Caruso named GM of PWHL's Minnesota franchise

The Skilled Ladies’s Hockey League on Tuesday introduced the hiring of AHL govt Melissa Caruso to take over as normal supervisor of its Minnesota franchise and shore up a workforce that handled a number of crises within the weeks after successful the league’s inaugural championship.

From St. Paul, Minnesota, Caruso spent 15 years with the American Hockey League, together with the previous six as vice chairman of hockey operations and governance. She was liable for overseeing the league’s schedule, participant registry and bylaws, whereas working with the board of governors.

“Her robust background in operations and governance, mixed together with her intensive hockey information and management expertise, make her a terrific match for the function,” PWHL vice chairman of hockey operations Jayna Hefford stated in a PWHL launch. “Melissa’s ardour for the sport, alongside together with her ties to the local people positions her completely to guide the workforce each on and off the ice.”

The long-awaited hiring comes because the PWHL prepares to open its second season in December.

PWHL Minnesota has introduced Melissa Caruso as Basic Supervisor.

Caruso joins Minnesota from the AHL, the place she spent 15 years.
📰 https://t.co/CXdS2GdSQV pic.twitter.com/IuuH2Ukczh

— PWHL Minnesota (@PWHL_Minnesota) September 3, 2024

Caruso replaces former U.S. Olympian Natalie Darwitz, who was removed by the league in June following a monthslong assessment and mere weeks after Minnesota clinched the Walter Cup in a decisive fifth game. Hefford didn’t reveal the findings of the league’s assessment, which included enter from gamers, employees and workforce companions, in saying the suggestions confirmed a change was required.

The troubles in Minnesota did not finish there with coach Ken Klee overseeing personnel selections and the draft on an interim foundation.

On the draft on June 10, Klee was questioned for utilizing a second-round decide to pick Britta Curl, who had drawn criticism from the ladies’s hockey and LGBTQIA+ communities for supporting anti-trans messaging on social media. Klee defended the choice to pick the two-year Wisconsin captain by saying he spoke to quite a few coaches and gamers who knew Curl.

Curl issued an apology to followers in a video posted on social media 5 days later in saying she took possession for her actions and added: “I’ve discovered a lot by this, and I am seeing it as a chance to develop in humility and develop in love.”

In a separate improvement, the PWHL launched an investigation into Klee after allegations surfaced of bullying workforce employees. The league has not supplied any updates of its investigation, with Klee scheduled to return as coach for a second season.

The previous NHL participant and former ladies’s U.S. nationwide workforce coach was a late hiring as Minnesota’s coach in taking on every week earlier than the beginning of the season after Charlie Burggraf cited household causes in his resolution to step down in late December.

Caruso issued a press release and is scheduled to handle the media on Wednesday.

“It is an thrilling time for girls’s sports activities, and I thank management for trusting me with the chance to guide PWHL Minnesota throughout these essential adolescence for the league,” she stated. “I am unable to wait to get began on the journey to defend the Walter Cup in Season Two.”

Caruso takes over a workforce led by a core of present and former high-profile U.S. nationwide workforce gamers, together with Kendall Coyne Schofield, Kelly Pannek, Taylor Heise and Lee Stecklein.

Caruso graduated from Springfield School with a level in sport administration in 2009, instantly joined the AHL as a enterprise providers coordinator and steadily moved up the ranks in varied roles.

AHL President Scott Howson stated Caruso was the mastermind behind scheduling whereas additionally dealing with the board of governors, collective bargaining issues and different facets of hockey operations akin to central registry throughout her decade and a half with the league.

“She actually grew into an actual helpful function, and we’re simply thrilled that she’s acquired this chance with Minnesota,” Howson advised The Related Press by cellphone Tuesday. “She’s studious, a fast learner, she’s detailed, so she’s going to do rather well. And the thrilling half for the PWHL is they don’t seem to be solely going to get a normal supervisor, however they are going to get someone that is helped run a league for the final 15 years. They’re within the infancy of their league, and he or she’ll convey a number of institutional information, concepts, processes, procedures to that league. She’ll be a useful resource for the league, after which clearly she’ll assist on the membership stage, as effectively.”