Minnesota Gophers Women’s Hockey Season Preview: The Players

The Minnesota Golden Gophers Women’s Hockey team kicks off the 2025-26 season Thursday night with a non-conference series against the Boston College Eagles at Ridder Arena. Minnesota will look to build on last year’s Frozen Four run and see if they can get over the hump and find a way to get past Wisconsin or Ohio State and get back on top. Minnesota will have 14 players returning from last year’s squad, and will add ten new faces split between freshman and transfer portal additions. Almost all of them will play a role at some point this season as it is an Olympic Year. Many of the Gophers stars will miss time for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Cortina, Italy in February, and many will be in and out of the lineup in the early portion of the season with national team requirements. But the Gophers will not be the only team dealing with these issues. That’s why Brad Frost and company went out and made several key additions who will help the Gophers weather the storm of missing several of their stars. We will cover who is gone, who is back and who is new below.

So Who is Gone?

The Gophers lost a wild 13 players off of last season’s roster. Several graduated and will be playing in the PWHL later this fall, and many others hit the transfer portal looking for additional playing time. First the graduates:

Peyton Hemp F

Hemp graduated after four season with the Gophers recording 123 points in 157 career games. He scored 16 goals and added 17 assists last season. She was selected in the 4th round of the PWHL draft and will make her debut with the Ottawa Charge in November.

Ella Huber F

Huber is another offensive threat the Gophers will miss this season. In four seasons in the maroon and gold Huber recorded 140 points in 157 career games. Last year she scored 15 goals and added 33 assists. She was selected in the second round of the PWHL Draft by the Boston Fleet.

Natalie Mlynkova F

Mlynkova played one season with the Gophers after transferring in from Vermont, but she was a big part of the 24-25 squad. She recorded 34 points in 39 games a season ago for Minnesota. She was selected #12 overall in the 2nd round by the Montreal Victoire in the PWHL Draft.

Minnesota has four other players who used up their eligibility but will not be moving onto pro hockey. Goaltender Olivia King returned mid-season after a season ending injury to fellow goalie Skyler Vetter and used up her eligibility as the Gophers third goalie. Vetter hurt her knee just six games into the season in her final year of eligibility after three great seasons and ended her Minnesota career with a 47-17-5 record. Defenders Maggie Nicholson and Audrey Wethington also graduated after five seasons each for Minnesota. Wethington because the Gophers all-time leader in games played with 175 in the maroon and gold and is headed to medical school at the U with her sister Madeline who graduated in 2024.

Minnesota had six players hit the portal in the offseason. Four of the six stayed in the WCHA. A pair of defenders in senior Krista Parkkonen and sophomore Kate Kosobud just headed up I-35 an will play for Minnesota-Duluth this season. Junior defender Elly Klepinger headed to Bemidji State, sophomore forward Ayla Puppe headed to Minnesota-State Mankato. The other two Gophers headed out east to Hockey East. Junior forward Lauren O’Hara will play for Vermont this season joining former Gopher Josie Hemp who transferred to Vermont last season. Senior forward Emma Connor will be back in Ridder Arena this weekend as she transferred to the Gophers season opening opponent in Boston College for her final year of eligibility.

So Who is Back?

Minnesota returns fourteen players from last season’s roster, and one tops the list in every single way.

Abbey Murphy 5th Year F

The Gopher captain could have been the top pick in the PWHL draft but she decided to return to the U for one final season in the maroon and gold while navigating what will be a crazy season with her USA Hockey obligations. Murphy who is the player you love to have on your team and the player other coaches hate is a two-time Patty Kazmaier Top-10 Finalist and was second in the nation in goals last year with 33 and fourth in points with 65. She will be one of the best players in the country again, but will miss time as she will be on the US team in the 2026 Olympics.

Josefin Bouveng SR F

Bouveng returns for her fourth and final year as a Gopher and will be one of the top two centers once again for Minnesota. The Swede will miss time as she competes in the Olympics for her country but will look to have a bit of a bounce back senior season after she took a step back a year ago. Her sophomore year was her best as a Gopher with 19 goals and 50 points. A year ago those number slid to 33 points and just 13 goals. Minnesota would love to see her find her scoring touch again.

Nelli Laitinen SR D

Laitinen is back her her fourth season anchoring the Gopher blue line. The Finish star will be headed to the Olympics with her country but while she is with the Gophers should be in the Minnesota’s top pair of defenders. She recorded a career high in assists a season ago with 19 and Minnesota would love to see her be an even bigger offensive threat this season. She will wear a Captain’s C with Murphy just like a year ago.

Sydney Morrow SR D

The first of the Gophers stars who will not miss any time with national team obligations, Morrow really came into her own as a junior for the Gophers last year. She was named Second team All-WCHA and was a top-three finalist for WCHA Defender of the Year. She recorded 30 points her first year as a Gopher after transferring from Colgate and will be relied upon heavily this season.

Other Seniors:

Minnesota returns three other seniors to this year’s roster. The biggest name is forward Madison Kaiser who returns after playing just ten games last year before season ending shoulder surgery. She scored just two goals in those games but has been an offensive threat previously recording 17 and 19 points her first two seasons. Forward Allie Franco bounced between both forward and defense a year ago for the Gophers and scored five points in 35 games. Third goalie Sophia Johnson returns for one more spin between the pipes, but will not be expected to see much action.

Juniors:

Minnesota returns a pair of juniors, both who they hope to get even more offensive firepower from this season. Emma Kreisz was just one game away from helping her Hungary team to qualify for the Olympics, but instead she will spend the entire season in maroon and gold. She scored nine goals and added 12 assists as a sophomore a season ago playing mostly on Minnesota’s third line. Ava Linsday also returns for her third season as a Gopher after scoring a career high 27 points last year. Both will see regular shifts all season long.

Sophomores:

Minnesota returns five players who made their season debuts last year. The leader of that group is goalie Hannah Clark who stepped into the #1 role after Vetter went down with her injury. She thrived recoding a Minnesota freshman record 25 wins in 2024-25 and led the Gophers to the Frozen Four. She will be the #1 goalie again for Minnesota this season, though she may not need to take the entire load this time with a talented freshman newcomer coming to help.

Minnesota will be looking for a big sophomore leap forward from a pair of Canadian defenders in Chloe Primerano and Gracie Graham. Primerano earned All-WCHA Third Team honors and All-Rookie honors after leading all Gophers defenders in scoring with 31 points. She only scored five goals, and Brad Frost would love to see that number climb as she gets more confident on the ice. She will be in contention for a spot on the Canadian Olympic Team and will miss time ad least for training camp before she finds out if she will make the final roster or not for Italy.

Graham will play a larger role this season after getting her feet wet a year ago. She recorded 14 points in all 42 games for Minnesota last season and is expected to take a bigger leap forward this year.

Carly Humphrey saw action in six games last year on the blue line for Minnesota and will be one two or three players competing for the 6th defender spot every night. Forward Kendra Distad saw action in 26 games a season ago in 4th line duties and did not record a point on the season.

So Who is New?

Minnesota had ten newcomers on this year’s roster. That breaks down to seven freshmen and three transfers. All will be expected to play roles this year for the Gophers.

Jamie Nelson—5th Year—F

Nelson comes to the Gophers after a great four years with Minnesota State-Mankato leaving as the third highest scorer in program history. She had scored 30 points in back to back seasons with the Mavericks and scored a career high 20 goals in 2023-24. She was the WCHA Rookie of the Year in 2021 after leading the Mavericks in scoring. She will become a scoring threat who can play on the Gophers top two lines and be a playmaker.

Sarah Paul— RS-SR F

Paul comes to the Gophers from Princeton after a great season a year ago for the Tigers. After playing in just seven games her first two seasons due to injury, she bounced back in 23-24 recording 16 goals for second on the Princeton roster. Last year was even better scoring 28 goals in just 31 games and leading the nation in goals per game (.90) and power play goals (10). She becomes one of Minnesota’s best scorers immediately and should provide the Gophers with a secondary big play player besides Murphy. She has two years of eligibility remaining.

Molly Jordan—JR D

Jordan comes to the Gophers but will wear the same colors. Jordan played her first two seasons with Boston College and recorded 24 points a season ago for the Eagles. She also can play defense as she was second on Boston College’s roster a year ago with 52 blocked shots. The Connecticut native played twice on the US U-18 national team and will step in as a perfect defensive partner to Morrow, Primerano or Laitinen.

The Gophers seven freshman hail from three different countries and three different states. Neutral Zone Hockey ranks them the top freshman class in the nation.

Layla Hemp—G—Chanhassen, MN

Hemp heads to the U in a bid to be the best Hemp sister to play for the Gophers. It will be a stiff task as Peyton was a four year star for Minnesota, but Layla has had a great highschool and national team career. Hemp was named the 2025 Jori Jones Award, given to the top senior goaltender in Minnesota and was the Star Tribune Player of the year for Minnetonka. Hemp backstopped the USA U-18 team to gold in 2024. She will take some of the pressure off of Clark and hopefully give the Gophers the best goaltender tandem in both the WCHA and maybe the nation.

Olivia Kortan—F Moorhead, MN

Kortan joins the Gophers after four seasons with the Spuds. She was named to the All-State team last year and scored 23 and 22 goals the past two seasons for Moorhead.

Sydney Bailey—D—Rogers, MN

Bailey rounds out the trio of Minnesotan freshman for the Gophers. She was named All-State Honorable mention and led Rogers in points (18), assists (10), game-winning goals (2), and points per game (0.69) her senior year.

Avery Hovland—F—West Fargo, ND

Hovland played prep school hockey at the North American Hockey Academy in Braintree, Mass the last few seasons.

Sienna D’Alessandro —F—Quebec City

D’Alessandro comes in as an immediate impact offensive forward. She played for the Canadian Team in the 2023 and 2024 U-18 World Championships and Neutral Zone ranked her the #4 player in North America in the freshman class of 2025.

Bella Fanale—F— Webster, NY

Right behind D’Assessando at #5 in Neutral Zone’s rankings is Fanale. She was the captain of the Us U-18 team last season and was selected the best forward in the tournament. She also should be an instant impact player and see top three line minutes.

Tereza Plosova—F—Czech Republic

Plosova turned heads at the U-18 World Championships in 2024 posting one goal and eight assists in six games. She played in the Swedish professional league last season and comes in potentially one of the most ready freshman to make an impact for the Gophers. Minnesota will miss her when she is playing in the Olympics for Czechia.

This Gopher team has reloaded and is ready to make another run at a NCAA Championship next spring. Part two of our preview looking at the season and their opponents will drop later this afternoon.