There are lots of details yet to be filled in about the fledgling PWHL, the first women’s hockey league in years that will have all of the top players in the sport.

Minnesota’s team doesn’t have a name yet. They haven’t announced where they’ll play. You can’t buy tickets or a jersey. They don’t even start playing until January. But one thing is very clear already: this Minnesota team is going to be very, very Minnesotan.

Start with the general manager: Minnesota hockey legend Natalie Darwitz. The USA, Gophers, and Eagan legend has played in the Olympics, won national titles with the Gophers as a player, been an assistant coach at the U, and the head coach at Hamline; she’s one of the greatest hockey players in Minnesota history. Like so many others, her fingerprints are all over Minnesota women’s hockey, and now she’s built her new PWHL team in the state’s own image.

Team Minnesota has a coach now, and has signed three players and drafted fifteen more, so let’s run down the roster - in the order the players were acquired - and scrape some details together for the Minnesotans among this team.

This team is pretty Minnesotan… but just how Minnesotan is it?

Coach: Charlie Burggraf
Minnesota bona fides: Former Gopher assistant coach, former Bethel women’s hockey head coach, former Bethel men’s hockey head coach

Burggraf played at North Dakota, in the late 1970s, but has since made up for it. He was an assistant with the Gophers women’s team from 2004-2006 - not coincidentally, overlapping with Darwitz’s playing days - then the head women’s coach at Bethel from 2006-2010, and the men’s coach from 2010-2018.

Kelly Pannek, F
Minnesota bona fides: From Plymouth. Played at Benilde-St. Margaret’s. Played four years for the Gophers (2014-19, with a year off for the Olympic team), winning two national championships.

Pannek is one of the most decorated Minnesota hockey players of all time; she’s got Olympic gold, Olympic silver, plus the two national titles for the Gophers. Throw in three golds at the world championships, too. She’ll also go down in history as the first PWHL player to sign a contract.

Lee Stecklein, D
Minnesota bona fides: Roseville legend. Played four years for the Gophers (2012-17, with an Olympics year), including winning two national titles and captaining the team twice. Former Whitecap (2018-19).

Stecklein, like Pannek, has quite the trophy case; she’s played in the Olympics three times (a gold and two silvers), and in the World Championships eight times, including six gold medals. She also played a season for the Minnesota Whitecaps in the old NWHL, scoring the title-clinching goal for them in overtime.

Kendall Coyne Schofield, F
Minnesota bona fides: Former Minnesota Whitecap (2018-19)

Coyne Schofield might not be a former Gopher, but she’s one of the most famous women’s hockey players out there, thanks to her participation in the 2019 NHL skills competition (she finished 7th in the fastest skater competition, more than holding her own against NHLers) and her work as an analyst on NHL broadcasts. She’s also been instrumental in agitating for better treatment of women’s hockey players.

She just had her first child with her husband, NFL offensive lineman Michael Schofield. (Schofield doesn’t appear to have a team for the year; the Vikings should probably take note.) I would imagine that she will need some recovery time from the act of growing a human, but with the season starting in January and running through next summer, she may still have time to contribute.

Taylor Heise, F
Minnesota bona fides: Red Wing native. Gopher legend (2018-23), including winning the 2022 Patty Kazmaier award, and scoring 97 goals in 173 career games (over five years). Ms. Hockey in 2018.

Heise was the top pick in the first-ever PWHL draft, which was sort of a combination college draft and league-wide expansion draft. Was a two-time All-American for the Gophers. She’s also a USA national teamer, with two appearances in the World Championships already.

Nicole Hensley, G
Minnesota bona fides: None

Hensley played at Lindenwood and is from Colorado, making Minnesota’s second-round pick the first player on the team with no Minnesota connection. That said, she’s a two-time USA Olympian and a five-time national-teamer at the World Championships, so perhaps her American hockey credentials simply make her an honorary Minnesotan.

Grace Zumwinkle, F
Minnesota bona fides: Five years with the Gophers (2017-23, with an Olympics year off). Played at Breck. Won Ms. Hockey in 2017. Dad played football for John Gagliardi at St. John’s.

Zumwinkle, the team’s third-round pick, is yet another Gopher and USA national-teamer on the roster. Frankly it is going to be hard to keep the Gopher legends straight on this team.

Maggie Flaherty, D
Minnesota bona fides: Played five years for UMD (2018-2023), a 153-game career. Lakeville native, played at Lakeville North.

Finding defenders looked to be one of the more difficult things in the draft, so Minnesota went up north to get their first Bulldog of the draft in the fourth round.

Susanna Tapani, F
Minnesota bona fides: None

The 30-year-old Finnish legend is not only a two-time Olympic medalist, but she’s also the captain of the national ringette team. (What’s the difference between hockey and ringette? Mind your own business, that’s what!)

She does not, sadly, appear to be related to former Twins pitcher Kevin Tapani. She only played one year of college hockey, and it was at North Dakota.

Clair DeGeorge, F
Minnesota bona fides: From Anchorage, but played at Shattuck-St. Mary’s. Played four years for Bemidji State (2017-21) before transferring and playing one year with Ohio State. Is a registered nurse at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester.

It’s one thing to be a Gophers legend, but DeGeorge is a Greater Minnesota legend; it’s hard to beat a resume of “played at Shattuck, went to Bemidji, worked for Mayo” in outstate-Minnesota terms.

Natalie Buchbinder, D
Minnesota bona fides: Played at Shattuck-St. Mary’s. From New York, and is a Sabres and Bills fan, so knows about sports heartbreak.

Buchbinder played five years for Wisconsin (2017-23). Just like when Badgers end up playing for the Wild, we will have to work to get past this.

Denisa Krizova, F
Minnesota bona fides: Played 2022-23 season with Minnesota Whitecaps.

The Czech national-teamer played four years at Northeastern, and had five goals last year for the Whitecaps.

Sidney Morin, D
Minnesota bona fides: Minnetonka native. Played four years at UMD (2013-17). Gold medalist with the USA. Played last season with Whitecaps.

Morin also played four years professionally in Sweden, making her one of the most well-traveled Minnesotans on the roster.

Sophia Kunin, F
Minnesota bona fides: Married to former Wild player Luke Kunin. Wayzata native and Wayzata HS standout.

Kunin, née Shaver, played at Wisconsin (2015-19) and captained a national-title team there. I don’t know what to do with this information except say that parochial Minnesota fans will just have to ignore it.

Amanda Leveille, G
Minnesota bona fides: Four-year Gopher standout. Three national championship rings. Played for the Whitecaps in two different leagues.

Leveille is known for her goofy presence on Twitter, so here’s hoping she turns out to be the go-to quote from this dressing room.

Michela Cava, F
Minnesota bona fides: Canadian, but played two years for UMD (2014-16).

Cava played in the CWHL, four years in Sweden, then two years in the PHF. She’s been everywhere.

Liz Schepers, F
Minnesota bona fides: Scored about six thousand goals for Mound Westonka. Played last season for the Whitecaps.

Schepers played five years for Ohio State (2017-22), including winning a national title in her final year in Columbus.

Minttu Tuominen, D
Minnesota bona fides: None

The 33-year-old played for Ohio State as well, albeit more than a decade ago (2009-13). She’s a three-time Olympic medalist with Finland, over a career that dates back to 2008.

Sydney Brodt, F
Minnesota bona fides: You are not allowed to have a pro hockey team in Minnesota without someone named Brodt. Played for Mounds View HS, played four years at UMD (2016-20, including the final three years as captain). Also played last season for the Whitecaps.

Brodt is related to Whitecaps founder Jack Brodt, but I’ve yet to figure out how. That said, her name, and women’s hockey in the state of Minnesota (and the north metro), just go together.

FINAL TALLY

Players (so far): 18

Gophers: 5
Gophers drafted or signed by other PWHL teams: 3 (Hannah Brandt and Emily Brown with Boston, Olivia Knowles with Toronto)
Bulldogs: 4
Badgers: 2, and we’re going to have to work past this
UND connections: 2, one player and one coach, I don’t want to talk about it
Ohio State alumni: Somehow 3

Americans: 13
Canadians: 2
Finns: 2. Always so many Finns, in Minnesota hockey

Played high school hockey in Minnesota: 9 (11 if you count Shattuck)
Ms. Hockey winners: 2
Played college hockey in Minnesota: 10

UNINFORMED LINE CHART

LW C RW
Coyne Schofield (L) Heise (R) Zumwinkle (R)
Tapani (L) Pannek (R) Kunin (R)
DeGeorge (L) Cava (R) Krizova (L)
Schepers (L) Brodt (R)  
LD RD
Stecklein (L) Buchbinder (R)
Flaherty (L) Morin (R)
  Tuominen (R)
G
Hensley
Leveille

(L) and (R) denotes left or right shot