Seattle’s Hilary Knight, Minnesota’s Kendall Coyne Schofield, Boston’s Alina Muller, and Ottawa’s Brianne Jenner headline a group of stars eligible to be signed by the PWHL's four expansion teams, after the league released its protected player list on Wednesday.
Meantime, MVP finalist Kelly Pannek and Frost teammate Taylor Heise are staying put in Minnesota after each signed three-year contracts. And the Toronto Sceptres locked up defender Renata Fast and goalie Raygan Kirk with three-year deals, while also protecting defender Ella Shelton.
Each of the PWHL’s eight existing teams had until Wednesday to determine their three-player protection lists, and that included re-signing players on expiring contracts.
It’s now the four new teams’ turn to begin stocking their rosters in the three-day Phase 2 of the expansion process opening Friday.
The new markets in Detroit, Las Vegas, San Jose and Hamilton, Ontario, will sort through the unprotected list to sign five players each to so-called foundational contracts. The eight existing teams can lose no more than three players each during the phase.
Knight heads the list of available players a year after the U.S. national team captain agreed to leave Boston to sign with the expansion Torrent.
Knight is USA Hockey’s most decorated player and coming off a gold-medal win at the Milan Cortina Games in February in what she said was her fifth and final Olympic appearance. At 36, Knight intends to continue her PWHL career, and will have a major say in whether she intends to stay in Seattle, which is the league's nearest market to her offseason home in Idaho.
Seattle chose to protect forwards Alex Carpenter and Hannah Murphy, and defender Anna Wilgren.
Coyne Schofield’s three-year stint in Minnesota could be over with the Frost captain having the opportunity to return to her former home base in Detroit. Though from the Chicago area, she’s married to Michael Schofield, a former NFL offensive lineman who played professionally with the Lions and collegiately at Michigan.
The two-time Walter Cup champion Frost rounded out their protection list with goalie Maddie Rooney.
In Boston, Muller’s tenure is in question after three seasons. The Fleet protected defenders Megan Keller and Haley Winn, and goalie Aerin Frankel.
From Switzerland, Muller is a two-time Olympic bronze medalist and has spent her entire adult career in Boston after playing collegiately at Northeastern.
The 35-year-old Jenner could be on the move following three seasons as Charge captain. Ottawa protected forward Rebecca Leslie, defender Ronja Savolainen and goalie Gwyneth Philips.
The New York Sirens protected their young core of forwards made up of Sarah Fillier, Kristyna Kaltounkova and Casey O’Brien.
The newly crowned champion Montreal Victoire are keeping their veteran core intact by protecting forwards Marie-Philip Poulin and Laura Stacey and goalie Ann-Renee Desbiens.
Vancouver protected forward Sarah Nurse, defender Sophie Jaques and goalie Emerance Maschmeyer. The Goldeneyes also have the benefit of owning the No. 1 pick in the draft, with U.S. national team defender and Olympic MVP Caroline Harvey projected to go first.
In re-signing Pannek, the Frost retain the 30-year-old who led the PWHL this season with 16 goals and 33 points. She joins Desbiens and Frankel as the three finalists for the Billie Jean King MVP award.
Pannek also joins Heise and Jenner as finalists for PWHL forward of the year honors. The 26-year-old Heise finished second in the PWHL with 30 points and tied for fourth with 13 goals last season.
The 31-year-old Fast has spent all three seasons in Toronto and was the league’s 2025 defender of the year.
The 25-year-old Kirk had a breakthrough season in taking over the starting duties in her second PWHL campaign. With an 8-8-6 record and three shutouts, she ranked third among PWHL goalies with an 1.87 goals-against average and .934 save percentage.
AP women’s hockey: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-hockey
FILE - Seattle Torrent's Hilary Knight (21) waits for a face off against the Vancouver Goldeneyes during the second period of a PWHL hockey game in Vancouver, on Tuesday, April 14, 2026. (Ethan Cairns/The Canadian Press via AP,File)
FILE - Toronto Sceptres' Renata Fast (14) takes the puck from Ottawa Charge forward Emily Clark (26) during the first period of a PWHL hockey game in Toronto, April 11, 2026. (Arlyn McAdorey/The Canadian Press via AP, File)
DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Rights lawyers filed a case against Equatorial Guinea before Africa’s top human rights body Friday, accusing the central African nation of forcing deportees from the United States back to their home countries in violation of their rights.
The filing asks the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the main human rights body of the African Union, to order Equatorial Guinea to immediately halt any further deportations, transfers or removals and improve detention conditions. It also asks the body to grant compensation to people who already have been returned to their home countries.
The case is being brought by several rights groups, including the Global Strategic Litigation Council coalition, on behalf of 14 African migrants deported from the U.S. to Equatorial Guinea between November 2025 and April 2026.
The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights can issue decisions and urgent measures, as well as refer cases to the Africa Court on Human and Peoples' Rights but these orders are not binding. Nonetheless, advocates say this is a landmark case that could exercise pressure on governments of African countries who have taken in deportees from the U.S.
It is the first of its kind in the region involving people who had legal protection from removal but were still sent to countries where they face persecution, said Beatrice Njeri, the Global Strategic Litigation Council's regional litigator for Africa.
In March, the commission had already allowed a suit challenging the unlawful and prolonged detention of third country deportees in the African kingdom of Eswatini to proceed.
A month later, Eswatini’s Supreme Court ruled that four of the men sent there could finally meet with a lawyer after they were denied in-person legal counsel for nine months while held at a maximum-security prison.
Under a series of often-secret agreements, the Trump administration has deported thousands of people to nearly two dozen countries that are not their own, advocates say, all part of the broad U.S. crackdown on immigration. Immigration lawyers said the Trump administration uses deportations to third countries as a legal loophole to indirectly force asylum seekers back to their home countries.
Equatorial Guinea is one of at least eight other African nations that the U.S. has struck third-country deportation deals with.
Last week, Equatorial Guinea authorities transferred six deportees to their country of origin in eastern Africa, which lawyers say amount to “chain refoulement,” the indirect return of people to places where they face persecution, despite legal protections by courts in the United States.
The lawyers said the migrants face political, religious and ethnic persecution in their home countries, as well as violence based on sexual orientation. Some had previously been arrested or detained by police or military there, and many had experienced torture and sexual violence. All had previously been protected by U.S. immigration judges from being sent back to their home countries under federal immigration law.
Upon arrival in their home country, two of the deportees later fled to another country and have gone into hiding. Another remains unreachable since he was forcibly removed last week and the lawyers are very concerned about his wellbeing, the lawyers said.
Three others were returned to Equatorial Guinea after their country of origin refused to admit them because they lacked valid travel documents and had not been notified of their arrival.
The migrants were then sent back to Equatorial Guinea, where they remain in legal limbo.
“They have effectively been rendered stateless,” said Bella Mosselmans, director of the Global Strategic Litigation Council, describing the process as a “a cycle of hell.”
Under an opaque $7.5 million deal with Washington, at least 32 people were deported from the U.S. to Equatorial Guinea, which the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Jeanne Shaheen, has called “one of the most corrupt governments in the world.”
The Associated Press reported on the conditions of deportees who were forced back to their home countries. It also got exclusive access to a hotel turned into a prison for asylum seekers deported from the United States by Equatorial Guinea’s all-powerful president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.
Equatorial Guinea is one of the richest countries in Africa thanks to its oil resources. It is also rife with corruption and human rights abuses, according to U.S. officials.
There are virtually no critical voices in Equatorial Guinea, where the government has been accused by rights groups and the U.S. State Department of detaining, torturing and even killing those that dare to speak out.
The country's largest foreign investors are U.S. businesses, and its military receives funding for training from the U.S. government.
A street scene in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, Saturday, April 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
A view of Bamy Hotel where migrants are held in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, Wednesday, April 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Monika Pronczuk) CORRECTION: date corrected to April 22, instead of May 13
Framed portraits of Equatorial Guinea President, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, displayed in an office setting in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, Friday, April 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
