The sounds of slap shots, hockey pucks bouncing off Plexiglas and skates scratching up the ice filled the empty halls of Grand Casino Arena on Monday as the Minnesota Frost held their first full team practice ahead of Friday’s season opener.
Coming off back-to-back Walter Cup championships in the first two seasons of the Professional Women’s Hockey League, the Frost are halfway to matching a feat accomplished by the Houston Comets when they finished atop the WNBA in its first four seasons of existence (1997-2000).
Claire Thompson #42 and Britta Curl-Salemme #77 of the Minnesota Frost celebrate the win against the Ottawa Charge during the third overtime at Xcel Energy Center on May 24, 2025 in St Paul, Minnesota. The Minnesota Frost defeated the Ottawa Charge 2-1 in this game to take the lead (2-1) in the best of five series.(Adam Bettcher/Getty Images)
But before this new group of Frost players can chase history, they need to establish a camaraderie and chemistry after a large roster overhaul.
“Right now, we’re not worried about championships,” head coach Ken Klee said. “It’s the beginning of the season; we’re worried about the process, how we’re going to prepare every day, how we work, how we’re going to get better.
“To me, that’s how you win. You win by getting better all year and then peaking at the right time.”
The Frost begin that quest with the season opener against Toronto on Friday at Grand Casino Arena. Puck drop is set for 6 p.m.
Teams from Seattle and Vancouver will boost the PWHL to eight teams this winter, and the Frost lost forwards Brooke McQuigge and Denisa Křížová in the expansion draft, the ace defenders Sophie Jaques and Claire Thompson — two of the league’s three finalists for Defensive Player of the Year — to Vancouver in free agency.
Klee thinks the team may weather those blue line losses by signing Sydney Morin from Boston and using their first-round draft pick on Kendall Cooper of Quinnipiac. And the Frost retained international superstar Lee Stecklein, a keystone of the Frost’s two titles.
Goaltenders Maddie Rooney and Nicole Hensley are back, too, as is wing Britta Curl-Salemme, who signed a contract extension. Star forwards Kendall Coyne Schofield and Taylor Heise, return as well. So, the cupboard is far from bare.
This week the new iteration practiced as a unit at TRIA Rink for the first time.
“I think now that we have our full group intact … it’s looking very promising,” second-year forward Katy Knoll said. “Our team is looking a lot different, but I think all the returners and the veterans are doing a great job of kind of bringing everyone in and showing everyone the ropes and the systems and everything.”
Klee is expecting Knoll and Curl-Salemme to step up in their roles as forwards. Both scored game-winning, overtime goals in the Walter Cup Finals against Ottawa, and Curl-Salemme signed a two-year extension on Oct. 6.
“Our forward group is deep, and it’s really good,” Klee said. “So, I think it’s huge. You look at all those players, you look at Katy, you look at Dominique Petrie, you look at Britta. I think they’re all going to take big steps in their game.”
With many of the players expecting friends and family to come into St. Paul for the season opener, the Frost are looking forward to raising a second banner before puck drop. They’re also eager to take aim and a third title in as many seasons.
“I think you just take it one week at a time,” Curl-Salemme said. “We have a big home opener on Friday, so just starting well and feeling like we can move forward and find new things to work on, because if you’re not getting better throughout the whole season, you’re not going to have much of a chance at the end.”
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