Girls on ice: PWHL’s third season aligns with youth hockey surge
Nov 14, 2025
A record number of girls are suiting up to play hockey across North America as the PWHL gets ready to drop the puck on its third season.
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The Seattle Kraken have been teaching kids to play hockey since they joined the NHL in 2021
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In the coming months, they're bracing for another boom in youth registrations
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This time, it's a girls' world. The Seattle Torrent will drop the puck on their inaugural season in the Professional Women's Hockey League on November 20th
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And a surge in young girls wanting to get on the ice with stick and puck will surely follow
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as it has in every city that PWHL now plays in. Kraken youth coach Julia Takasuka led a rink full of young skaters in a tri-hockey for free class in October
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And that's a preview of what's to come. Takasuka grew up in the Seattle area when there were just a handful of girls playing the sport
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And she started by playing on boys teams. I was either the only one or one of one or two on the team playing
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And then I did switch to a girls team when I was in middle school
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So I was pretty lucky there. There were kind of three girls teams in the entire state
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and they were three different age groups. And one of them played in a co-ed league
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and two of them played against other girls up in Canada. So I was going to Canada every weekend to play
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Girls in Washington no longer have to make that two- or three-hour drive to the Great White North
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There are now teams and leagues in every age group up to 18 years old
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Girls hockey is hitting record numbers across North America. USA hockey youth registrations grew by more than 5% across all female age groups in 2024, with 4,784 new members
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In Canada, where hockey is the national sport, participation is up 30% in the last three years, with more than 70,000 new players
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Takasuka believes those numbers will keep rising with the PWHL expansion allowing more girls to see a path to college and the professional ranks They going to be able to see their future selves right You can see that role model and have someone to root
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for and have a team to root for and be like, okay, this is where I want to go. And so you can see that
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whole track right in front of you instead of having to just kind of make it up as you go along
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Minnesota Frost star Claire Buterak has been in the PWHL since the league started in 2023
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As a Minnesota native, the sport has always been available to her, even at a young age
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But being a role model and signing autographs for the next generation is something new
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When I was growing up, I didn't have professional women. I had the national team and that was really cool
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But now it's like seeing the little girls in line just be like, I want to be in the PWHL
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It's just really cool to hear and it's like a full circle moment, I think, for all of us. The PWHL is all the better for it as girls hockey grows and more specialize in the sport
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Budarak has coached kids in Minnesota and is already seeing it. Just the talent level from where it was five years ago to the 12-year-olds and 14-year-olds that I coach
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It's crazy, right? There's so much development happening. It's really cool to think about when these young players get to be my age and our age
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the league and the level of pace and play is going to be so much faster
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Youth organizers have two big hurdles to jump to keep growing the game
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The cost of a full set of kids hockey gear can range from $400 to over $1,000
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There's also a shortage of ice rinks and time set aside for young kids, even in the biggest hockey markets
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The Kraken Community Iceplex has three full ice sheets and the doors are open from 6 a.m. to midnight daily
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But Takasuka said they still have to get creative with scheduling to accommodate demand
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The PWHL is expecting to set attendance and viewership records during the upcoming season, meaning more young girls will surely see their future
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For Straight Arrow News, I'm Chris Francis
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