2025-26 PWHL team preview: Minnesota Frost

LAST SEASON

The first two seasons for the Minnesota Frost have been carbon copies of one another. The team entered each campaign with high expectations and looked like the best team in the league over the first two months. However, whether it be key injuries or general lackluster play, the Frost fell down the standings, barely squeaking into the playoffs, before beating the Toronto Sceptres in the semifinals and winning the Walter Cup.

It’s almost worth forgetting that Minnesota had to beat the Boston Fleet on the final day of the regular season to simply get into the playoffs. The Frost finished the regular season with a 10-5-4-11 record, finishing fourth once again thanks to a tiebreaker.

You’d think it wouldn’t be a recipe for success for Ken Klee’s team, but it has worked for the most successful pro hockey team in the State of Hockey. What actually hindered Minnesota last season was its struggles in goal. Sure, they didn’t give up as many goals as other teams, but Maddie Rooney and Nicole Hensley weren’t the dominant tandem as they were during the inaugural season. Thankfully, the team was bailed out by its league-leading offense, which totaled 85 goals during the regular season.

The team had a healthy mix of starpower – Kendall Coyne Schofield, Taylor Heise and Sophie Jaques – paired with a strong supporting cast in the likes of Michela Cava and rookie Britta Curl-Salemme, with many important pieces returning for a hopeful run at a third championship.

KEY ADDITIONS & DEPARTURES

Additions

Kendall Cooper, D
Abby Hustler, F
Sidney Morin, D
Anna Segedi, F

Departures

Charlotte Akervik, D (UFA)
Brookie Bryant, F (UFA)
Michela Cava, F (Van)
Mellissa Channell-Watkins, D (Van)
Maggie Flaherty, D (Mtl)
Sophie Jaques, D (Van)
Denisa Křížová, F (Van)
Brooke McQuigge, F (Van)
Liz Schepers, F (Bos)
Claire Thompson, D (Van)

OFFENSE

Compared to the back end, the Frost didn’t nearly lose as much as in terms of top-line talent this past season. Yes, Michela Cava and Denisa Křížová were two of many players who are moving to Vancouver, and playoff hero Liz Schepers signed with the Boston Fleet. However, the big guns remain, as Coyne Schofield, Heise and Kelly Pannek are capable of putting up solid numbers.

However, with Sophie Jaques, Claire Thompson and Michela Cava moving elsewhere, that’s 59 points the Frost has lost. If you include new-Vancouver forward Brooke McQuigge, Minnesota is without four of its top seven scorers from last season.

Scoring depth isn’t a question mark with this team; it’s a problem. There were glimpses of Dominique Petrie’s ability, but injuries limited her to just 18 games. Even when she came back, she didn’t score a goal in the final 14 games she played during the regular season, nor in her seven playoff appearances. The league’s first-ever rookie of the year, Grace Zumwinkle, was also hit by the injury bug, but even when she was healthy, it wasn’t like she was a game-changer.

The Frost will find ways to score goals, but it might just be a bit harder to do so this season.

DEFENSE

Jaques and Thompson’s offensive production won’t be the only thing Minnesota will miss. The two were excellent in their own ends, making them easy choices to be finalists for PWHL Defender of the Year.

The addition of Sidney Morin was important to rebuilding a stable blue line. The former Boston Fleet defender might not give the same sort of scoring numbers, but she’ll be a stable presence that the defending champs will need. She’ll complement Lee Stecklein, who had a solid 2024-25 campaign, earning a spot back on the U.S. National Team.

I really like what Natalie Buchbinder can offer this team. She isn’t the biggest rearguard, but she’s strong enough in her own zone. Perhaps an enhanced role might lead to increased confidence with the puck as well.

Minnesota has plenty of familiarity and experience with its D-Corps. However, unlike the first two years of the league, they don’t have the X-factor that can make an impact in any situation.

GOALTENDING

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right? Well, last season, the goaltending duo in Minnesota that was the team’s bread and butter in year one seemed to do a lot of bending. Maddie Rooney was asked to carry the load, since Nicole Hensley’s game went down the plumbing during the first three months of the season. She bounced back after the Women’s Worlds break and played well in her few starts in the playoffs, but it was Rooney’s net to lose.

Despite playing nearly double the number of games she played compared to year one, Rooney stayed consistent, finishing second in the PWHL with a 2.07 goals-against average and was one of three netminders with multiple shutouts. The two-time Olympian played in three of the four games in the final against the Ottawa Charge, giving up just three goals en route to another championship.

Barring anything happening during training camp, I’d suspect Klee starts the new season platooning the two netminders, but if one of them starts to tank, I wouldn’t be surprised if he quickly anoints a No. 1.

Marlene Boissonault, who joined the team late last season as a reserve, signed a standard player agreement this past offseason, giving Minnesota a solid No. 3.

ROOKIES

With the diminished talent on the blue line, I’m excited to see what Kendall Cooper will be able to do in her first season with the team. The sixth-overall pick in this year’s draft is coming off an exceptional career at Quinnipiac, providing both solid play in her own zone while contributing on the offensive end. As a right-shot defender, it wouldn’t be surprising to see her on the top pair with Stecklein and on one of the team’s power-play units.

Abby Hustler will be interesting to see what she can do. The transition to the PWHL for some ECAC scoring stars has proven to be difficult (here’s looking at you, Izzy Daniel), and Hustler comes to the Frost after consistently being an offensive threat at St. Lawrence. However, her numbers dipped last season compared to 2023-24, when she and Julia Gosling were two of the best players in the country. If put with the right players, Hustler can be a key player right away, but we’ll see how she adjusts to the pro game.

Same goes for Hustler’s St. Lawrence teammate, Anna Segedi. The Commerce Township, Mich. native went from scoring 39 points two years ago to just 24 during the 2024-25 season. It wouldn’t stun me to see Segedi and Hustler on the same line during camp and in the early going this season, keeping some sort of camaraderie.

COACHING

Love him or hate him, Ken Klee has managed to get his team to play when it matters most.

Even when things seemingly start to unravel, Klee’s calm presence seems to trickle throughout the roster. The Frost certainly has adapted a little bit of the identity of their coach, a physical team that does whatever it can to shrug off any distractions (and there have been plenty of them).

Klee’s ability to manage a game from behind the bench is one of the reasons Minnesota has won back-to-back Walter Cups, regardless of how the team’s regular season ends. It just goes to show that no matter how your team looks, sometimes all you have to do is get into the playoffs and let nature take its course.

PREDICTION

Do I believe the Frost are going to run it back? No. Then again, I said the same thing last fall, and look how that turned out.

That said, the Frost cannot afford to slide into the playoffs like they’ve had the past few years. With the addition of Vancouver and Seattle, and how good those teams are looking, teams aren’t going to be able to luck their way into the postseason. The Frost has the talent to make it to the playoffs, but it won’t be as if they’ll have a higher seed.

I’m taking Minnesota to finish fourth in the PWHL, but not by much.