u/absudrlyhappyinpolis

Sorry if this was posted and I missed it, but it looks like the Frost and a host of other teams will have full-time booths of their own at the FAN Center:

The Minnesota Lynx, Minnesota United FC, Minnesota Frost, St. Paul Saints, Minnesota Aurora FC, Minnesota Vixen, Minnesota Wind Chill and LOVB Minnesota (new in 2026!) and more sell jerseys, hats, other apparel and themed memorabilia to bring out the sports fanatic in all of us.

https://www.mnstatefair.org/guides/shopping

I haven't seen any schedules for meet & greets/autograph sessions. Last year, I was able to pitch my private detective series starring Zummy and Taylor directly to them. I managed to get in a "Good luck in Milan", to which Grace said, "We have to make it first." Yeah, I think you made it. If you ever wanted to see a Gold Medal, I'm guessing this is the year. :)

That Kelly Pannek is Captain material? Start a business with her.

Showing Sara Swiderski around (so psyched for Swiderski, especially considering what we lost)

https://www.instagram.com/pwhl_frost/p/DZx8SJqmeZh/?hl=en&img_index=2

On draft night with Maddy Christian "Welcome to the team, we have a lot of pieces to fill so we're happy to have you":

https://www.instagram.com/pwhl_frost/p/DbEXse5maLe/?hl=en&img_index=5

hope my links work

The Gopher Women's Hockey sub hasn't had a post in 8 years. I figured a lot of this sub follows the Gophs and the Frost, so I'm posting here. That's the reason.

Yeah, the Gophers lost their top five players in the draft (so did The Death Star ((Wisconsin))).

The Gophers cupboard is not bare!

We have two Olympians: Tereza Plosova and Chloe Primerano - oh, wait, one Olympian - Team Canada wishes they had promoted Chloe. Solid experience at an exclusive Oilers training session in the off-season.

Ava Lindsay: improved her pts/per/game every season. Her time to shine.

Bella Fanale and Chloe Primerano: two of the most highly sought after recruits. Will represent different teams in the French Alps 2030. The time starts now. They can't legally drink in a US bar.

Emma Kreisz: her points are consistent and her penalty minutes have gone down. Breakout year if she wants a PW or SDHL contract.

Madison Kaiser: you've said you wanted a role in the PW.

Molly Jordan, Gracie Graham, Kendra Distad, Avery Hovland, Syd Bailey, Carly Humphrey, Olivia Kortan, etc, transfers: this is the opportunity for which you've wanted.

The bigger question is: can you more easily replace Murph's scoring or TikToks?

A friend went last night. Taylor played. Women and men - PW and NHL - these are insane rosters for a beer league. (Non-Frost migrants: seriously, the trophy is a keg.)

Obviously, it's heavily Minnesota centric/connections/local in the summer, but not all of it.

The PW's in this bizarre idea for a $15-20 ticket is impressive. Not all of them play every game, but you'll see someone.

G denotes 2026 Olympic Gold Medalist:

Schepers (Bos), Boreen (Van), Otremba (Ott), Flaherty (Mon), Levis (NY), Bizal (LV - Frost West), Kelly (Bos), M Christian (Frost), Pannek G in the Disco (the next Frost captain?), Kuehl (Tor), S Matthews (SJ), E Zumwinkle (Sea), Huber (Bos), Stecklein G (Frost), B Bryant (SJ), Zawoyski (MN St), Mashuga (MN St), T Anderson (MN St), Jungels (Ott).

Wow, look out for the Mavericks (MN St). Suddenly, Mankato...

That's one team.

Here's the other:

Heise G (Frost), Curl G (Det), K Roberts (NY), Izzy Daniel (Tor), Wilgren (Sea), Baskin (Tor), Guilday G (SJ), McMahon (Van), Roeske (MN St!), Jamie Nelson (Tor), Peschel (NY), Giguere (Frost), Lola Reid (Shattuck/BU), Nina Christof (Germany/RPI), Peyton Hemp (Ham).

We're told it's the last year of DBL.

There’s a lot of people saying they’re new and would like to learn more. 

This is not intended to be an encyclopedia, or maybe it is, but a lot of you have experience, stories and context to fill in the picture. Yeah, some of us are old. Raise your hand if you remember GAA. Fun fact, GAA was formed in 1920. My grandmother played organized basketball in the 19-teens.

We do research to back up our claims or jog our memories, but please no cut and paste nor AI/Chat whatever.

*

I’ll start. This is Minnesota centric.

Prior to 1994, despite continuous growth, the major problem girl’s and women’s hockey faced was ice time. For practice, for games.  “When can we get in?” “How much does it cost?” They had little money.

One breakthrough was when the Augsburg (Mpls) Arena Manager opened the doors at 6am for girls and women to skate on clean ice ‘before the boys’.

1994: Minnesota became the first state to sanction Girls & Women’s hockey. Of course, girls and women played hockey for as long as there has been hockey, oftentimes with their brothers on a pond. The Gophers had a team on the ice by 1997.

Back in ’94, Minnesota high school girls knew We Are Going to Have a Tournament and a Champion next year, and, starting to prepare, there was a lot of debate: checking or non-checking? The younger players wanted it, the older players (look up Jane Ring, played as a girl in the 19-teens, picked it up again at 47 and played another 30 years on a line with a kid who could have been her great grandchild) felt – some strongly – “Why should we play like the boys? We have a better game.”

Over time, checking and more physical play has won out. 

2002: Ridder Arena completed; the first arena specifically dedicated to women’s hockey in the USA. It’s where the Gopher Women hang their banners. I believe Vermont was second.

The Frost: there have been previous attempts at a league like the PWHL, where the MN team had success, but the locals winning the first two Walter Cups, I mean, c’mon. Kendall Coyne has said repeatedly that having an established league like the PWHL coming out of the Olympics is key to welcoming fans.

Nostalgia:

It would be exhaustive to list all the Minnesota greats since 1994. Maybe we can break it down?

No, we can’t. Between the Kazmaiers, the Gophers, Team USA, U18s, General Managers, P-Dub, Whitecaps and first ever PWHL draft pick... we’re all good. 

*

If anyone wants to give it a try, construct your perfect Women’s Hockey team from Minnesota. Outsiders welcome. 

Wow, we haven’t even begun to talk about Shattuck.

This is a comparison of Olivia Miles' performances regarding Bun vs. Afro (Mods, search engines tell me it's okay to use those terms):

Team Record

Bun: 12-3, 80%; Lynx +10.4 scoring margin.

Afro: 9-2, 82%; Lynx +7.46 scoring margin.

DNP: 1-1 (both vs Conn, two seriously strange games, road team won both)

Individual

Bun (total): 102/204 FG (50%), 19/55 3pt (34.6), 64/73 FT (87.7), 5.4 RPG, 6.1 AST, 1.3 STL, .6 BLX, 2.4 TO, 3.1 PF, 9.73 +/- AVG (throw out her worst five and it's 15.9 +/- AVG)

Afro (total): 74/152 FG (48.7%), 15/40 3pt (37.5), 53/61 FT (86.9), 3.8 RPG, 5.8 AST, 1.4 STL, 1 BLX, 4 TO, 3.2 PF, 7.55 +/- AVG (throw out her worst four and it's 10.1 +/- AVG)

Splits

Bun Home (8-2, team scoring margin 13.1): 71/130 FG (54.6%), 18/39 3pt (46.2), 37/43 (86), 4.7 RPG, 6 AST, 1.3 STL, .9 BLX, 2.3 TO, 3 PF, 10.5 +/- AVG (in her best 6 games at home with her hair up, she's +16.4)

Bun Away (4-1, team scoring margin 5): 31/74 FG (47.5%), 1/16 3pt (.06), 27/30 FT (90), 6.8 RPG, 6.2 AST, 1.2 STL, 0 BLX, 2.6 TO, 3.2 PF, 8 +/- AVG

Afro Home (2-1, team scoring margin 1.02): 19/40 FG (47.5%), 8/15 3pt (53), 14/16 FT (87.5), 4.3 RPG, 6.7 AST, 1.3 STL, 1.7 BLX, 3.7 TO, 4.3 PF, 4.3 +/- AVG

Afro Away (7-1, team scoring margin 9.6): 55/112 FG (49.1%), 7/25 3pt (28), 39/45 FT (87), 3.6 RPG, 5.5 AST, 1.4 STL, .8 BLX, 4.1 TO, 2.8 PF, 8.8 +/- AVG (throw out her worst two and it's 11.8)

What did we learn?

Not much. 80% team win rate either way. Everyone reading this will remember the 2026 Lynx.

23 skaters on a final squad. 15 contracts currently rostered. Twice that coming to camp? Draft contracts starting to come in. Two Frost FAs available.*

Forwards (9): Three Olympic Gold scorers - Heise, Pannek, Zumwinkle; returnees: Petrie (!), Butorac (expectations), Hymlarova (sorry, Klara, I'll figure out your alphabet one day), Anderson, Cogan, Giguere (apparently confident the late season trades work out into next season).

Defenders (4): Yeah, right - 4 from a defense that already needed help. This should tell us how much confidence the Frost have in Swiderski (A LOT). In expansion, we lost emerging blue line and physicality up front. Buchbinder (expectations), Morin, Stecklein (counting on vet leadership), Becker.

Goalie (2): We couldn't keep both and now its Rooney's net. Nice for Boissonnault!

Pure speculation:

* Obvious: (2): Roese and KCS. The waiting is the hardest part. Also, frankly, the difference between women and men's team athletics (why is Chess segregated?) - there are hinted-at players who want to start a family. Lynx' Collier did it and came back for an MVP-caliber year. Time off and recovery from pregnancy is not something that happens in the Mnba. I mean, it could. Anyway, patience is a virtue or turns into scramble?

Rooks: Swiderski (significant minutes right away; the recent Olympics proved the value of young defenders), Vainikka (potential as fan favorite replacement for Wolves' Naz Reid), Christian (played on #3 pick Janecke's line at PSU), Henderson (UMD grad, we need serious looks at D), Gredzen (they didn't go this far not to include a Russian GT hardly anyone has seen), Beecher (size puts her on the practice squad?).

That's 20 bold names. Who else in the final 23?

Entry Draft and Phase Whatever are behind us. We're going to rely on rookies to fill out the roster. The league has expanded - which is great - at the cost of certain teams (Frost). We can't compare these teams to the All Star teams that played the first two seasons - and neither can any of the other teams.

The line rotations will be interesting. Swiderski could scale up fast.

This is a good looking squad:

Forwards

3/5 Olympians intact - Heise, Pannek, Zumwinkle. KCS status pending.

Hymlarova, Butorac - someone called it recently. They're not going to replace BCS production, but they replace her size.

Showing faith: Petrie (healthy?), Anderson; the late season trades - Cogan, Giguere.

Rookies: Vainikka (Viivi is more fun, isn't it? We just lost {TRADED} Naz Reid, maybe people will get Viivi tattoos), Christian (3rd round pick, played with top shelf players at PSU).

Need 1-2 more (KCS pending). Upson, Beecher (rookie)?

Defenders

Stecklein, Morin, Buchbinder.

Rookies: Swiderski (first line by mid season?), Henderson (UMD grad, good experience)

Showing faith: Becker.

What's up with Jincy?

Goalies

This is Rooney. May need a third.

The Boss, unsigned with a graduate degree and career/life options; the Russian - Gredzen - will be interesting (who has seen a Russian team in years?). Sounds like a heist movie.

ALSO, if you've read this far:

Who do you think will be the next union rep? Also, Captain if KCS takes some time off? {I don't know how to make a poll.}

Based on last year's opening position roster; barring losses and additions. I'll add that our late season trades - Roese, Giguere, Cogan seemed to get more acclimated, effective and ice time toward playoff time:

Forwards (13)

Heise, Pannek, Zumwinkle, KCS, Hymlarova, Vainikka, Christian. Some combination of six of these seven: Petrie (injury status?), Butorac, Anderson, O'Donohoe, Cogan, Giguere, Upson. Cheever seems like a Reserve slot.

Defenders (7)

Stecklein, Morin, Swiderski, Buchbinder, Roese, Bizal. One more spot: Henderson, Becker or Ricker - the other two going to Reserve?

Goalie (3)

Rooney, Gredzen - we haven't seen Russian hockey in a long time, she might be really good?, Boissannault - she's got a Master's Degree, doesn't she? She just won a PDub Community Service award, but maybe she wants to get on with the rest of her life?

Reserve (3)

Cheever and a couple others.

With the entire league thinning out after a second consecutive expansion, this is not that bad. It would be fun if Roese worked out long enough for us to draft her sister, Joy Dunne (Murphey's roommate in Milan).

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DSLLPEKkZQl/

Need to re-sign Klara.