Golden Knights fully supportive of PWHL Las Vegas venture

LAS VEGAS — There were about 200 youngsters, mostly girls, inside T-Mobile Arena Wednesday afternoon, and boy were they loud.

Imagine what 10,000 girls will sound like? The Las Vegas franchise of the Professional Women’s Hockey League will soon find out when the puck is dropped on the 2026-27 season come November. It’s going to be really loud, like Boy Band-Taylor Swift loud.

The official announcement was made Wednesday that the PWHL was coming to Las Vegas, not for one of the league’s famous Takeover Tour stops, but for a full-fledged membership as the league’s 10th team. Thursday, Hamilton, Ontario will be the 11th team and next week, San Jose is expected to be the 12th team.

The excitement inside the rink where hours before Pavel Dorofeyev’s heroics lifted the Golden Knights to a 3-2 overtime win over Anaheim in Game 5 of their Stanley Cup Playoff series was felt Wednesday. There were pronouncements about “Walter Cup in Six” playing off of Knights owner Bill Foley’s declaration before the team’s inaugural season that hits team would win the Stanley Cup in six years, which they did in 2023.

And speaking of Foley, having the PWHL in Las Vegas comes with his full support. But the credit goes to John Penhollow, the team’s president of business operations. It was his persistence and desire to get this done that convinced the PWHL to come to this market.

“The more we got to know what was important to Amy and her leadership team — facilities, market size, fan base — it was pretty clear we could be the market on that list,” Penhollow said, referring to Amy Scheer, the PWHL’s executive vice president for business operations. “You start checking all the boxes. We have the arena. We have the training facilities.

“Bill Foley, Rob Foley, our leadership team, and most importantly, our entire staff was behind the idea. Now we had to figure out how to make it work but Bill’s been a tremendous ally on this entire project for sure.”

Penhollow, being a hockey dad, knows what it means to see all the girls in their hockey sweaters at Wednesday’s announcement. So does Sheri Hudspeth, who is the Knights’ director of youth hockey. For her, this team is manna from heaven.

“It’s going to allow us to expand what we do with both the Vegas Junior Knights and the Las Vegas Storm,” she said. “We just held ‘WickFest’ here and one of the things we said is ‘If you see it you can be it.’ Obviously, we’ll have our own players that our kids can look up to.”

WickFest is a girls hockey event started back in 2010 by Haley Wickenheiser, a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame and a four-time Olympic gold medalist. The Vegas WickFest in February drew 35 teams and over 600 girls.

It was a huge success and it no doubt got the attention of Scheer. She was already building a relationship with Penhollow and the Golden Knights, a relationship that began with a single phone call and ultimately morphed into a partnership both sides hope will be forever lasting.

“There’s not a league or team that doesn’t want to be here (in Las Vegas),” Scheer said. “We are so proud to join the Las Vegas sports community.”

And as exciting as Wednesday’s announcement was, much work remains before the puck drops come November. The team needs a name to go with its colors of green and gold. It needs a coach, a general manager, a staff to market and sell season tickets, which by the way, can be reserved with a $50 deposit by going to the league’s website — thepwhl.com —and it will need players. There will be an expansion draft in the coming weeks along with an entry draft to stock the rosters of Las Vegas, Hamilton, Detroit and San Jose once it is officially announced.

The Las Vegas team will play its home games at T-Mobile and train in Henderson at the Silver Knights’ facility — America First Center. The team is owned by the league, which operates as a single entity. Los Angeles Dodgers and Los Angeles Lakers owner Mark Walter is the sole owner.

Scheer said with the team now in place, expect the other elements to fall into line.

“This happened fast,” she said of bringing Las Vegas into the PWHL fold. “We have a lot to do. When the team name and logo are ready, we’ll announce it.”  

Penhollow said he and the Knights are ready to support the league and the team however it’s needed. And he’s excited what it means for kids across Southern Nevada, and the entire state for that matter, to have the PWHL in town.

“We’re proud of how far youth hockey has come locally, and even more excited about the path forward and opportunities ahead for future generations with the PWHL’s arrival in Las Vegas,” he said. “Today’s PWHL announcement gives young girls throughout Nevada and our entire region another chance to dream bigger, pursue hockey at the highest level, and see themselves as future leaders in our community.

“Our game will be even stronger because of the PWHL’s presence in Henderson and Vegas.”