In a shocking turn of events reported first by The Athletic’s Hailey Salvian and Michael Russo, PWHL Minnesota general manager Natalie Darwitz is leaving the team. After helping lead her team to the first-ever Walter Cup, it appears she won’t be returning to defend it. According to the article from Salvian and Russo, Darwitz was informed she would not return as general manager and was offered other jobs in the league (from ‘Natalie Darwitz out as GM of PWHL Minnesota, per sources: It’s pretty shocking,’ The Athletic, 06/07/2024.)
For someone who helped shape this team, it’s hard to believe that a week after exit interviews, she won’t be coming back. PWHL Minnesota must have already had plans in place to do this so close to the draft, and replacing someone with Darwitz’s hockey knowledge is going to be difficult.
She’s part of hockey royalty in Minnesota; when you think about women’s hockey, she’s one of the first names you think of. She was part of the team that drafted Taylor Heise first overall, and Heise went on to be the Ilana Kloss MVP award winner and a great fit for PWHL Minnesota. She helped build this team piece by piece, including the Susana Tapani trade for Sophie Jaques, who was pivotal in the postseason and she also was a part of bringing in undrafted goaltender Maddie Rooney, who was a hero against PWHL Toronto.
Also, according to Salvian and Russo, she wasn’t a regular general manager; she helped with everything, including “Besides building it from the bottom and setting everything up and drafting and signing the players that led us to a championship, she spent hours and hours doing everything — waking up at 4 a.m., moving equipment to the rink, hanging dirty equipment, unpacking bags, stuff like that. I mean, stuff GMs don’t do,” said a team source in the article.
She appeared to be doing a great job with the team, which acted like a family that won and lost together, from their coach to their reserve players. It’ll be interesting to see how PWHL Minnesota goes forward and who will fill the giant skates Darwitz leaves behind.