'State of Hockey' scores again

Opinion editor's note: Editorials represent the opinions of the Star Tribune Editorial Board, which operates independently from the newsroom.

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Like the other five teams in the new Professional Women's Hockey League, the Minnesota franchise doesn't have a name.

But it has names, and faces, of 27 players already known for their skill and grit on the ice and their grace off of it, including nearly half of the roster claiming Minnesota ties. Players including former Gophers and Olympians Kelly Pannek and Lee Stecklein, as well as the league's overall first draft pick, Taylor Heise, a former Gopher and current U.S. National Team member who's likely to lace 'em up in the 2026 Olympics.

Those and other North Star State players will be joined by teammates from the U.S., Canada, Finland and the Czech Republic, reflecting an international talent pool of many of the world's star players. It's a constellation made possible by the end of rival leagues (including the Premiere Hockey Federation, in which the former Minnesota Whitecaps played) and the beginning of the new league backed by billionaire Mark Walter, whose investment in sports franchises includes a controlling interest in the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Like the NHL's "Original Six," the six PWHL teams were selected in part because of their geographic proximity, with squads in Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, Boston and New York. Minnesota overcame its place on the map by being a, if not the, place for hockey in the U.S. and Canada, and thus will take the ice in its inaugural PWHL game at Boston on Wednesday night before its home opener at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul on Saturday. All games will be televised on Bally Sports North.

"Everybody loves hockey in Minnesota, and to be part of Team Minnesota is an honor," Amanda Leveille, one of the franchise's goalies, told an editorial writer. Leveille, who won three national championships with the University of Minnesota Gophers and two PHF championships (including one with the Whitecaps), grew up playing in Kingston, Ontario. Hockey's "the sport that everybody talks about in Canada, but I don't think there's any other place in North America where there's so many people invested in and enjoying the sport" as in Minnesota, she said.

Leveille emphasized the training opportunities for girls and young women — efforts she and several others take part in — that make Minnesota "a perfect market for very young girls to be able to develop into better hockey players." With six Division I and 10 Division III teams in the state — and now a PWHL team — there are several levels for girls to aspire to.

Which they seem to be doing, in extraordinary numbers. In fact, according to an analysis compiled by Minnesota Hockey (the governing body of youth and amateur hockey), on the youth level last season the state led the nation with 13,390 registered players, including 20% of all those aged 8 and under. On the collegiate level, 21% of total Division I players (a third of the Americans on Division I rosters) were Minnesotans, and the state had the most Division III players, with 327 competing. In the new PWHL, the 11 Minnesotans selected in the inaugural draft (others signed as free agents) represented 38% of the Americans selected.

Much of this is credited to the community-based hockey model, which is unique compared to other states like Michigan and Massachusetts. And much can be credited to players like Leveille and her former and current teammates, almost all of whom volunteer their time to encourage and mentor Minnesota girls involved in the state's official sport.

Glen Andresen, the team's director of business operations, formerly led Minnesota Hockey and helped honor and hone the state's unique and admirable hockey model. With a nod to the impact the Whitecaps already had on hockey in Minnesota, Andresen told an editorial writer that "with all the best players in the world coming together in this league, and Minnesota having a team, it's just a cherry on top for all of these young female hockey players in the state, whether they're 6 years old or 16 or 22."

Someday, some of those young players may in fact skate for the Minnesota franchise, which eventually will have a nickname. For now, however, our new PWHL squad will play in jerseys that just say "Minnesota" — although when it comes to hockey, perhaps that says it all already.