The Minnesota Frost won the PWHL’s first two Walter Cups as champions of the the nascent league that has drawn the best women’s hockey players in the world. So, it’s no surprise the 2026 Olympic team is full of its players.
Six Frost players, including five of the team’s nine forwards, will play for the U.S. including Minnesotans Taylor Heise, Kelly Pannek and Grace Zumwinkle. They’re joined by Frost forwards Kendall Coyne Schofield and Britta Curl-Salemme, and blue liner Lee Stecklein.
Gophers graduate student Abbey Murphy also made the U.S. team, and senior defender Nelli Laitinen will represent Finland in the Olympics for the second time.
This is the first Olympics appearance for Heise, the former Gophers star who won the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award as a senior and was named the top forward of the 2022 IIHF World Championships after leading all players with 18 points.
In all, there are 16 PWHL players representing five of the league’s eight teams representing the U.S. The Olympics are scheduled to run Feb. 6-22 in Milan and Cortina, Italy, during which the PWHL will take a hiatus.
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