With the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) getting things going it’s time to get to know who to cheer for. Many of the faces on these rosters are familiar from their time in college, the Olympics, and other women’s leagues that came before. PHWL Minnesota has a lot of local talent on their roster, and we’ll take a look at the forwards first starting with Claire Butorac.
PWHL Minnesota Forwards
#7 Claire Butorac, 24
Butorac is the first player we’ll introduce for PWHL Minnesota and like one of her more famous teammates we’ll discuss later, she came from Andover, MN. She played her high school hockey with Andover where she became captain in her final season and she stayed in Minnesota for college as well.
For college, she played at Minnesota State University-Mankato (MSU), and in her final two seasons, she was an associate captain and then main captain. In her final season, she played in 36 games and had seven goals plus 16 assists for 23 points. Following her senior year she signed to play with the Minnesota Whitecaps but once the PWHL came around, the Whitecaps disbanded so she joined PWHL Minnesota for this current season.
#10 Sydney Brodt, 25
A name that has become synonymous with Minnesota hockey is Sydney Brodt, from her high school days to now she’s spent her time playing for Minnesota teams. She played for her local high school, Mounds View before heading over to the University of Minnesota-Duluth (UMD) for her college days. While she attended UMD she was one of just two players in their history to ever be a captain for three seasons.
After that, she joined the Minnesota Whitecaps where she played until this current season when they disbanded and she joined PWHL Minnesota. Her last season she played in 21 games and tallied five goals plus four assists for nine points. They also went to the postseason that year where she played in three games and registered one goal.
#11 Sophia Kunin, 26
Another Minnesota native, Sophia Kunin played for her hometown Wayzata in high school and she also snuck in some games with Team USA in the World Junior Championship U-18 division before she went to college. She didn’t go far, just over the border to the University of Wisconsin.
However, once her college days were over she played in the Professional Women’s Hockey Player’s Association (PWHPA) with Minnesota and Team Harvey. After several seasons there the league transitioned and became the new PWHL and she stayed with PWHL Minnesota. Last season she played in 20 games and registered three goals and six assists for nine points.
#12 Kelly Pannek, 28
Kelly Pannek has seen her share of international tournaments from the Under-18 IIHF World Championships to the Olympics and in between she spent four years in college near her hometown of Plymouth, MN at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities (U of M). Her latest adventure was also in the PWHPA when she played 20 games and registered four goals plus seven assists for 11 points.
#13 Grace Zumwinkle, 24
I’ll admit I’m rather new to some of these names and that includes Minnesota native Grace Zumwinkle but after her performance in their last game, she won’t be easy to forget. She was the hero of the game with a hat trick and the only goals for PWHL Minnesota in their 3-0 win over Montréal. Just three games into the season, she already has four goals and will likely achieve many more.
While that’s her current success, her past includes time at Breck High School and then she moved on to the U of M just like her teammate Pannek but during different years. She received several accolades in her time at the U of M from being the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) Forward of the Month, WCHA All-Academic Team and WCHA Scholar-Athlete, WCHA Forward of the Year Finalist, All-WCHA First Team – and that was all in her final season.
She was also a top-10 finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Award which is given to the top female college hockey player in the United States. She’s already shown herself as quite the hockey player and PWHL Minnesota fans should be excited for the future with her on their team.
#14 Clair DeGeorge, 24
One of the few non Minnesotans on this roster Clair DeGeorge isn’t even from the continental United States, she hails from Anchorage, Alaska. However, she got her high school start at Shattuck St. Mary’s preparatory school located in Minnesota, which is known for having NHL players like Sidney Crosby and Zach Parise but also women’s players like fellow PWHLer Blayre Turnbull and current teammate Natalie Buchbinder who we’ll discuss a little later.
After her high school days, she spent more time in Minnesota at Bemidji State University before heading to Ohio State University in her fifth and final year of eligibility after using the transfer portal. Of course after her college days she, like so many of her teammates, played a season in the PWHPA. Last season she played in 18 games and recorded one goal plus three assists for four points. Currently, she’s played three games for PWHL Minnesota and will hopefully get her scoring going soon.
#17 Brooke Bryant, 23
Another of the non-Minnesota natives, Brooke Bryant is from California, a state that has started to produce more hockey players each year. However, after her high school days, she made the trek north and found a college in Minnesota. She made MSU home for five seasons before she decided to stay in Minnesota and play for PWHL Minnesota.
Related: Get to Know the 2024 PWHL Boston Players
In her final season with MSU, she played in 36 games and tallied seven goals and 13 assists for 20 points. She hasn’t found a way to produce in her three games for PWHL Minnesota just yet but once she gets going she’ll be hard to stop and she’ll show what Californians can do.
#18 Brittyn Fleming, 24
Three non-Minnesotans in a row, following Bryant, Brittyn Fleming isn’t from Minnesota but the bordering and oftentimes opponent, state of Wisconsin. Like her teammates, she stuck around home for high school but then moved on to college, and just like Bryant she chose MSU.
She too spent five seasons there and then went on to play for the Minnesota Whitecaps in the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF) before joining the PWHL. In her lone season for the Whitecaps, she played in 24 games where she registered three goals and six assists for nine points. She’s not a huge scorer but that could change once she gets comfortable at the pro level, and she’s already registered an assist in three games played.
#21 Liz Schepers, 24
Back to the Minnesota natives once again, Liz Schepers is from Mound, MN but she did the opposite of some of her teammates. Rather than having all of her hockey career based in Minnesota, after high school she went to explore Ohio State University for five seasons before she decided to come back home.
It’s going to be repeated a lot but just like some of her other teammates, she joined the PHF and the Minnesota Whitecaps which led to where she is now with PWHL Minnesota. In her time with the Whitecaps, she played 22 games where she tallied six goals and eight assists for 14 points. Just like Fleming, she’s already assisted on a goal in the three games played this season as well.
#24 Abby Boreen, 23
Abby Boreen, like her teammate Fleming, was born in Wisconsin but played her high school hockey in Minnesota at Hill Murray High School which is known for its dominance in the Minnesota State High School Tournament especially in boys hockey. Following her days at Hill Murray she went 20 minutes west to the U of M, another dominant school for women’s hockey.
Following her five seasons at the U of M, she stayed put and joined PWHL Minnesota. In her final college season, she played in 36 games and averaged nearly a point per game with 21 goals and 15 assists for 36 points. She’s yet to play any games for PWHL Minnesota but hopefully, she’ll have some of that scoring power when she does.
#26 Kendall Coyne Schofield, 31
Anyone who’s a fan of women’s hockey knows who Kendall Coyne Schofield is. She’s been in the NHL All-Star Skills Competition back in 2019, the Olympics three times, and still holds a position with the Chicago Blackhawks as a player development coach and youth hockey growth specialist. She’s another non-Minnesotan as she came from Illinois and played her college hockey at Northeastern University.
After her college days, she spent time with the Minnesota Whitecaps who were in various leagues during her seasons and also competed a lot internationally. Her most recent endeavor was the Rivalry Series which is a series of games between the United States and Canada. She played five games and had a single goal plus three assists for five points.
She’s known as a gifted goal scorer and a strong leader. She captained her college team in her final seasons and also Team USA in the World Championship as well as the Olympics. After watching enough hockey it gets easy to tell what players stand out as leaders and she’s one of them by far which is one of the many reasons they chose her to captain PWHL Minnesota.
She carries herself so well and leads by example, she’s always giving her best and these younger women have someone worthy to model their game after. It’ll be fun to watch her compete for PWHL Minnesota and lead this team throughout the season and possibly more.
#27 Taylor Heise, 23
This girl has made a name for herself already and she’s barely out of college. Taylor Heise was the number one overall pick by PWHL Minnesota in the first-ever PWHL Draft and then she went on to score her team’s first-ever goal. She’s a born and raised Minnesotan, hailing from Lake City, MN, and she played for Red Wing High School. She also competed for Team USA in the World Junior Championship U-18 division.
When her U-18 days were over she went on to college at the U of M for five seasons and that brings us to the present day where she’s dazzling fans with PWHL Minnesota. In her final season at the U of M, she played in 38 games and scored a whopping 29 goals plus 36 assists for 65 points and she showed her ability to lead as they named her captain.
She’s already on her way to those numbers with three goals and an assist on the season and it feels like she’s just getting started to make more history. When someone is talking about the PWHL, Heise is typically mentioned and it’s quite clear she’s already a star with just three PWHL games played.
#41 Denisa Křížová, 29
The only Czech-born player on the team, Denisa Křížová had an entirely different route to the PWHL than her teammates at least at first. She did play in the World Junior Championship Under-18 for Czechia for several seasons but then she came to the United States. She joined the National Sports Academy which was based in Lake Placid, New York and was a private high school that unfortunately closed down in 2015.
That was right after her final season at the Academy before she went to college at Northeastern University. She even spent time with now teammate Coyne Schofield for two seasons while at Northeastern University so they have experience playing together. When she left college she joined the Boston Pride in the NWHL and then she moved on to Brynäs IF in the Svenska damhockeyligan (SDHL) in Sweden.
Following her time overseas she came back to the United States to play in the PHF for the Minnesota Whitecaps. She played a few more times with various Czechia international teams and that brings us to today where she plays with PWHL Minnesota. Last season between the Whitecaps and Czechia teams combined she played in 31 games and had eight goals plus six assists for 14 points. She’s had quite the career so far and her experience will prove valuable as the younger women learn the ropes.
#77 Susanna Tapani, 30
Two more non-American players in a row, Susanna Tapani is from the hockey hotbed of Turku, Finland, the same city as former Wild player Mikko Koivu, and his brother Saku. She spent all of her early career playing for different teams in Finland and of course the World Junior Championship U-18 team for Finland. Once she hit college, she came over to the United States and landed at the University of North Dakota actually at the same time I was their beat writer.
She only had one season there as they cut the team the next season and she went back to Finland for some time. She played for a variety of teams and this season joined PWHL Minnesota. She didn’t play anywhere last season but two seasons ago she played for three Finland teams and one Russian team called KRS Vanke Rays. Combining those four teams she played 46 games and had 30 goals and 15 assists for 45 points. As far as this season, she’s already recorded two assists for two points and will hopefully keep going.
#86 Michela Cava, 29
One of the few Canadian players on the roster for PWHL Minnesota is Michela Cava, where she played until it was time for college. She left Canada to play college hockey at the University of Connecticut for two seasons and then transferred to Minnesota to play at UMD, another really strong women’s team.
After college, she bounced around from Canada to Sweden to Russia and lastly back to Minnesota. Last season she played in the PHF for the Toronto Six and played in 24 games where she tallied nine goals plus 12 assists for 21 points.
PWHL Defenders
#2 Lee Stecklein, 29
Back to the Minnesota natives, Lee Stecklein grew up playing in Minnesota and kept going through high school, and like many of her teammates, she chose the U of M for college. After her four seasons there, she played for the Minnesota Whitecaps and an assortment of USA international teams before settling with PWHL Minnesota this season.
Last season she played a combination of 27 games between Team Harvey in the PWHPA and the United States World Championship team. She had four goals and 12 assists for 16 points and already has two points this season as well with two assists. She may be a more offensive defenseman that PWHL Minnesota could definitely use.
#5 Nikki Nightengale, 25
As has been the theme with this team, Nikki Nightengale is another Minnesota native who has played the majority of her career in her home state. She played for Bloomington Jefferson High School which has a lot of hockey history. After her days there, she moved on to college at Augsburg University which is near her high school in the Twin Cities area.
Following that, she played for the PWHPA, Minnesota to be specific, and then Team Sonnet in the same league. She didn’t have any points in the last couple of seasons but she is a defenseman and it’ll be interesting to see what she does this season as she has yet to play.
#9 Abby Cook, 25
Going back to north of the border, Abby Cook is from Canada and that’s where she spent the majority of her career until college. Rather than head to a Minnesota college like a lot of her teammates, she went to the prestigious Boston University where she spent four years. She then went off to Sweden for a season before returning to the PHF and Boston Pride.
Then she jetted off to Switzerland for a season before returning to play with PWHL Minnesota. Another offensive-minded defender, last season with Ladies Team Lugano in Switzerland she played 18 games and tallied two goals plus 10 assists for 12 points. Hopefully while defending her net, she’ll be able to produce some of that offense as well.
#19 Maggie Flaherty, 23
Back to the Minnesotans as there are so many on this team, Maggie Flaherty played for her local high school in Lakeville, MN before she headed to the northern part of the state to play at the UMD just like her teammate Cava. She spent the last four seasons there before joining PWHL Minnesota this season. PWHL Minnesota has found a way to stack up offensive-minded defensemen as she played in 39 games and had nine goals plus 16 assists for 25 points. Hopefully, she can keep that up and help out both on defense and offense.
#22 Natalie Buchbinder, 24
Natalie Buchbinder stands out on the roster as she’s the only one from the state of New York. However, she didn’t stay there long as she spent her high school career in Minnesota at Shattuck St. Mary’s Preparatory School. She didn’t stay in Minnesota long either as after her high school days, she went over the border to the University of Wisconsin.
She spent six seasons there but didn’t play any games during one of those seasons. She just finished her last season and that brings us to the present day where she plays with PWHL Minnesota. Last season she played in 24 games and had 15 assists for 15 points at the University of Wisconsin and as a defender, it’s great when they’re capable of helping set up goals.
#23 Mellissa Channell, 29
Heading back north of the border, Mellissa Channell grew up in Canada but played her high school days for different teams in Michigan including the Michigan Capitals 14U and the Little Caesars 16U and 19UAAA teams. After she moved on from there she landed with the Burlington Barracudas in the Provincial Women’s Hockey League (WHL).
She then copied some of her teammates and went to the University of Wisconsin for college and again bounced around on different teams following that before coming to PWHL Minnesota. She doesn’t register a lot of points but her main priority is defense and they need that on their roster.
#25 Emma Greco, 28
Another Canadian on the list, Emma Greco stayed in Canada for high school but came to the United States to attend college at Quinnipiac University located in Connecticut. She stayed in Connecticut after college to play with the Connecticut Whale for a season before jumping back and forth between the United States and Canada.
She decided to play for PWHL Minnesota this season and she doesn’t tally many points. Her team has a lot of scorers but they’ll also need strong defenders and hopefully she’s an asset to their defensive core.
#36 Dominique Kremer, 26
Dominique Kremer is listed as being from Fargo, ND but she calls Napoleonville, Louisiana home. She started her teen years playing with the St. Louis Lady Blues 14U before making the trek to Shattuck St. Mary’s Preparatory School in Minnesota for high school.
Once finished with high school she headed to Merrimack College in Massachusetts where she spent four seasons before going overseas to play in Sweden. Her Sweden days were short-lived and she came back to the United States to join the Buffalo Beauts in the National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL)/PHF before making her PWHL debut with PWHL Minnesota this season.
As a defender, she was right in the middle of the pack when it came to points last season. With the Beauts she played in 23 games and had one goal and nine assists for 10 points. Hopefully, she’ll be able to provide great defense for a team that has plenty of offense.
PWHL Goaltenders
#28 Amanda Leveille, 29
Goaltenders are always known as interesting people just because of the position they play. Amanda Leveille is another Canadian who played in Canada until her college days. Then she moved to Minnesota and played at the U of M for four seasons.
She then traveled east to play for the Buffalo Beauts in the NWHL for a couple of seasons before coming back to Minnesota to play for the Whitecaps until joining PWHL Minnesota this season. Last season she played in 17 games and had a 2.43 goals-against average (GAA) and a .923 save percentage (SV%). It’ll be interesting to see where she fits into their goaltender rotation as the season goes on.
#29 Nicole Hensley, 29
Nicole Hensley is from the United States but not Minnesota or Wisconsin, she’s from Colorado. She played at home until she had to choose a college and she went to Lindenwood University in Missouri.
She played there for four seasons and then joined the United States World Championship team. Then she spent time with the Buffalo Beauts of the NWHL before she went to Minnesota in the PWHPA. She had a season with Team Sonnet and then finally with PWHL Minnesota.
Last season she played mainly with Team Sonnet and played in 13 games where she had a 2.57 GAA and a .921 SV%. With four goaltenders on the team, it could be hard to get playing time but she has played in two of their three games already and had some strong numbers. Hopefully, she can continue to do so as they’ll need strong goaltending to win games.
#33 Lauren Bench, 26
We’ll end this with two Minnesotans starting with Lauren Bench who’s from Eagan, MN. She played her high school hockey with Burnsville before heading to college at Bemidji State University. She played there for four seasons before transferring and playing two more seasons at the U of M.
After that, she played in Sweden for a season and then came to PWHL Minnesota. During her last season, she played in 26 games with a 2.29 GAA and a .910 SV%. She has yet to play a game this season in the PWHL and again with four goaltenders, she’ll have to push hard to get time.
#35 Maddie Rooney, 26
Most know Maddie Rooney from her days in the 2018 and 2022 Olympics when Team USA won gold and silver respectively. She’s from Andover, Minnesota which is about half an hour from the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul and she was a household name by the time she graduated high school. She played for her local high school girls’ team until her senior year when she decided to try out for the boy’s team. If she was cut, that could’ve been the end of her high school career because the girl’s team had already been decided.
She made the team and despite taking some criticism for it, the boy’s head coach Mark Manney went for it. “My reply to them was, well I don’t know that college is her ultimate goal,” he told ESPN staff writer, Chris Peters during an interview in 2019. “It seems kind of prophetic now, but back then she wanted to be the best goalie in the world.” While they didn’t know it at the time in high school, shortly before that interview with ESPN she did become the best goaltender in the world as she won gold with Team USA in the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.
However, to go back a little in time before her Olympian days, she finished high school and headed up north to UMD. She played four seasons there as well as with the World Championship USA team. Once she was able to go pro, she joined Minnesota in the PWHPA as well as Team Adidas before settling in with PWHL Minnesota. Rooney grew up not far from my hometown so seeing her accomplish all of this has been so fun to watch and I can’t wait to see where she goes with PWHL Minnesota.
PWHL Minnesota Season
PWHL Minnesota is just three games into a 24-game season but it’s become quite clear that they are a strong team. They’re currently 3-0 and have displayed dominance for scoring with Heise and Zumwinkle leading but they also have capable defenders and great goaltenders. Having a new women’s hockey league has been very exciting but to be able to watch these women in action on television is a whole new step. This league is heading in the right direction very quickly and I’m excited to see how it goes and also PWHL Minnesota succeed.
Stats courtesy of EliteProspects.com
