player.
“It’s crazy. I was like, there’s no way,” Takatsuka said. “There’s no way she’s going to come here. And now she’s in the building. She’s on the team. That’s awesome.”
PWHL players are all in on growing the game
Minnesota Frost star Claire Butorac, like Knight, has been in the PWHL since the league started in 2023. As a Minnesota native, the sport has always been available to her, even at a young age. She told Straight Arrow News that being a role model and signing autographs for the next generation is something players take a lot of pride in doing.
“When I was growing up, I didn’t have professional women. I had the National Team, and that was really cool,” Butorac said. “But now it’s like, having seen the little girls in lines just be like, ‘Oh, I want to be in the PWHL,’ it’s just really cool to hear. It’s like a full circle moment, I think, for all of us.”
The PWHL is the beneficiary as girls’ hockey grows and more specialize in the sport. Butorac coached kids in Minnesota and is already seeing growth.
“Just the talent level from where it was five years ago to now,” Butorac said. “The 12-year-olds and 14-year-olds that I coach, it’s crazy. There’s so much development happening, and it’s really cool to think, when these young players get to be my age and our age, the league and the level of pace and play, it’s going to be so much faster.”
Asked if she was ready for the new competition, which may come sooner rather than later, Butorac said, ”bring it on.”
“We want to put the best product on the ice,” Butorac said. “And I think that’s exactly how you do it. It’s just to continue to use the trickle-down effect and really focus on development.”
Are there roadblocks to continued growth?
Youth organizers still need to overcome two big hurdles to continue growing the game. The cost of a full set of kids’ hockey gear can range from $400 to over $1,000. There is also a shortage of ice rinks and time set aside for young kids, even in the biggest hockey markets.
The Kraken Community Iceplex, which opened its doors in 2021, has three full ice sheets, and the doors are open from 6 a.m. to midnight daily, but Takatsuka said they still have to get creative with scheduling to accommodate demand.
The PWHL is expecting to set attendance and viewership records during the upcoming season, meaning more young girls will surely see their future.
“I think you’re going to see a lot of people at Climate Pledge Arena (watching PWHL games), a lot of people here watching practices,” Takatsuka said. “I know we’re going to see more girls starting to play the game as well.”
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
