Setting a foundation: What we've learned about the PWHL's 4 newest expansion teams

Less than three weeks after the Montreal Victoire celebrated the franchise's first Walter Cup, teams across the PWHL have been shaken up like dice in a game of Yahtzee.

Four new expansion teams in Hamilton, Detroit, Las Vegas and San Jose have signed five players each over the last week, as the league enters its 12-team era.

Those signings have set a foundation for the new teams, and dramatically changed the look of many of the league's existing teams.

Every team has holes to fill as the league enters the third phase of expansion, which begins on Wednesday afternoon. Expansion teams can sign up to three more players, while existing teams will have the chance to protect three more.

Here's a look at how the four new PWHL teams look so far, and what we've learned about those teams through the first five signings.

Players signed: Brianne Jenner, F (Ottawa), Emily Clark, F (Ottawa), Alina Müller, F (Boston), Nicole Gosling, D (Montreal), Kayle Osborne, G (New York)

It's still early, but it looks like Hamilton GM Meghan Duggan is building a team that could play with the same kind of pace and relentlessness as the one her head coach, Kris Sparre, led last season with the Boston Fleet.

It starts with former Ottawa Charge captain Brianne Jenner, who's consistently elevated every line she's played on in the nation's capital.

She leaves Ottawa as the team's all-time leading scorer (61 points in 82 games), and that doesn't account for what Jenner brings off the ice when it comes to leadership.

Duggan, who spent years playing against Jenner as a member of the U.S. women's national team, sees her as a 200-foot centre who can do just about everything.

"You watched her and [Emily Clark] put Ottawa on their backs in the playoffs in the