The second annual PWHL Draft was held in St. Paul, Minnesota, the home of the first-ever Walter Cup champions, on Monday evening, June 10th. Right after PWHL Minnesota announced that general manager Natalie Darwitz was told she would not return as general manager.
That left head coach Ken Klee and his staff to take over command of the draft table, and they made some surprising decisions that included not picking a single Minnesota native for their hometown team plus the player who was a standout performer during the season and postseason but had to re-enter the draft, Abby Boreen was left off Minnesota’s list. Instead she was selected by PWHL Montréal. However, they did snag some strong, sizable picks, and we’ll start with their first-rounder, Claire Thompson.
PWHL Minnesota had a strong defensive core last season, and they looked to strengthen that by choosing Thompson third overall, following highly touted Sarah Fillier, who went to PWHL New York, and then Danielle Serdachny for PWHL Ottawa. Then came Thompson, who didn’t play last year due to attending medical school but will be fully available this upcoming season.
“It was a really difficult decision. I love medical school, and it’s been a long-time dream of mine to become a doctor, but my sights have been set on continuing to play professional hockey during this period of my life, so my goal had been to be able to do both but obviously that wasn’t possible this past year, and when I realized it wasn’t possible this past fall, I was thinking about just what I can do and it was kind of a pretty clear decision after talking to my family that this was something I still wanted to be a part of and after that, the decision was pretty clear to enter for the draft and hope to be a part of this upcoming season,” said Thompson in her post-draft media session.
“I mean, we had talked about it, and kind of went through who we thought was gonna be available, and then yeah, she was, in our opinion, the best player after the first two picks were made. The best player available was Claire Thompson for us, and obviously, we already have four d under contract, and they’re all really great players, but to have a player of her quality, her caliber. She’s got a pedigree playing in the Olympics, she’s mature, she’s big, she can play, I mean she plays in an offensive situation, obviously that’s an area we’d like to improve with our team is having a little more offense, I mean a lot of teams would but I think that was an area that we definitely addressed and I think she brings that for us,” said Klee about their first-round pick.
She’s a confident player who will be a welcome addition to PWHL Minnesota’s defensive core, especially with her ability to jump in offensively, as Klee said. Their defense was solid in the main part of their game, but it’s great to have someone who can do both.
The news of Darwitz’s departure didn’t disappear with the start of the draft, as evidenced by several PWHL Minnesota fans in the crowd booing and waving signs that said, “Currently in my bring back Natalie Darwitz era” and “Klee is not Kenough.” While Klee got through the draft in place of Darwitz, the offseason path has not yet been ironed out.
Will he be part of offseason signings? Is he going to continue to make general manager decisions?
“Those are items we’re still kind of working through, to be honest with you, but I have a meeting tomorrow. My first task was would I be able to step in and manage the draft for Minnesota and with Mira (Jalosuo) and Sam’s (Hanson) help; my question was absolutely, we’ll be able to do it, and we’ll be ready and we’ll be happy at the end so moving forward we’ll see how all that shakes out…” said Klee in the post-draft media availability when asked about what he’ll be helping with during the offseason.
PWHL Minnesota has one off-season task finished in the draft, but they still have free agency and other items to check off their list to prepare for next season. Will Klee be a part of any of those signings? Do they have an idea who they want for the general manager? What kind of timeline are they on? Fans are still looking for answers to all of these questions, and hopefully, some will become clear now that the draft is finished.
