Two of the biggest stars on Team USA’s gold medal-winning women’s hockey team came back to the States with injuries that will keep them off the ice in the PWHL, reigning MVP Hilary Knight and Frost captain Kendall Coyne Schofield.

The Frost placed Coyne Schofield on the long-term injured reserve last Friday with an upper body injury. The move is retroactive to Feb. 19, the date on which the U.S. beat Canada, 2-1 in overtime, for its third Olympic gold medal.

Élizabeth Giguère was activated from the player reserve list to take her place on the active roster.

FILE – Minnesota Frost forward Kendall Coyne Schofield celebrates with the Walter Cup after her team won the PWHL hockey finals against the Ottawa Charge, May 26, 2025, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Ellen Schmidt, File)

The timetable for Coyne Schofield’s return remains unclear, per Frost sources, and her absence was quickly felt when Minnesota returned to PWHL play with a 4-0 loss at Montreal last Sunday.

It was the first game Coyne Schofield has ever missed in two-plus seasons of PWHL play.

“Obviously, she’s a great player and a great leader for us, but we have a lot of good players,” Frost coach Ken Klee said. “So, for us it’s (about) opportunities for other players to get in there. Obviously, Sunday wasn’t our best game, but we’re looking to build, get going, find our game back and move forward.”

Knight has a lower body injury, as does Montreal’s Erin Ambrose, the third PWHL Olympian on LTIR, an injury suffered while she was playing for Team Canada.

Coyne Schofield has the second-most goals in the PWHL this season with 10, leads the league in points per game with 1.07 and is still tied for the most points with 16.

“She has a skillset that you really can’t replace,” Frost veteran Kelly Pannek. “I don’t think you can replace anyone’s skill set on our team, but hers is just so unique that she just opens up so much space on the ice with her speed and her threat to get behind (the defense).”

The Frost are set to resume action Sunday at Toronto with an 11 a.m. puck drop. With his captain out, Klee is looking for ways to tweak his lines and kickstart some offense, and he still has a cache of talented forwards that includes Olympians Pannek, Britta Curl-Salemme, Taylor Heise and Grace Zumwinkle.

“The lines were different today than they were last week, and during the season, I’ve already changed multiple times,” said Klee, whose team won the PWHL’s first two championships and currently sits in third in the eight-team league. “So, we just kind of keep it fresh that way. If you’re playing the right way, it doesn’t matter who you’re playing with. You just play the right way.”

Including all-everything blue liner Lee Stecklein, the Frost returned a league-high six gold medalists from the Milan Cortina Games.

“On the ice, it’s an adjustment, and in the locker room you’re definitely missing (Coyne Schofield’s) leadership,” Pannek said. “But we also have a lot of great leaders in this room that are pulling the rope and helping lead this team to where we want to be.”

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