PWHL players, GMs waiting to hear how expansion draft will affect existing teams

In the next month, the new Professional Women's Hockey League teams in Vancouver and Seattle will start to fill out their rosters. 

The teams, who begin play next season, will select players at the entry draft set for June 24 in Ottawa, and will also have the chance to add players from other teams in an expansion draft that will happen at some point before the entry draft. The league is in the process of hiring general managers for the Vancouver and Seattle teams.

With the clock ticking, much remains unknown about that expansion draft, including how many players each team will have to expose and who can be protected.

That has been weighing on players, especially those who are signed to contracts next season and could find themselves on the move, according to New York Sirens captain Micah Zandee-Hart.

She is New York's representative with the league's players' association (PWHLPA), and said she's been getting texts from players who are eager for information.

"As much as that's exciting, I think it also brings a lot of unknown to the players and kind of wondering what's going to happen and when it's going to happen," Zandee-Hart told CBC Sports.

More than 20 markets showed interest in becoming home to a PWHL team during an expansion process that lasted several months. League officials looked at economic opportunity, youth hockey, infrastructure and geography, among other things.

The league ultimately chose to expand its footprint west as it looks to attract a national U.S. broadcast rights deal. Expansion to Vancouver and Seattle was confirmed in April.

A league spokesperson didn't have any new details to share on the expansion draft process on Tuesday.

"The expectation is that any new teams that enter the league would be