Draft Thoughts – 2026 PWHL Entry Draft Edition

If you’ve been reading DetroitHockey.Net for long enough, you know I’m not someone who usually spends a lot of time analyzing the NHL Entry Draft. I try not to worry about prospects who are unlikely to ever play a game for the Red Wings.

For PWHL Detroit, though, things are very different. The six players drafted on Wednesday night at the Fox Theater all have a significant chance of playing with the team in its inaugural season.

This is a league that’s adding more roster spots across four expansion teams than were drafted. The six players PWHL Detroit added still leave them with only 16 roster players. It’s a uniquely important draft.

Nothing reflects that more than Detroit’s selection of Swiss netminder Andrea Brandli with their first selection at 15th overall. Having not acquired a goalie with their first ten signings of the league’s expansion player dispersal process, that was a position that needed to be resolved by the end of the draft and adding Brandli, who was named Best Goaltender at the 2026 Winter Olympics and Goaltender of the Year in the SDHL, does exactly that.

Similarly, with only three defenders signed, the selection of Port Huron’s Casey Borgiel out of Colgate with the 22nd overall pick fills an important gap in their current roster.

At forward, despite her size, I’d really hoped that Franklin’s Elyssa Biederman would slide to Detroit. She went to Hamilton at 30th overall, though, leaving Detroit to take MK O’Brien out of Minnesota Duluth at number 34.

After that, my draft list was out, so I’ve got no particular feelings about Kyla Josifovic in the fourth round, Sena Catterall in the fifth round, or Georgia Schiff in the sixth round. I am a bit surprised that Detroit didn’t pick up another blueliner in that set, though.

The team now consists of eleven forwards, four defenders, and one goalie. Obviously there’s still work to be done but a roster is starting to come together.