- Kendall Coyne Schofield re-signed with the Minnesota Frost on a two-year contract Monday
- The captain sat unsigned all summer and was left unprotected in June’s expansion process
- Read below for what her return does to Minnesota’s championship core
Kendall Coyne Schofield is not taking a year off.
The Minnesota Frost re-signed their captain Monday on a two-year contract that runs through the 2027-28 season. She had been unsigned since the spring, long enough that a gap year looked like a real possibility for the 34-year-old.
Coyne Schofield spoke about the decision in the team’s release, and she went straight to the trophy Minnesota lost last spring:
“My first three seasons in Minnesota have been unforgettable for my family and me. We’re thrilled to be back for the next two seasons and can’t wait to return for Season Four. I’m ready to put in the work to bring the Walter Cup back to Minnesota.”
There was real reason to wonder. The Frost left her unprotected through the PWHL’s expansion process in June, as John Wawrow of The Associated Press laid out, and she was coming off an Olympic winter that ended with a gold medal and an upper-body injury.
That February gold in Milan-Cortina was her second, and the fourth Olympics of her career:
Seven games disappeared from her season because of that injury. She still finished with 12 goals and 23 points in 23 appearances.
Her 63 career PWHL points (30 goals, 33 assists) in 77 regular-season games rank third on the league’s all-time list. Add 10 more in 23 playoff games and two Walter Cups.
Daily Faceoff’s Tyler Kuehl left her off his top 25 players for 2026-27, and only because of the empty contract line. Kuehl wrote that Coyne Schofield would “easily be on this list” if she were signed. She is now.
Minnesota keeps its entire leadership group intact for a fourth season, with alternate captains Lee Stecklein and Kelly Pannek still flanking her. The Frost have 17 players under contract, eight of them holdovers from the back-to-back title teams of 2024 and 2025.
Last season stopped a game short of the final. Minnesota finished third in the standings and lost Game 5 of its semifinal to Montreal, and the Victoire went on to win it all before temporarily losing track of the trophy this summer.
Coyne Schofield helped negotiate this league into existence in the summer of 2023, then became one of the first three players Minnesota ever signed. Three years later the Palos Heights, Illinois native gets two more cracks at the Walter Cup.
