With the addition of Seattle and Vancouver to the Professional Women’s Hockey League, each of the rosters of the original six clubs has sustained significant losses. Throughout the summer, PWHL writer Rob Del Mundo will summarize the impact on each team. Today, we’ll look at the Minnesota Frost.
Defending a championship is harder than winning one, according to a popular sports mantra.
But the Minnesota Frost did just that in 2025, completing a Cinderella story by qualifying for the playoffs on the last day of the regular season, then ousting higher seeds Toronto and Ottawa en route to an improbable second straight Walter Cup title.
Now comes the even trickier part: aiming for the three-peat after their blue line was ransacked during the free agent signing window.
PWHL Vancouver, one of two expansion teams, signed defenders Claire Thompson and Sophie Jaques during the free agent window, prior to the expansion draft, leaving a gaping hole on the back end for general manager Melissa Caruso’s roster.
How big is the loss? To put things into perspective, both Thompson and Jaques were among the three nominees for the PWHL Defender of the Year Award in 2025 (won by Renata Fast of Toronto).
Thompson – a 2022 Olympic gold medallist with Team Canada – had been paired with Lee Stecklein as Minnesota’s most formidable defensive duo. Their regular-season time on ice totals, Stecklein 690:53, Thompson 666:02, were by far the highest durations among all Frost skaters.
Jaques burst out of the gate in her sophomore season, compiling 22 points to tie Fast atop the leaderboard for defenders, and registering 0.88 points per game, good for fourth place among all skaters who played at least 25 regular-season games last year.
Defenders Mellissa Channel-Watkins and Maggie Flaherty also found new homes via free agency, signing in Vancouver and Montreal, respectively.
Minnesota wasted no time in rebuilding its depleted blue line, choosing Kendall Cooper with their first round, sixth overall selection at the 2025 Draft and signing the Quinnipiac University alumna to a two-year deal. Also signing for two years were returnee Natalie Buchbinder and free agent Sidney Morin from the Boston Fleet, both right-handed shooting players on the back end.
Meanwhile, the forward unit of the Frost championship roster remains relatively intact. Mainstays Taylor Heise, Kendall Coyne Schofield, and Britta Curl-Salemme were all on the team’s protected list, although Michela Cava and Brooke McQuigge will be missed; the latter two players both went to Vancouver via free agency and the expansion draft, respectively.
Team USA Olympians Grace Zumwinkle and Kelly Pannek will be returning to the fold, and Dominique Petrie, Katy Knoll, and Claire Butorac each signed one-year contract extensions in the off-season.
The goaltending tandem of Maddie Rooney and Nicole Hensley remains solid; Rooney signed a three-year deal to remain with the club.
Make no mistake, there is no immediate rebuild for a blue line that lost two of its top three players after leading the PWHL with 63 points.
Heading into training camp, the challenge for coach Ken Klee is to get the most out of his forward and goaltending units to offset the loss.
