The Professional Women’s Hockey League made the prescient decision last year to include Minnesota among its inaugural six franchises despite the fact that the Twin Cities are the far-west outlier, a recognition of not just how popular hockey is here, but women’s hockey in particular.
The league subsequently decided to hire local hockey legend Natalie Darwitz as the Minnesota team’s first general manager, which resulted in the team’s decision to make local star Taylor Heise the top overall pick in the first PWHL draft.
Melissa Caruso (Courtesy PWHL)
The team played home games in front of full lower bowls at Xcel Energy Center, then won the league’s first championship — with Heise scoring a postseason-leading five goals and eight points.
It could not have gone better.
Then a month after Minnesota rallied from two games down to beat regular-season champion Toronto for the Walter Cup, the league fired Darwitz on Jan. 8 behind a veil of secrecy, saying only that the decision was made after a lengthy internal and external review. To make matters worse, the league oversaw Minnesota’s draft and used the team’s second-round pick on Wisconsin forward Britta Curl, who spent her college career antagonizing the Gophers.
Now, Minnesota is eager to move forward from what has been a bad summer for the locals. New GM Melissa Caruso spent 15 years in the American Hockey League as an administrator and hails from Massachusetts — although she has lived in St. Paul for the past two years.
“I have definitely been made aware of everything that’s been going on here the past number of months,” Caruso said Wednesday during a conference call. “Moving forward. I started here yesterday, so I’m going to evaluate where we’re at from a team perspective and move ahead to Season 2.”
Caruso started at the AHL, the top minor league for the NHL, as an intern in 2009 and spent the past five years as its vice president for hockey operations and governance.
PWHL senior vice president for hockey operations Jayna Hefford said the league plans to start playing its second season before Jan. 1. Caruso said Minnesota has signed 16 players with a roster of 23 to fill. Kevin Klee, who became Minnesota’s coach just prior to last season, will return, and the team expects to play its games at the X again this season.
The PWHL owns and operates all six teams.
Caruso did not play college hockey, and her experience is primarily in administration, although it is widely varied and includes work on the collective bargaining agreement, scheduling, and business relationships with the NHL and PWHL.
“If you look around this league, the NHL, the AHL, everyone takes their own path to being a GM, and my background I’m very proud of,” Caruso said. “In terms of the player piece to this, I have a lot to learn as a first-time general manager. I know I’ve got a great staff in place here in St. Paul, and I’m really looking forward to working with them. And I’m a fast learner as I dive in head-first here.”
Caruso said she spoke to Klee last week — it was “a very positive conversation,” she said — and did not speak to any of Minnesota’s players until she accepted the job this week.
“I feel lucky and excited to have Ken here as a leader in the locker room,” Caruso said. “He’s got extensive coaching experience; I anticipate learning a ton from him and from the staff, and look forward to working with him this upcoming season.”
Caruso also acknowledged the situation into which she’s stepping contains professional promise and a certain amount of peril.
“It’s no secret that what Natalie built here in Season 1 was an incredible foundation for this team,” she said. “She’s so beloved here in the State of Hockey, so I know all eyes are on me starting out here. I’m ready to take on that challenge.
“But there certainly is going to be pressure and, I think, expectations for the team and for the fans. I’m lucky to have inherited what I’ve inherited. I think there’s a great base here.”
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