Wednesday, November 18th marks the start of training camp in the PWHL. For the first time since the inaugural PWHL season, the Minnesota Frost will enter training camp without the title of defending Walter Cup champions.
Last month, the Frost released a 30-player training camp roster. Currently, the Frost have 17 players under contract. However, with captain Kendall Coyne-Schofield’s recent pregnancy announcement, that number is functionally 16 as far as the 2026-2027 season is concerned.
There will be plenty to watch when those 30 players hit the ice at the Tria rink in St. Paul on November 18th. Here are four things I will be watching closely when training camp opens next week.
Who will score besides Taylor Fox, Kelly Pannek, and Grace Zumwinkle?
Last season, the Frost led the PWHL in goals. Minnesota had five players finish in the top ten in scoring league-wide. Two of those five players, Britta Curl-Salemme and Kendall Coyne-Schofield, will not be on the 2026-2027 roster. Add the losses of Abby Hustler and Katy Knoll in expansion, and serious questions arise about who will score for the Frost this season besides Fox, Pannek, and Zumwinkle.
As it stands, the Frost have three open spots in their top two lines that they will need to fill. Training camp should give us an early indication of who will begin the season in the top six.
Minnesota has several candidates to fill the top line roles. Second-round pick Viivi Vainikka has been a prolific offensive player in the SDHL for years. Vainikka spent the first part of her season in the SDHL, scoring five goals and ten points for MoDo in eight games.
Third-round pick Maddy Christian is coming off back-to-back 30-plus-point seasons at Penn State. The Minnesota native finished third in goals (19) and points (35) for the Nittany Lions last season.
Several returning players could see their roles increase. Sam Cogan, who had a solid playoff series against Montréal, could earn a top-line role. Klára Hymlárová, who played with Fox at times last season, could get another shot. Élizabeth Giguère, who was a prolific scorer in college, is another option to earn a role higher in the lineup.
Which unsigned defenders will make the team?
Entering training camp, the Minnesota Frost have four defenders under contract: Lee Stecklein, Sidney Morin, Natalie Buchbinder, and Brooke Becker. That means the Frost could have at least three open roster spots in their defense core up for grabs in training camp.
2026 first-round pick Sara Swiderski is a safe bet to make the squad and be an impact player. Fourth-round pick Tova Henderson also feels like an obvious addition to the defense core.
Beyond those two, the Frost invited several defenders to camp who could make the team and contribute. Maude Poulin-Labelle was a prolific offensive defender in college, and she has previous PWHL experience. Poulin-Labelle has spent the past two seasons playing for Brynäs in the SDHL.
In addition to Poulin-Labelle, Maddy Clough and Maddie Posick both enter training camp with plenty of professional experience. Clough attended Vancouver Goldeneyes training camp last season and appeared in both preseason games. Posick spent the past four seasons in the SDHL with Djurgården.
Who will play alongside Taylor Fox?
Fox is one of the top offensive players in the PWHL. She’s the kind of player who raises the game of everyone around her, evidenced by the fact that the players who played with her the most last season had productive offensive seasons. It should come as no surprise then that Fox’s most common linemates last season were targets of the expansion teams.
Fox spent most of her time playing with linemates Britta Curl-Salemme, Abby Hustler, Katy Knoll, Denisa Křížová, and Kendall Coyne Schofield last season. Three of those players, Curl-Salemme, Hustler, and Knoll, were picked up by expansion teams. The other two, Křížová and Coyne Schofield, will not be playing for the Frost this season.
In training camp, head coach Ken Klee and the coaching staff will need to find new linemates for Fox.
The good news for Klee and the Frost is that Fox is easy to play with. Last season, Klee often surrounded her with physical players who didn’t necessarily need the puck on their stick to be effective. Instead, players like Curl-Salemme, Hustler, and Knoll were good at pressuring defenders, retrieving pucks, and converting scoring chances.
If the coaching staff elects for a similar strategy this season, players like Sam Cogan, Klára Hymlárová, or Élizabeth Giguère would all fit that mold. All three of those players spent time playing alongside Fox last season.
Finally, Klee and his staff haven’t been shy about changing the forward lines often. I’d imagine a number of different players will get the chance to play with Fox throughout the season, but it will be interesting to see who gets the first opportunity in training camp.
Who will be the backup goalie?
For the past three seasons, the Frost have been running a tandem of Maddie Rooney and Nicole Hensley in goal. This offseason, the Frost protected Rooney in expansion, leaving Hensley open to being selected by an expansion team. Sure enough, PWHL Las Vegas signed Hensley, leaving a huge question mark in the Frost net behind Rooney.
Entering training camp, the Frost have a couple of options to fill Hensley’s spot. Marlène Boissonnault, the Frost’s third goalie last season, is back with Minnesota and could play a larger role this season. Boissonnault made only one appearance for the Frost last season; she started the season finale against Vancouver.
At the draft, the Frost used a fifth-round pick on Russian goaltender Daria Gredzen. The 22-year-old has been one of the best goaltenders in Russia over the past half-dozen seasons. Depending on how her transition to the PWHL goes, Gredzen could be the Frost’s goaltender of the future.
Providence graduate Hope Walinski will also try to prove she has what it takes to be a PWHL goaltender in training camp. Training camp will be the first chance to see which goaltender has the inside track to the backup job.
Training camp begins for all PWHL teams on Wednesday, November 18th.
