Laila Edwards: 2026 PWHL Draft Prospect Profile

Recent Statistics

Source: UW Badgers / USCHO.com. NCAA stats are not directly comparable to PWHL competition.

Who Is Edwards?

Laila Edwards grew up in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, started figure skating at three, switched to hockey at five and by eighth grade left home to attend Bishop Kearney High School in Rochester, New York, which is one of the top prep hockey academies in the country. She arrived at Wisconsin on a full scholarship as a freshman in 2022, committed back when she was still in middle school, and spent four years becoming one of the best players in the history of that program.

What makes Edwards unusual, genuinely unusual, is that she does everything. She’s a 6’1″ power forward with soft hands and elite playmaking instincts who also plays top-four defence for a Team USA program that just won Olympic gold. She led the entire NCAA in goals (35) as a junior. She’s also the alternate captain of a Wisconsin team that went 35–4–2 and won a national championship her senior year.

Her international career only adds to her repertoire. In February 2026, at the Milano-Cortina Olympics, Edwards became the first Black woman to compete in ice hockey for Team USA and, days later, the first Black woman to score a goal for the team, doing it against Canada in a 5–0 group-stage win.

What Edwards Brings to the Table

Edwards is a Swiss Army knife in a draft class full of specialists. She can be deployed almost anywhere and affect a game multiple ways.

• Elite shot: Her 35-goal junior season was the most by a Badger since Brianna Decker in 2011–12. Scouts consistently flag her as having one of the heaviest, most accurate shots in the draft class. Goaltenders do not enjoy facing her, particularly on the power play, where her size and release create serious problems.
• Versatility: The fact that she plays forward in the NCAA and defence for the national team is a selling point. PWHL teams can use her as a scoring winger on offence, a shutdown blueliner on defence, or a power play specialist in both. That flexibility has enormous roster-building value for when players need to do multiple things.
• Size: At 6’1″, Edwards is one of the biggest forwards in this draft class. Her stature belies how smooth and controlled she is. She’s a skilled player who also takes away space and wins battles. That physical baseline should translate well from the NCAA to the PWHL.

Areas to Develop

Her senior year was interrupted first by an MCL injury in October, then by an Olympic pause that took her out of the NCAA season for several weeks. Her final stat line (45 points in 41 games) looks like a step back from her 71-point junior year. The honest challenge is that her production dipped in terms of goals (12 on the season), and whether that reflects the injury, role adjustment, or something teams should actually track is a fair question.

Where Could She Land?

This is a confirmed first-round pick, there is no debate there. PDub Hockey ranks her as high as fourth overall. She has been consistently placed in the top three to five of the entire class. With the Vancouver Goldeneyes holding the first overall pick and Harvey being the consensus number one, Edwards projects to go somewhere between second and fifth overall, depending on which team is picking.

Teams that need both offensive production and blue-line depth will prioritize her. (hello New York). Given that she’s already a known face with national sponsorships and media presence, teams in markets trying to grow their brand would benefit enormously from adding her.

The Bottom Line

Laila Edwards is a proven and decorated player entering what should be the prime years of her career.

Her ceiling in the PWHL is a genuine franchise player. The most likely outcome is basically that Laila Edwards will be an immediate contributor, a first-line forward and one of the most visible players in the league within two seasons. Any team that gets Laila Edwards in the first round is getting a bargain.