Just when it seemed like things were quieting down into the offseason lull for the PWHL and the NHL, PWHL Minnesota had to be in the news again. After letting go of their general manager Natalie Darwitz just days after bringing home the Walter Cup, they’ve now let go of three of their coaches.
Those three coaches were their assistant coach, Jake Bobrowski, goaltending coach, Brennan Poderzay, and skills consultant, Johnny Seibel. According to The Rink Live, a local website that was among the first to break the news Wednesday morning, July 10, these firings were likely due to the rift between head coach Ken Klee and Darwitz that led to Darwitz being let go. In this article, we’ll look at the coaches who were let go, how the new coaches will have big shoes to fill, and what this means for the team’s future. We’ll start with Bobrowski and go from there.
Bobrowski, Poderzay & Sibel Out
When PWHL Minnesota announced their original roster, they had a lot of Minnesota natives on their team like Taylor Heise, that also included their general manager, Darwitz, who picked a lot of them. Another connection is many of them, including Darwitz, went to the University of Minnesota (U of M), and their assistant coach, Bobrowski, was an assistant coach at the U of M during 2021-22 before joining Elmira College for 2022-23 and everyone knows where he went for 2023-24.
Before he was with the U of M, Bobrowski spent six seasons as Darwitz’s assistant coach at Hamline University, where they took the program to new heights, including attending the 2018 Frozen Four and 2019 NCAA Championship game. The U of M connections continued as Poderzay also spent time at the U of M but with the men’s team.
He spent the last few seasons with the U of M but was only recently promoted to assistant coach in 2023, where he also focused on goaltending. That wasn’t his only job; however, he also started his job with PWHL Minnesota as their goaltending coach during the same season. Before his time at the U of M, he coached at Minnesota State University, Mankato, where the team made it to their first-ever NCAA Frozen Four and won five WCHA regular season titles.
The final coach, Seibel, didn’t have connections to the U of M, but he did to the Minnesota Wild. He was hired by Scott Bjugstad, who is the shooting coach for the Wild’s rookie camp. He currently runs his own shooting school, which Seibel helped at. After several years, Seibel founded Puck Dynasty, which helps with off-ice and on-ice training, before joining PWHL Minnesota as a skills coach.
PWHL Minnesota has Roles to Fill
PWHL Minnesota already had some work to do in finding a new general manager to fill Darwitz’s role unless they are going to keep Klee doing both. Adding to that list, they will now have to find a new assistant coach, goaltending coach, and skills coach. After winning the Walter Cup, it’s been shocking to see all of these changes since it appeared they had a good thing going and a winning team, especially in the goaltending area with Maddie Rooney and Nicole Hensley.
PWHL Minnesota had a rough start to the postseason, but they managed to pull through both rounds with outstanding goaltending. While most of that credit goes to the players who stepped up, some of it goes to the coach who helped them through the hard parts. Again, according to The Rink Live, supposedly, these coaches were let go because of their support of Darwitz rather than Klee.
If those rumors are true, it’ll be interesting to see how the rest of the offseason moves forward, as there may still be players who have allegiances to Darwitz and could be upset about the changes. These coaches that were let go had very talented resumes that included a lot of winning and chemistry with their colleagues, which is something important for a successful team.
PWHL Minnesota has Bumpy Future
This has been a surprising turn of events that fans are still getting used to, even though it’s been over a month since Darwitz was let go. Now that they’ve fired even more coaches, it’s unclear what direction the team is heading in since it seemed they already had a great recipe for winning. The Rink Live and other outlets mentioned this could be Klee’s way of getting more control over the team, which isn’t unusual.
Related: PWHL Minnesota Keeps Core By Signing Cava, Křížová & Schepers
Many NHL teams go through changes when a new coach or general manager is brought in because they want to have a group of people they know and trust. While Klee was brought in just a week before the season, he had no time to bring in his staff. It seems questionable when they were able to put together a winning team despite not getting along behind the scenes; but it’s not completely out of the ordinary for something like this to happen. It’s just usually not after the team wins it all.
There’s still a lot of the offseason to go, so there is plenty of time for other changes. Hopefully, PWHL Minnesota can keep most of their players and bring back a team capable of winning games like last season.
