It’s become an annual tradition here at Sound Of Hockey to dig into the latest USA Hockey registration numbers, and the 2025‑26 season gives us plenty to chew on. Membership continues to climb nationwide, but the story this year is less about explosive growth and more about steady, sustainable momentum, especially in youth and female participation. As always, these numbers offer a helpful proxy for the sport’s overall health in the United States, and this season’s data paints a picture of a game that’s still expanding, even as some markets begin to bump up against real‑world constraints like ice availability. Here’s what stood out.
Year‑over‑year growth
USA Hockey memberships increased again in 2025‑26, rising 1.4 percent over last season. That marks the fourth straight year of growth, a reassuring trend as the sport continues to stabilize post‑pandemic. The 8,138 new members added this year represent the smallest increase since COVID disruptions, but the total membership number, 586,002, is the highest USA Hockey has ever recorded. The previous record was set just last season, reinforcing that even modest gains are still pushing the sport to new highs.
The biggest drivers of this growth remain youth and female participation. Youth hockey added roughly 6,400 new members, while female registrations climbed by about 4,900. Those categories aren’t mutually exclusive, but together they show where the strongest momentum continues to build.
Washington State: Steady but constrained
Washington State added another 454 memberships this season, continuing a consistent upward trajectory. But that figure also represents the smallest annual increase since the Kraken arrived, and the reason is likely due to ice capacity.
The greater Seattle area is simply running out of room. Most rinks are operating at or near full utilization, and without new sheets coming online, growth is naturally throttled. The Kirkland Kraken facility remains one more season away, so any meaningful bump from that project is still on the horizon.
Even with those constraints, Washington’s numbers remain encouraging, especially in one particular category.
Washington’s female hockey surge
One of the brightest spots in the Washington state numbers is the growth of female hockey. Despite the lack of available ice, the state added 230 new female memberships this season. Excluding pandemic‑affected years, that’s the largest single‑season increase Washington has ever posted.
It’s impossible to ignore the impact of the Seattle Torrent here. The arrival of a PWHL team has clearly energized the local women’s hockey community, creating visibility, inspiration, and momentum that’s translating directly into registrations.
Utah, Nevada, and Washington: A comparative look
Utah continues to be one of the most fascinating growth stories in USA Hockey. The state added 1,914 new members this season, bringing its two‑season total to 3,297, a staggering 78 percent increase since the Utah Mammoth arrived. The NHL’s presence is clearly accelerating hockey’s footprint there at a pace few other markets have matched.
For comparison:
- Nevada has added 3,995 total members over nine seasons since the Golden Knights’ debut.
- Washington has added 2,506 members since the Kraken arrived, using the pre‑pandemic 2019‑20 season as a baseline.
Those differences aren’t judgments, though, they’re reflections of context. Population, number of ice sheets, geographic distribution, and even team performance all play meaningful roles in how quickly a market can grow. Utah’s surge is remarkable, but it’s also happening in a state with ample room to expand and a franchise aggressively investing in grassroots development. Even with Utah’s extra capacity, that hasn’t stopped Ryan Smith from investing in hockey infrastructure for the long term.
The outlook
Looking ahead, there are several reasons to expect another strong year of growth across USA Hockey.
Historically, states with NHL teams that win the Stanley Cup see a membership bump the following season, so North Carolina should be poised for an increase. Beyond that, both the Men’s and Women’s Olympic gold medals in Milan are likely to generate nationwide enthusiasm and participation.
And with the PWHL expanding into Detroit, San Jose, and Vegas, female hockey should see additional boosts in those markets as new teams create visibility and inspire local players.
The sport’s growth may not be explosive everywhere, but the underlying trend remains hockey in the United States is still expanding, still diversifying, and still finding new footholds in markets big and small.
How was the female growth in other states without PWHL franchises, compared with Washington? I would guess that the Olympics were a bigger factor. A LOT more people watch the Olympics than PWHL games.
Female memberships were up across the board, which has been the trend for some time. Washington added the 9th most female players. I think the Olympic bump will (hopefully) come next season since the Olympic were in February and most leagues play over the winter.
I doubt it. New players start in Learn To Play, and sessions start every couple months. Many girls signed up in the middle of the year this year. The Spring adult LTP had an unusually high proportion of women. By now, the Olympics buzz has probably faded.
KCI mandates that kids go through learn to skate first which does not require a USA hockey membership. I agree with the buzz faded but the thought would be the kids (and some adults) would have started with learn to skate after the Olympics and graduate into learn to play.
Maybe. KHL only requires adult students to be able to skate around the rink unassisted to skip straight to LTP, and LTP includes a lot of skating technique. So very few people bother with learn to skate before learn to play. I thought KYHA similarly allowed kids who could skate at a basic level to skip to LTP, but I’m not 100% sure (my kids started at a different association which had this policy; my kids did not need to do learn to skate). So I thought not very many people actually do learn to skate before learn to play. Also, I happen to know that girls enrollment at KYHA in particular has actually dropped this year, although that is for reasons specific to KYHA. But yeah, maybe I’m wrong and there are still more girls in the pipeline. I hope so, and more importantly, I hope more rinks are built to get the ice time to support it.
We will still be very short on ice time with just two new sheets. Jr Kraken practice times are getting late and a bit tough for the 12U+ kids. They also hit their roster limits with kids going on waitlists if they aren’t returning players – so its tough for kids to join after 8U/10U these days. KHL ice time is getting tough and feels like we are hitting capacity there too. The Seattle women’s league maxed out on players quickly – even had some issues during registration because of how popular it was.
In the Seattle area, I would love to see rinks added to Interbay and Sodo where there is sufficient land to fit them. The economics has to be tough though given the rinks are super busy 4-11pm but mid day they seem fairly under utilized.
agreed. Being the lead time for rinks is three years at best, I sure wish there was some kind buzz of new rinks.
Would be nice to see some east side of the mountains growth…as a guy who drives 2 hours a week to play at KCI every Sunday. 😅
They did announce a new facility in Spokane recently, which is primarily being funded by a $25M donation from a wealthy individual whose grandkids play hockey but kids never could because of lack of rinks. Bend OR also announced a new facility – so the Kraken do seem to be creating some demand in the broader area but progress is going to be slow due to the cost.
So true. East of the mountains has always been great minor league hockey territory, and people there are starved for entertainment. If they could get some more ice sheets, folks would eat it up. To grow, hockey has to move to the suburbs and to underserved places like the east.
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