2024 Top 25 Under 25: Grace Zumwinkle (3)

When Minnesota took Taylor Heise first overall at the 2023 PWHL Draft the expectation was she was going to lead the way for the team. Both fortunately and unfortunately for Minnesota it took Heise until the playoffs to live up to that first overall billing but they won the Cup in a large part to Heise so it all worked out in the end.

Heise wouldn’t have gotten that time to shine and Minnesota doesn’t get the opportunity to win the Cup though if not for the tremendous work Grace Zumwinkle did to drag the team into the playoffs. Natalie Spooner was the obvious MVP of the season and there’s no debating it. There’s a clear number two MVP in the PWHL though and it’s Zumwinkle.

Five of the six PWHL teams have two players in the top 10 of goals. Minnesota is the only team with one player in the top 10 of goals and it’s Zumwinkle with 11 goals, good enough for second in the PWHL, which her next closest teammate being Kendall Coyne Schofield with only six goals. It gets even worst when you look at primary points. Zumwinkle finished third in the PWHL with 18 primary points and her next closest teammate was KCS with 10 primary points good enough for 21^st in the PWHL.

In the top 20 of PWHL primary points 4/6 teams have three players and 5/6 teams have at least two players. Once again Minnesota is the only team with one player, Grace Zumwinkle. To top it all off Zumwinkle finished third in PWHL even-strength points (12), second in SOG/60 (12.99), named to the PWHL Second All-Star Team, PWHL All-Rookie Team, and PWHL Rookie of the Year. Minnesota was the second worst team in scoring in the PWHL with 52 goals so it’s hard not to acknowledge the work Zumwinkle did to almost single handedly drag Minnesota into the playoffs.

This type of season from Zumwinkle shouldn’t be all that surprising though. She’s had an elite career up to this point to show she’s more than worthy of the hype she gets. Her NCAA accomplishments include two Patty Kazmaier Award finalist finishes with one being top three. She was also named to the Second NCAA All-American team twice. Zumwinkle finished her NCAA career with 209 points in 171 games which puts her at 47^th for all-time NCAA points. In all five of her NCAA seasons Zumwinkle never finished below a point per game and her best season saw her put up 61 points in 38 games. Where Zumwinkle really stands out is with her goal scoring. In three out of the four full NCAA seasons Zumwinkle played she scored 25 goals in each season. Overall she finished her NCAA career with 109 goals in 171 games which puts her at 31^st all-time in NCAA career goals.

Zumwinkle has also been a rather frequent member of Team USA since becoming eligible for international tournaments. In her two tournaments with the U18 team Zumwinkle walked away with two Gold Medals. She’s also been called upon three times to play with the senior Team USA seeing herself in one Olympic tournament and two World Championships. Unfortunately for Zumwinkle the Gold Medals have been hard to come by as she currently has three Silver Medals hanging in her trophy case. Oddly enough she’s been left off the two latest Team USA WHC squads while posting two of the best seasons in her career.

The future is bright as possible for Grace Zumwinkle. As a third round pick in the 2023 PWHL Draft Zumwinkle has already shown herself to be an elite player in the league, and most importantly, an elite goal scorer. Being able to score goals is a rare talent and her 29^th PWHL best shooting % shows that another season as a top three goal scorer is possible with maybe a Spooner-esque type season as a possibility where Zumwinkle gets ridiculously hot. Zumwinkle is only 25 years old and it’s hard not to imagine she can keep up being a goal scoring threat for the next decade if she so chooses. As for Team USA not taking her as a roster player for the last two WHC, that should be over with come next season barring a surprising down year from Zumwinkle.

The big question, is Zumwinkle the third best Top 25 Under 25 player? I’d say it’s hard to argue that she isn’t and really just comes down to everyone’s personal preference as to what categories mean the most for them. Zumwinkle was a top three forward in the PWHL, arguably top two. She’s had a stellar career previous to her joining the PWHL though you could argue others have had better which could be reason to drop her a few spots. I think though that doing what Zumwinkle did with a noticeable lack of support in Minnesota this past season should be weighted heavily in her favour. You’re not getting much better than what Zumwinkle has done this season.