The Minnesota Frost Prepare for Their Third Season on the Hunt for the Three-peat

The day this issue of Lavender comes out, the Minnesota Frost will play their first of two pre-season games against the New York Sirens at Codey Arena in West Orange, N.J. The results of this game, which will be closed to the general public and not available to view on broadcast or livestream, will give Frost fans the first bit of insight as to where the Professional Women’s Hockey League’s (PWHL) reigning champs stand as they begin their quest for a third consecutive championship title.

“We have an exciting group of young players coming in ready and eager to earn their roster spots,” Frost General Manager Melissa Caruso said in an October 16 press release. “Our returning athletes have established a standard of excellence on the ice by pushing each other and building a foundation for everything we want to accomplish this season – including a third Walter Cup.”

The Frost roster saw a good amount of shakeup this offseason, in part due to the league’s expansion. For its third season, the league added two new franchises in Seattle and Vancouver, bringing the league to a total of eight teams. 

During the expansion teams’ exclusive signing window, the Vancouver team, simply known as PWHL Vancouver for the time being, signed Claire Thompson and Sophie Jaques — a pair of defenders who both played with the Frost in the 2024-2025 season. Then, during the expansion draft, PWHL Vancouver selected forwards Brook McQuigge and Denisa K?ížová from the Frost. 

“At the end of the day, we are fortunate to be in a situation where we have so many impact players on this roster,” Caruso said in a statement ahead of the expansion draft. “Unfortunately, we are just not able to protect them all.” 

Going into the expansion draft, each of the existing teams was able to choose just three of its players to protect, with the ability to protect one more after two of its players had been drafted. The Frost chose to protect forwards Taylor Heise and Kendall Coyne Schofield and defender Lee Stecklein. After losing their second player in the expansion draft, the Frost added forward Britta Curl-Salemme to their protected players list. 

The Frost lost four more players to free agency, two defenders and two forwards, including forward Liz Schepers, who scored the championship-winning goal for Minnesota in both of the past two seasons. However, the team was able to sign defender Sidney Morin from the Boston Fleet.

The Frost entered the all-league draft with a clearly defensively minded strategy, using their first round pick on defender Kendall Cooper. 

“[Cooper] is exactly what we are looking for … an offensive-minded [defender] to kind of fill some of those voids we were left with after the expansion draft,” Caruso said in a press conference after the draft. 

Throughout the draft, the Frost picked two more defenders, Ava Rinker and Brooke Becker, as well as three forwards, Abby Hustler, Anna Segedi and Vanessa Upson. Cooper, Hustler and Segedi are all signed for the 2025-2026 season, while the other two draft picks will have to prove their worth in the preseason to make it to the regular season roster. 

The Frost’s preseason roster is made up of 28 players, including 16 forwards, nine defenders and three goaltenders. Nineteen of these players are already signed for the 2025-2026 season. The team will need to whittle its roster down to just 23 active players before the season starts. 

While the preseason will give a glimpse into what to expect from the Frost, the competitiveness of the team will be quite difficult to assess until their first game of the regular season, when the general public can actually watch the game. Their season opener will take place on Friday, November 21, at 6 p.m. against the Toronto Sceptres at the Grand Casino Arena in St. Paul.

The game will be a rematch from last year’s semi-finals, where the Frost beat the Sceptres 3-1 in a best-of-five series. It should give insight into how cohesive the Frost can be against a historically competitive opponent. 

Still, no matter the result of the game, there is a long season ahead for all Minnesota hockey fans. So as the temperatures continue to drop, grab a blanket, and maybe some hot chocolate, and get in the spirit of the State of Hockey.