Minnesota takes Heise first overall in PWHL draft
If Minnesota regards itself as the State of Hockey, the Twin Cities’ Professional Women’s Hockey League franchise will feature plenty of homegrown players, including Taylor Heise.
The 2022 women’s college hockey player of the year, who played for the Golden Gophers and grew up 75 miles from Minneapolis, is staying home after the yet-to-be-named Minnesota franchise used the No. 1 pick to select Heise in the newly launched league’s inaugural draft on Monday.
“It’s an unreal feeling,” the 23-year-old Heise said. “It’s my home. Everyone I love is there. And it’s the State of Hockey. I’m just honored that I’m going to be able to play and to show little girls that anything is possible if you keep working hard.”
Heise heard her named called by tennis legend Billie Jean King, a member of the league’s board of directors in opening the PWHL’s 15-round draft held in Toronto.
Heise joins a franchise whose general manager, former U.S. national team player Natalie Darwitz, is from Minnesota, and who had already signed fellow Minnesotans Kelly Pannek and Lee Stecklein in the pre-draft free agency period.
Darwitz then dipped into the state’s deep depth of talent by using seven of 15 picks on Minnesotans. She used her final pick, 85th overall, to draft Sydney Brodt, who played for the now-defunct Premier Hockey Federation Minnesota Whitecaps and is related to Whitecaps founder Jack Brodt.
Toronto selected veteran Canadian defender Jocelyne Larocque second, and Boston took Swiss center Alina Muller third. Muller was the only non-North American player picked in the first three rounds. Muller gets to stay in Boston after spending her college career at Northeastern.
New York used the fourth pick to select Canadian national team defender Ella Shelton. Ottawa reached across the border to draft U.S. national team defender Savannah Harmon at No. 5. And Montreal rounded out the first round by choosing Team Canada defender Erin Ambrose.
New York general manager Pascal Daoust consulted with his three signed players — Abby Roque, Alex Carpenter and Micah Zandee-Hart — on who to target in the draft. Their feedback led to him to selecting Shelton and fellow Canadian defender Jaime Bourbonnais.
“(I was) asking them, ‘Who would you like to play with?’ And most importantly, ‘Who you don’t want to play against,'” Daoust said. “I was trying to build something.”
Harmon is from Illinois, but eager to head to Ottawa, where she represented the U.S. in a Rivalry Series game against Canada.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to play a game in a U.S. jersey against Team Canada but the atmosphere was incredible, the rink was incredible, the fans were incredible,” Harmon said.
Overall, 47 Canadians and 28 Americans were chosen, plus two players who hold dual citizenship, which reflects the talent pool of the sport’s two global powers. Five members of the fast-rising Czech Republic national team were also selected.
Sweden, Finland, France and Germany also had players drafted to a league bringing together the world’s top female players and set to begin play in January.
The PWHL is financially backed by Los Angeles Dodgers owner Mark Walter, who in late June bought out the rival seven-team PHF to clear the way for one North American women’s league. Walter was brought in by the Professional Women’s Hockey Players’ Association as part of its membership’s vision to establish a league with a sustainable economic model and paid fair wages.
The PWHPA, made up of a majority of U.S. and Canadian national team members, had 25 players drafted, with another 18 already signed in free agency. The PHF had 32 former players selected, led by Czech Republic defender Dominika Laskova going 19th overall to Montreal.
In Boston, GM Danielle Marmer was anticipating Heise to be the No. 1 pick, and was pleased Muller was available at No. 3. Boston followed up by selecting Ohio State’s Sophie Jacques, this season’s Patty Kazmaier Award winner as college hockey’s top female player.
The two join a roster that already features established U.S. national team players Hilary Knight, Megan Keller and Aerin Frankel, who were Boston’s three pre-draft free agent signings.
“We wanted someone who is young, who’s dynamic, who could play in the middle. And the career that she’s had so far is pretty incredible,” Marmer said of Muller. “We wanted to target goal scorers early in this draft, especially natural goal scorers. And I think we did a really good job of that.”
Heise is coming off her fifth and final year at the University of Minnesota, where she was a first-team all-American after leading the NCAA in goals with 30. She was second in points with 67, and tied for third in assists with 37, in 39 games for the Gophers.
At the international level, the 5-foot-9, 160-pound Heise was named best forward and tournament MVP at the 2022 world championships, leading all players in goals with seven and points with 18.
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Adam Rittenberg
The Nebraska–Tennessee football home-and-home football series scheduled for 2026 and 2027 will not be played after Nebraska opted out of the agreement.
Tennessee athletic director Danny White posted on X that Nebraska called off the series and added that Tennessee is “very disappointed” by the cancellation, especially so close to the initial game in 2026. The teams had been set to play in 2026 at Nebraska and at Tennessee the following year.
In a statement, Nebraska athletic director Troy Dannen explained renovations to the team’s stadium, which will temporarily lower seating capacity, ultimately led to the decision.
“We are making plans to embark on major renovations of Memorial Stadium that may impact our seating capacity for the 2027 season,” Dannen said. “The best scenario for us is to have eight home games in 2027 to offset any potential revenue loss from a reduced capacity. The additional home games will also have a tremendous economic benefit on the Lincoln community.”
The Cornhuskers announced they will host Bowling Green in 2026 and Miami (Ohio) in 2027 on the dates when it was originally set to play Tennessee. Nebraska has never faced either school. The team will play eight homes in 2027 for the first time since 2013.
The cancellation ends a nearly two-decade process around a Nebraska-Tennessee series, which was originally agreed upon in 2006 and set for the 2016 and 2017 seasons. In 2013, the two schools agreed to delay the games for a decade. Nebraska will pay $500,000 to get out of the scheduling agreement.
White told Volquest that the “buyout implications need to be much steeper” with an “old contract,” and the cancellation puts Tennessee in a bind. Tennessee, which opens the 2025 season against Syracuse in Atlanta, had its nonleague schedule set through the 2030 season. The school either must find an opponent who can fill the 2026 and 2027 dates for a home-and-home series, or explore neutral-site options.
“You really can’t pull an audible this late in the game,” White told Volquest.
Nebraska’s stadium renovation, the first phase of which had been set to begin after the 2024 season, has been delayed until after the 2025 season, at the earliest.
Tennessee and Nebraska have played only three times before, most recently in the 2016 Music City Bowl, won by the Vols. Nebraska beat Tennessee in the 1998 Orange Bowl to secure a share of the national title that season.
Tennessee has been on the other side of a similar situation. The Vols in 2021 canceled a game against Army for the next season in 2022 and added Akron instead.
Information from ESPN’s Chris Low was used in this report.
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Jorge Castillo
TAMPA, Fla. — The New York Yankees‘ facial hair and grooming policy, an infamous edict in place for nearly 50 years, was formally amended for the first time Friday.
In a statement, Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner said the organization will allow “well-groomed beards” effective immediately, changing a rule his father, George, established in 1976.
“In recent weeks I have spoken to a large number of former and current Yankees — spanning several eras — to elicit their perspectives on our longstanding facial hair and grooming policy, and I appreciate their earnest and varied feedback,” Hal Steinbrenner said in the statement. “These most recent conversations are an extension of ongoing internal dialogue that dates back several years.
“Ultimately the final decision rests with me, and after great consideration, we will be amending our expectations to allow our players and uniformed personnel to have well-groomed beards moving forward. It is the appropriate time to move beyond the familiar comfort of our former policy.”
George Steinbrenner implemented the mandate before the 1976 season, leaving players with a choice of being clean-shaven or wearing a mustache. Hal Steinbrenner kept the policy in place after becoming chairman and controlling owner of the franchise in 2008.
Players overwhelmingly obliged with the order over the next five decades, from spring training through October, often before letting themselves go during the offseason, though a few have pushed the limits.
In the 1990s, for example, star first baseman Don Mattingly was fined and benched by manager Stump Merril for refusing to trim his mullet. Four years later, Mattingly wore a goatee for part of his final season in 1995.
This year, All-Star closer Devin Williams, acquired from the Milwaukee Brewers in December, reported for his spring training physical with a beard before shaving it down to a mustache for the team’s first workout the next day. On the other end, former Yankees Gleyber Torres and Clay Holmes reported to camp with their new teams sporting full beards.
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