The Professional Women’s Hockey League’s expansion into Detroit is leaning heavily on Michigan connections, including with the franchise’s first general manager and head coach.
And the local ties are likely to continue when PWHL Detroit begins to put together its roster, too.
“We are going to build the best team that we can,” said Manon Rheaume, the trailblazing former hockey star who is PWHL Detroit’s first general manager, and who previously spent a decade-plus working for the Detroit-based Little Caesars AAA Hockey Club. “Long term, it’s really important to have Michigan players here.
“Having the chance to come back and play in their hometown, it’s incredible for them.”
The roster-building for PWHL Detroit, one of four expansion teams set to start play later this year in bringing the league’s total to 12 teams, will begin in the coming days, starting with a foundational player-signing period that officially opens June 5.
Each expansion team can sign 10 players, from a list of players left unprotected by the league’s eight existing teams, prior to the PWHL Draft, which will be held at the Fox Theatre in Detroit on June 17.
The PWHL Draft has a league-record 236 eligible players (128 forward, 68 defenders, 40 goaltenders) who have declared, including several with Michigan ties, among them University of Wisconsin’s Kirsten Simms of Plymouth.
Rheaume, who spent time in the Los Angeles Kings’ front office in the NHL, was named PWHL Detroit’s general manager May 15. She made her first significant hire Thursday, naming Josh Sciba as her first head coach. It’s another local connection, as Sciba is a Westland native.
He was an assistant coach the last two seasons for the PWHL’s New York Sirens, and has more than 15 years of coaching experience, including eight years at Union College in New York. Previously, he was head coach for a season at Niagara University.
“He’s got a lot of experience at every level of the women’s game,” Rheaume said Thursday, speaking of Sciba. “His character, his knowledge of the game and the way he communicates with his players, to me, that’s why I chose him. He’s a perfect fit.
“He grew up playing hockey here. … He understands what it means, hockey in Detroit.”
Said Sciba, in a statement released by the PWHL: “This is home and especially meaningful for me and my entire family, knowing Detroit’s rich hockey history and identity firsthand and how much the women’s hockey community has been yearning for this moment.”
Sciba was an assistant coach for the U.S. Olympic women’s hockey team that won the gold medal in February He’s been in that with the women’s national team since 2022. The program also has won two IIHF Women’s World Championship gold medals in 2023 and 2025, as well as silver in 2022 and 2024.
He played college hockey at Notre Dame.
The PWHL announced the addition of the Detroit franchise on May 6, after four one-off games at Little Caesars Arena that drew large crowds — including a crowd of 15,937 for a PWHL game in Detroit on March 28. The 2026-27 PWHL season will begin in November, and the PWHL said there already have been more than 4,000 deposits placed for PWHL Detroit season tickets. The PWHL debuted in 2024 with six franchises, it added two teams in 2025, and now is adding four more, including Detroit, San Jose, Las Vegas and Hamilton, Ontario.
“It’s amazing to see the growth of the game,” said Rheaume, who famously became the first woman to play in an NHL exhibition game, in the 1990s, and also played a game with the Port Huron Icehawks in 2008 and Flint Generals in 2009. She also has been an analyst on Red Wings television broadcasts and she performed the ceremonial puck drop for the first PWHL game at LCA in 2024. “These women are athletes.
“It’s very exciting to be a part of it.”
Montreal won the third PWHL championship May 20, turning the attention to the league’s fourth season, starting with the upcoming player signing period. The 2026 PWHL Awards Ceremony is June 16, followed by the 2026 PWHL Draft the next night at the Fox in a ticketed event that is open to the public.
PWHL key dates
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@tonypaul1984
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: PWHL Detroit leans into Michigan connections, including first head coach
Reporting by Tony Paul, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
