With the recent announcement that the NHL will be permitted to participate in the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina, Italy, it’s brought to question what players from PWHL Minnesota will be invited to partake on the women’s side. Eight of their players have participated in past Olympics, and combined, they have five gold medals, seven silvers, and two bronzes.
While past Olympians will likely make the roster again, they also have a player who could be a first-timer. PWHL Minnesota is stacked with talent from all areas of the game, and in this article, we’ll look at who could be on the rosters for the 2026 Olympics. It is still two years away, so things can change and players age, but we’ll look at Team USA first.
Team USA
Most of PWHL Minnesota is made of players from the United States, with a good chunk of them hailing from Minnesota. We’ll get to the Minnesotans in a minute. First, we’ll start with their beloved captain, Kendall Coyne Schofield who’s from Illinois. She’s been in three Olympics, winning a gold and two silvers. Plus, in 2022, she was captain of Team USA. When 2026 rolls around, she’ll be 33 years old, but as long as her play doesn’t slow down, which it shows no signs of that, she’ll be on the roster again.
Coyne Schofield has become one of the poster women for the PWHL and is known for her time on the Olympic teams. She’s played in nine games so far this season and has three goals, one assist for four points, and 27 shots on goal. She’s not afraid to shoot the puck, and in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, she played in seven games and registered three goals and three assists for six points. She’s a great leader and overall player and would be a great addition to Team USA.
Next up is Kelly Pannek, who has a gold and silver medal on her resume and has plenty of time to add more. She is more of a passer than a shooter; in nine games this season, she has one goal and six assists for seven points on just 11 shots. She tied Coyne Schofield in the 2022 Olympics with six points; however, she had two goals and four assists to make up those points.
While Grace Zumwinkle has already started to make a name for herself in the PWHL, she’s also been through an Olympic ceremony. She won silver with Team USA in the 2022 Winter Olympics alongside many of her current PWHL Minnesota teammates. She played in all seven games in 2022 but recorded just a single assist for one point. Her offense has clearly improved in the two years since those games. This season, she’s played in nine games and has six goals plus two assists for eight points off 35 shots.
If Zumwinkle’s offense can keep heading in the direction it’s trending, in two more years, when the Olympics roll around, she may be a scoring machine and earn a roster spot on Team USA. Another player who has been racking up the points is her defensive teammate Lee Stecklein, a past Olympian.
Like Coyne Schofield, Stecklein is a three-time Olympian, winning a gold and two silvers in her time competing. She’s an offensive defenseman who is great at setting up her teammates. This season, she’s played nine games and has tallied one goal plus five assists for six points. During her most recent Olympics in 2022, she registered one goal that also turned out to be the game-winner in their 4-1 victory over Czechia. Hopefully, she’ll be able to continue to set up teammates for Team USA if she earns a roster spot for 2026.
The final two members who’ve been Olympians in the past for PWHL Minnesota and will likely land the spot again are goaltenders. The first is Nicole Hensley, who’s started most PWHL Minnesota games. She’s played in six games and has a record of 4-2 with a save percentage (SV%) of .934 and a goals-against average (GAA) of 1.98. As far as the Olympics go, in 2022, she played in one game, which turned out to be a shutout win over the Russian Olympic Committee.
Maddie Rooney is the other goaltender on the PWHL roster who’s a past Olympian and could be again. This season, she’s played in three games and has earned a record of one win in a shootout and two overtime losses with a .897 SV% and a 2.28 GAA. Her most recent stint in the Olympics wasn’t the greatest, as she played in just one game, but it was a win. She became well-known in the 2018 Olympics when she helped Team USA win gold. She played in four games and went 2-1-1 with a .945 SV% and a 1.16 GAA. Hopefully, she can muster some of that gold-winning play, and she’ll again have a chance to win gold.
Securing a goaltending spot on any roster is difficult, and the Olympics are no different. There are usually only two spots available, and many try out, so it’ll be interesting to see who gets those spots for Team USA. While they’ve been teammates on Team USA in the past and are currently teammates on PWHL Minnesota, they may compete for a roster spot in the future.
Team Finland
PWHL Minnesota has just one Finnish player on their entire roster, and she’s a three-time Olympian hoping to be a fourth. Susanna Tapani has played in nine games this season and registered two goals and three assists for five points. She has won two bronze medals with Team Finland in the past, and in her most recent appearance, she played in seven games and had six goals plus two assists for eight points.
Team Finland couldn’t get past Team USA or Team Canada in the past couple of Olympics, but their team continued to grow stronger as the years went on. It’ll be interesting to see what happens in 2026, but surely, Tapani will be a part of that roster.
Team Czechia
The final team on our list with a former Olympian is Team Czechia with Denisa Křížová who has been an Olympian just once with no medals yet. Again, like Finland, their team has been improving over time and will hopefully continue to improve each year. This season with PWHL Minnesota, she’s played nine games and recorded two assists for two points.
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During her time in the Olympics, she played in five games and tallied two goals and two assists for four points. Hopefully, her scoring talents will show a little more this season and continue into 2026, where she can show her skills on the national stage.
2026 Olympic Hopefuls
While the list above is for players likely to be on Olympic rosters in 2026 as they have been on rosters in the past, there’s one more player who isn’t guaranteed a roster spot but should be considered. That player would be on Team USA, and it has to be Taylor Heise. With her talent this season, it’s hard to believe she wasn’t on an Olympic roster before. However, Team USA has been full of talent over the years.
Roster spots are hard to come by on every team, and there may be a player or two that is a complete surprise in 2026, but these players should definitely be Olympians once again or, in Heise’s case, first-timers who will just be getting started. Two years may seem like a long time right now, but it’ll move faster than everyone expects, and it’ll be fun to see who makes their country’s respective rosters.
Olympic stats courtesy of IIHF.com