Minnesota PWHL team sets training camp roster
Minnesota’s Professional Women’s Hockey League team has rounded out its training camp roster. The yet to be named team will bring 29 players into camp when it begins Nov. 15.
Where training camp will be also hasn’t been determined, but the team will begin a 24-game regular-season schedule in early January and play its home games at Xcel Energy Center.
Head coach Charlie Burggraf, and assistants Mira Jalosuo and Jake Bobrowski, will have a group of 40 in camp, from which they will choose 23 for the opening-night roster. That list includes undrafted free agents Lauren Bench, Abigail Boreen, Patti Marshall and Catie Skaja, all former Gophers players.
“We are excited about the 29 players who are coming to our first training camp as an organization,” general manage Natalie Darwitz said. “This is a solid group to start building our final roster for the first inaugural season of the PWHL.”
Under the Collective Bargaining Agreement, the PWHL salary cap is set at $1.265 million for a team of 23 players. Three players must make at least $80,000 per season and the bottom nine must make at least $35,000.
Before the Sept. 15 draft, Darwitz signed blue-line anchor Lee Stecklein, and forwards Kelly Coyne Schofield and Kelly Pannek as veteran free agents. Taylor Heise, the former Gophers center who won the 2022 Patty Kazmaier Award, was Minnesota’s first pick, and the first pick overall, in the inaugural draft.
Training camp roster
Signed: Kelly Pannek (F), Kelly Coyne Schofield (F), Lee Stecklein (D)
Draftees: Taylor Heise (F), Nicole Hensley (G), Grace Zumwinkle (F), Maggie Flaherty (D), Susanna Tapani (F), Clair DeGeorge (F), Natalie Buchbinder (D), Denisa Krizová (F), Sidney Morin (D), Sophia Kunin Shaver (F), Amanda Leveille (G), Michela Cava (F), Liz Schepers (F), Minttu Tuominen (D), Sydney Brodt (F)
Undrafted free agents: Emma Greco (D), Lauren Bench (G), Catie Skaja (F), Dominique Kremer (D), Clair Butorac (F), Maddie Rooney (G), Abby Cook (D), Brittyn Fleming (F), Nikki Nightengale (D), Patti Marshall (D), Abigail Boreen (F)
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