On the eve of the PWHL's Walter Cup finals dropping the puck in Ottawa between the Charge and Minnesota Frost, players across the league learned that only 18 players league wide will immediately be protected from expansion.
With a chance to win back-to-back titles on the line, the Minnesota Frost will look to avoid the outside conversations regarding expansion, but for some of the team's star players, it will be a difficult task knowing that no matter how their PWHL finals end, they'll likely be headed to Vancouver or Seattle soon.
Who will the Minnesota Frost protect?
It seems like a certainty that Minnesota will protect their top two scorers in Taylor Heise and Kendall Coyne Schofield. Beyond this duo, the real debate begins. The third initially protected player could be a member of their leadership group like Kelly Pannek or Lee Stecklein, who also led the Frost in ice time this season, or it could be one of their high scoring defenders, Sophie Jaques or Claire Thompson. Jaques and Thompson were both nominees for the PWHL's Defender of the Year, and Stecklein could have easily got that nod as well. It's highly unlikely Minnesota protects a player from outside this group in their initial three. Who their fourth protected player is will depend greatly on who they lose with the first two picks in expansion.
Minnesota's Blueline Will Be Stripped For Parts
Regardless of who the Minnesota Frost choose to protect from their blueline, the team will lose two of Sophie Jaques, Claire Thompson, and Lee Stecklein to expansion. It's not a promising scenario. Fans in Vancouver would love Thompson or Jaques for a Canadian national team member on their blueline, and Seattle fans have seen Stecklein before with Team USA. She's a Minnesota native, but it's hard to imagine geography saving any player in this process. What might save Stecklein is her ties to Minnesota's core group. If there's influence from within, the Frost could be saying goodbye to both of their young defensive stars. With Maggie Flaherty, Natalie Buchbinder, and Mellissa Channell-Watkins all free agents, Minnesota's blueline could be decimated. It's highly likely they get back their free agents, unless there's money to be had out west when the dust settles.
Crease Concerns Could Continue
Minnesota doesn't have a simple answer in net. It was supposed to be Nicole Hensley when the team picked her early in the inaugural 2023 PWHL Draft. For large stretches of this season however, it was Maddie Rooney who played the starting role. While Hensley won't be one of the first players picked in the PWHL expansion draft, she could be called on by an expansion team, Seattle presumably, to fill their crease with a pick that comes after the team is allowed to protect a fourth player. Even if she doesn't get picked, it would not be surprising to see Rooney head west as a post-draft free agent to get a more clear starting role.
Who will Minnesota hold onto fourth?
Assuming Minnesota protects and/or loses the entirety of Kendall Coyne Schofield, Taylor Heise, Lee Stecklein, Sophie Jaques, and Claire Thompson, Minnesota's fourth protection gets even more difficult. The team could pick Kelly Pannek, Grace Zumwinkle, Britta Curl-Salemme, or even Brooke McQuigge. It again makes things interesting, because if an expansion team doesn't pick Hensley, it means Minnesota will likely lose two of those four forwards.