TORONTO, ON (September 6, 2023) – The Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) today announced the first three players to sign free agent contracts with the league’s Minnesota franchise are forwards Kendall Coyne Schofield, Kelly Pannek, and defender Lee Stecklein. The trio of U.S. Olympians have all agreed to terms on three-year deals for the 2023-24, 2024-25, and 2025-26 PWHL seasons. Salary terms will not be disclosed, as per the PWHL Players’ Association.
“With the signing of three of the top players in the world, Minnesota cements its foundation as a team built on excellence,” said Natalie Darwitz, General Manager of PWHL Minnesota.
“Kendall, Lee, and Kelly’s world-class hockey skills and leadership qualities embody the level of excellence that the culture of Minnesota will be built on. We are thrilled they are the first three players to join Minnesota as we build a championship team.”
Natalie Darwitz GM PWHL Minnesota
Kendall Coyne Schofield
Joins PWHL Minnesota as one of hockey’s all-time great leaders, both on and off the ice. The speedy forward has served as Team USA’s captain since 2019 and representing her country has compiled three Olympic medals (1 Gold, 2 Silver), nine IIHF Women’s World Championship medals (6 Gold, 3 Silver), and several additional IIHF medals at the senior, U22, and U18 level.
The 31-year-old native of Palos Heights, IL had a prolific NCAA career at Northeastern University where she notably won the prestigious Patty Kazmaier Award as a senior and Huskies’ captain in 2016 after being a top-10 finalist in 2013 and 2015.
Coyne Schofield played one season with the PHF’s Minnesota Whitecaps in 2018-19 and won the Isobel Cup.
She became a founder of the PWHPA and played three seasons from 2019-21 and 2022-23 and served as President from 2019-23 leading into the formation of the PWHLPA.
“Signing this contract is a reflection of so many people who have worked tirelessly to make this dream a reality,” said Coyne Schofield.
“I’d like to thank Mark and Kimbra Walter and Billie Jean King and Ilana Kloss for embracing this endeavor and building a league alongside the vision of the players. This is monumental, and it is only the beginning.”
Kendall Coyne Schofield
“Minnesota is elated to welcome Kendall to the team,” said Darwitz.
“Kendall is one of the premier faces of women’s hockey and was a catalyst for the creation of the Professional Women’s Hockey League.
Kendall has already distinguished herself as a highly accomplished player and will have a tremendous impact on the team. She is a speedy, energetic, and dynamic two-way forward. We warmly welcome Kendall and her family to Minnesota!”
Kelly Pannek
Hails from Plymouth, MN and joins her home-state PWHL Minnesota team.
She is a two-time Olympic medalist (1 Gold, 1 Silver) and five-time World Championship medalist (3 Gold, 2 Silver) with Team USA, and has experience donning the red, white, and blue sweater at the U18 and U22 level where she helped her team achieve podium finishes.
The 27-year-old played her NCAA career at the University of Minnesota from 2014-17 and returned for a senior season in 2018-19 following the 2018 Winter Olympics. Along with back-to-back National Championships (2015, 2016), Pannek led the nation in scoring and was a First-Team All-American and a Patty Kazmaier Award top-10 finalist in 2016-17.
She joined the PWHPA upon graduation and played the 2019-21 seasons and the 2022-23 campaign after the 2022 Olympic break.
“I could not be more excited to be a part of this new era of women’s professional hockey in Minnesota,” said Pannek. “I have always taken great pride in representing the State of Hockey throughout every stage of my career, and to do it now as a pro is a dream come true. I can’t wait to get to work as a part of this organization to hopefully bring home more trophies to Minnesota!”
Kelly Pannek
Lee Stecklein
She is no stranger to the State of Hockey as a Roseville, MN native who played with Pannek at the University of Minnesota and with Coyne Schofield on the Minnesota Whitecaps over the course of her career.
A fixture on the Team USA blue line since joining the U18 program in 2010, the 29-year-old is a three-time Olympic medalist (1 Gold, 2 Silver) and eight-time World Championship medalist (6 Gold, 2 Silver), and has collected hardware in several other international tournaments.
Stecklein’s collegiate career featured three National Championships and two seasons as Golden Gophers captain as a junior and a senior.
As a member of the PHF’s expansion Whitecaps, she famously scored the overtime goal to secure an Isobel Cup title.
Stecklein then played in the PWHPA from 2019-21 and, upon her return from the 2022 Olympic break, won the Top Defender award in the 2022-23 season.
“I am honored to be part of the first wave of players to sign officially with the PWHL, and I am thrilled by the opportunity to continue my career in Minnesota,” said Stecklein. “Thank you to the women who stood united over these years and those who worked daily to make this league a reality!”
Lee Stecklein
“Minnesota extends a warm and enthusiastic welcome to Lee,” said Darwitz. “Lee is a two-way, highly respected defender whose experience and skill set will be a great addition to the team. Lee’s positive influence extends from the locker room to throughout the Minnesota hockey community. We are fortunate to sign a player of Lee’s caliber to our team.”
The PWHL player selection process officially opened on September 1 with an initial free agency period that continues through Sept. 10. Teams are permitted to sign three players to Standard Player Agreements during this time. The 2023 PWHL Draft is scheduled for Sept. 18 where Minnesota holds the first overall pick.
BEIJING (AP) — Speaking less than 24 hours apart over the final two days of the women’s Olympic hockey tournament, the two captains’ messages were emphatic, emotional and similar in their desire to grow the sport.
Kendall Coyne Schofield choked back tears following the United States’ gold-medal loss to Canada at the Beijing Games by saying: “We need to continue to push for visibility. We need to continue to fight for women’s hockey because (the status quo) is not good enough. It can’t end after the Olympic Games.”
Switzerland’s Lara Stalder voiced a similar theme directed at her nation’s hockey federation after losing the bronze-medal game to Finland.
“My message is to build a league in Switzerland. Make the best league in Europe,” Stalder said, noting she and 13 of her teammates play professionally in other countries.
“Obviously, there should be one league, like the NHL, for all of us to compete against the best players,” she added, suggesting Swiss league men’s teams should consider sponsoring women’s teams. “But I think we’re far away from that in Switzerland, and that needs to change.”
Another Olympic tournament is over, and little appears to have changed. Canada and the United States met in the final for the sixth time in seven Winter Games, and the issue of how to improve the sport globally remains.
At a time when everyone agrees changes are required, there’s little concrete consensus on what needs to be done other than private or public entities making larger investments.
Such is the case in North America, where there are few signs of a thaw between the continent’s only pro women’s hockey league, the recently renamed Premier Hockey Federation, and the Professional Women’s Hockey Players’ Association, whose membership is largely made up of U.S. and Canadian national team players.
Based on player responses, the PHF remains mostly off their radar despite the league announcing last month it is expanding from six to eight teams and more than doubling the salary cap for each team from $300,000 this year to $750,000 for next season.
In one breath, Canada forward Brianne Jenner said: “That’s a really exciting thing, and I think we want to see the success of that league.”
In the next breath, however, she added: “But we also want to see something that is going to stand the test of time.”
”We have to make women’s hockey a priority.”
Asked who needs to come to the table if it’s not the PHF, Jenner said: “That’s a good question.”
The NHL was supposed to be that entity, before it backed off after the coronavirus pandemic blew a major hole in its budget.
American star Hilary Knight essentially shut the door on the PHF by reiterating the PWHPA’s mission statement to establish a player-driven league with a sustainable economic model.
The responses are a setback for the PHF, which has spent the past two years restructuring its governing model by bringing in private ownership groups. The league hoped its decision to invest $25 million over the next three years to increase salaries, provide health care and improve facilities would help lure the PWHPA members into joining.
If there was a bright side in Beijing, criticism that the world was falling behind the U.S. and Canada after several lopsided wins seemed premature.
The Americans briefly trailed the Czech Republic before pulling out a 4-1 win in the quarterfinals. Canada, meantime, was on its heels in allowing the Swiss to cut their lead to 5-2 before rallying to an eventual 10-3 win in the semifinals.
What became evident was the U.S. and Canada benefitting in the early stages after spending the previous four months playing and practicing together. Most of the other nations didn’t have that advantage. Their players didn’t have much time to be together because they have professional commitments and had to deal with COVID-19 travel restrictions. They used the preliminary round games to find their chemistry.
The Beijing Games were the first of seven Olympic women’s hockey tournaments in which every team registered a win, and with the field expanded from eight to 10 teams.
At the International Ice Hockey Federation level, newly elected president Luc Tardif attempted to fix a credibility gap, with the governing body criticized for favoring the men’s game over women. The latest example came a few months ago, when the IIHF canceled the Under-18 women’s tournament for COVID-19 reasons while pressing ahead with its men’s world junior championship.
The world juniors were eventually stopped a few days into the tournament because of COVID-19, and have been rescheduled for August. The Under-18 women’s tournament will also be rescheduled this year.
Tardif noted the IIHF added $5.4 million to its women’s hockey budget to increase its prize purse for players in both the qualifying tournaments and Olympics.
“I’m not the guy who doesn’t believe in women’s hockey. I think Zsuzsanna by my side, she’s always there to remind me, but she doesn’t have to push me a lot,” Tardif said, referring to women’s tournament organizer Zsuzsanna Kolbenheyer. “I’m convinced, and I believe in women’s hockey.”
Tardif spoke at a news conference originally scheduled to start at 10 a.m., two hours before the women’s gold-medal final. The news conference was moved to 9 a.m. after the IIHF realized it could conflict with the game.
Stalder shook her head in dismay when informed of the potential scheduling conflict.
“Find your answer yourself in that,” Stalder said, sarcastically. ”We have to make women’s hockey a priority.”
___
AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno contributed to this report.
