2024 PWHL Draft will be held in Minnesota in June

The second annual PWHL Draft will be held, fittingly enough, in the State of Hockey this June. We still don't have an exact date and time, but we do have some other details to consider and plenty to look forward to. Get ready for the next wave of talent in a league that is already overflowing with it.

There will be 42 picks – that means seven rounds – in the draft and we expect more than just a highly promising group of college graduates to declare their eligibility. With that said, the consensus top pick right now is Team Canada (and Princeton University) star forward Sarah Fillier. Fillier projects to be a franchise forward – a player that can make an immediate impact at the pro level because she did just that on the international stage. There is a lot of new talent to be excited about, but her name is at the top of the list.

So, seven rounds. That's seven new players in the mix for each team and each team is made up primarily of players on one-year contracts. With only six rosters, the competition for roster spots and contracts is only getting fiercer. It's going to be an absolutely wild offseason after we see our first PWHL champion crowned.

The Gold Plan

So who picks first? Well, it's not necessarily who finishes last, it's more about who finishes out of the playoff picture but still finished strong. That's the essence of the PWHL's Gold Plan, which is summarized by the league below.

The 2024 PWHL Draft will consist of seven rounds. The league’s adaptation of the ‘Gold Plan’ will award the first pick in each round to the team that earns the most ‘Draft Order Points’ in games that follow their elimination from playoff contention. The non-playoff team with the fewest ‘Draft Order Points’ will select second in each round of the draft. Picks three through six will be determined among the four playoff teams, based on the inverse order of the regular-season standings. The draft will utilize a traditional format, in which once a round is completed, the following round will be conducted in the same order as the previous round.

As always, we will keep you posted here at The Ice Garden with all developments. This story will be updated when we learn the date, time, and exact location of the much-anticipated 2024 PWHL Draft. Until then, bring on the playoffs.