The PWHL has entered its 12-team era. What's next?

For the second year in a row, Ottawa Charge GM Mike Hirshfeld watched his first-round pick from the year before be plucked away by an expansion team.

This time, it was promising, physical defender Rory Guilday walking out the door.

"She’s a heck of a player," Hirshfeld said last week, just after the league's entry draft. "She was just starting to make really great strides the second half of the season into the playoffs, and then she’s on her way."

Charge fans aren't alone. Two years in a row, the Montreal Victoire lost a young, top defender to a new team. First it was Cayla Barnes, and then Nicole Gosling.

But after three seasons of growing pains, stability seems to be on the way for the PWHL.

"There are no short-term plans for more teams or individual ownerships or more fundraising — none of those things are on our near-term menu of items to be discussed," PWHL advisory board member Stan Kasten told CBC Sports this week. "Right now, we need to stand up four teams in a little bit of time."

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With a cash infusion from the league's first outside investors, the PWHL's leaders are focused on building a 12-team league that remains owned and operated by one entity: The Walter Group.

That stability means the GMs of those teams can finally focus on building long term, too.

"We’re real excited for the league to have this growth in expansion and all that stuff," Hirshfeld said. "But for all of us who’ve been building and developing, and spending so much time working on that part of the game, to have players stay with your program for two, three, four years, that’s what’s exciting."

For fans who've watched their favourite players switch teams