The expansion announcement was made by the the league's senior vice president of business operations Amy Scheer speaking at the ESPNW Summit in New York on Tuesday.
The Minnesota Frost professional women’s hockey team will open the 2024-25 season at home against the New York Sirens on Dec. 1 at the Xcel Energy Center.
Minnesota’s Professional Women’s Hockey League team finally has something it didn’t during its run to the league title earlier this year: a name. PWHL Minnesota is now the Minnesota Frost.
The long-awaited hiring comes as the PWHL prepares to open its second season in December. Caruso replaces former U.S. Olympian Natalie Darwitz, who was removed by the league in June following a monthslong review and mere weeks after Minnesota clinched the Walter Cup in a decisive fifth game.
Natalie Darwitz and Krissy Wendell-Pohl were teammates at the University of Minnesota, as well as on U.S. teams that won silver at the 2002 Olympics and gold at the 2005 world championships.
The Minnesota women’s hockey team came under fire this week for selecting Curl, who was criticized for liking polemic posts on social platform X. In a video posted Friday, Curl said the controversy has been “an opportunity to grow in humility and grow in love.”
Minnesota's Professional Women’s Hockey League has celebrated success and dealt with controversy in the past two weeks. Ian Kennedy with The Hockey News spoke to Morning Edition host Cathy Wurzer on what’s happening.
Minnesota came into the night under some controversy. The team parted ways with General Manager Natalie Darwitz last week, which was a bit shocking after the team won the first ever PWHL championship. The controversy did not stop there. Minnesota’s second pick overall brought a lot of criticism online.
Crowds larger than expected in inaugural season of women’s hockey league. “I was hoping we’d get 3,000 each game,” said Natalie Darwitz, PWHL Minnesota general manager. “I was thinking I’d be really, really happy if that happened.”
Grace Zumwinkle scored a pair of shootout goals, Taylor Heise added another and Minnesota rallied from two goals down to beat Montreal 3-2 in Professional Women’s Hockey League action.
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