Minnesota Feeling The Absence Of Captain Kendall Coyne Schofield

The Minnesota Frost played their first game following the Olympics without captain Kendall Coyne Schofield. It was a loss the team felt immediately.

Coyne Schofield was placed on long-term injured reserve (LTIR) retroactive to February 19 with an upper body injury she suffered while representing Team USA at the 2026 Olympics. Coyne Schofield helped USA win gold, but will not be eligible to return to Minnesota's roster until, at earliest, their March 13 game against Seattle. 

At the time of her injury, Coyne Schofield was leading the PWHL in scoring with 16 points in 15 games. 

In their only game without Coyne Schofield during the 2025-26 campaign, the Frost were shutout for the first time this season 4-0 by the Montreal Victoire. Her absence certainly played a role, but head coach Ken Klee believes his team has players who are capable of stepping up in her absence.

“You're not as good as you could be, but we have a lot of good players, so I think we're confident that we can play without her," said Klee of playing without Coyne Schofield.

"She's one of the best players in the league, so when she's absent it hurts us, as it would any team when they're missing one of their top players. Again, that's not an excuse we have. We have a really good team. I think our depth and the number of players that we have, you can look at the stat sheet to see how many we have in the top 10. I think we have a lot of really good players. We're going to be okay."

Coyne Schofield was not the only player to face a set back following an injury at the 2026 Olympics. Several members of Canada and USA's national teams, who met in the gold medal game, have not been able to return to action immediately. It's a long list including Marie-Philip Poulin, Hannah Bilka and Claire Thompson, who each missed their first games back but were not played on LTIR, along with Hilary Knight and Erin Ambrose who were both place on LTIR by their respective teams.