With the Walter Cup staying in Minnesota for the second consecutive year, cries of “Break up the Frost!” surely have echoed throughout the PWHL in recent days.
And while that was not the league’s intention when it announced the addition of new teams in Seattle and Vancouver next season, it will be one of the results that come from the PWHL expansion draft, which will be held next Monday.
The original six teams are allowed to protect three players who are under contract for next season. Each teams will lose four players. The expansion teams also will have an exclusive window to negotiate with free agents on Wednesday through Saturday.
The six teams submitted their lists on Monday, and the lists will be made public on Tuesday.
“When they announced that teams can only protect three and they are going to lose four, our mouths dropped, because that’s a lot,” Frost coach Ken Klee said.
Teams have no choice but to role with the (gut) punches.
“We know we are going to lose four great players, and so is everyone else,” Klee said. “We have no idea how these new franchises are going to put together their team. Afterward, we’re going to look at what we lost, we’re going to have to add through the draft and maybe add through free agency.
“And promote from within; maybe some of our players can have a bigger role than they had this year.”
The Frost have 11 players under contract for next season. Taylor Heise surely will be protected, leaving Klee and general manager Melissa Caruso to choose two more among the likes of defensemen Lee Stecklein, Sophie Jaques and Claire Thompson and forwards Grace Zumwinkle, Britta Curl-Salemme, Kelly Pannek and Kendall Coyne Schofield.
As for their goaltenders, Nicole Hensley is under contract for next season and Maddie Rooney is a free agent. There would appear to be a good chance that Rooney will sign a new deal with the Frost, which means at least one of them is a good bet to remain in Minnesota.
The Frost — as well as the other five original teams — will have to find a balance of protecting young players while also remaining competitive in the short term.
“The situation we are in with the league right is that there could be more expansion,” Caruso said. “So it’s almost like we are planning for very short periods of time right now, knowing that we are going to be experiencing change again in the next couple of years.
“We have some players who are toward the end of their careers and some who are just getting started. We’ll be approaching finding the best mix of those groups that will allow us to succeed next season.”
With a look toward next season, Caruso said that the team would add more of a physical presence, which suggests that the rugged Curl-Salemme is someone the Frost would like to hold onto. Do they protect her over Zumwinkle?
Do they protect the veteran Stecklein over Thompson, who excelled in her first season?
“Anything can happen,” Stecklein said, “and I don’t think there is a wrong choice. Its’ so crazy to picture losing anybody. It will be a crazy time, but no matter what I am so lucky to have had these two years with the Frost.
“I would love to have more, but if it’s out west for me, that’s a great experience.”
Coyne Schofield, the team captain, led the Frost in goals (12) and points (24), but she’s 33 years old. She’s committed to play next season, and will know soon where that will be.
“I’ve been doing this long enough to know that you can only control what you can control,” Coyne Schofield said, “and not letting things that I can’t control bother me. Everyone’s a little bit stressed about what’s to come, whether it’s how it’s going to impact you, how it is going to impact your friend, how it is going to impact your team.”
