The Minnesota Frost are coming off back-to-back Walter Cup titles as the PWHL's champion. After their second championship however, the Frost were hit hard by expansion losing Claire Thompson, Sophie Jaques, Denisa Krizova and Brooke McQuigge.
Following the expansion process, Minnesota continued to suffer hits to their roster losing Michela Cava, Liz Schepers, Maggie Flaherty, and Mellissa Channell-Watkins in free agency.
The result was a significant need for defenders, and two-way impact forwards to help get their roster back to where it was.
While Minnesota was only able to sign defender Sidney Morin in free agency, according to general manager Melissa Caruso, she feels her team "got exactly what we needed" from the 2025 PWHL Draft to rebuild and move forward competitively.
"We were very prepared, and we had plans in place, and we feel great about the results of our picks," said Caruso following the draft.
For Minnesota it started with grabbing a defender with offensive upside at sixth overall when the team selected Quinnipiac captain Kendall Cooper.
"We obviously had our had our eyes set on a couple targets who were going to be available to us in the first round," said Caruso. "You know she, Kendall, is exactly what we are looking for, you know an offensive minded D to kind of fill some of those voids we were left with after the expansion draft."
Following Cooper, Minnesota picked three more forwards and two defenders. That group included Abby Hustler and Anna Segedi from St. Lawrence University, as well as Mercyhurst's Vanessa Upson up front, and defenders Ava Rinker (Connecticut) and Brooke Becker (Providence).
"A lot has happened in the last couple of weeks, and now we have some names and some bodies to kind of fill some of our vacancies, and you know, I think this is the next phase of the Frost, and we're really excited that they're going to report to Minnesota," said Caruso.
"We felt comfortable where we were picking, you know, in that sixth spot...I think that we got exactly what we needed from the draft."