Katy Knoll Goes Home, This Time with Company

Labor Day weekend was the quintessential Western New York experience for Minnesota Frost forward Katy Knoll: chicken wings (we just call them wings); a stop at Highmark Stadium, home of the NFL's Buffalo Bills; and of course, a trip to Niagara Falls.

What made this weekend all the more special, of course, was that Knoll had a special friend tagging along for the ride: the Walter Cup, the PWHL's championship trophy. As a member of the championship-winning Frost team that captured the Cup on May 26, Knoll got her weekend with the trophy over Labor Day—and she certainly made the most of it.

The busy weekend started with a family wedding, before Knoll got the Cup and took it on a tour around Western New York. One of the stops was at Bar-Bill Tavern, a restaurant infamous for some of the best wings in the area.

"Buffalo's my whole personality," Knoll said. "I always talk about how we have the best chicken wings, so I've got to put some wings in the Cup."

Knoll, a native of Amherst, NY, grew up as a big fan of the Buffalo Bills, so it was extra special for her to take the Walter Cup to the stadium. This is also the last year that the Bills will play at Highmark Stadium before moving to a new stadium being built across the street.

"I've actually only been to a couple of [Bills] games, which is really hard to believe," she said. "I think I've only been to two or three games, but I've been there for a couple different events that aren't necessarily games. I love the stadium."

She also hosted a public celebration at Buffalo RiverWorks, welcoming fans and friends for autographs and photos, and visited the American side of Niagara Falls. She also hosted a small, private gathering for family over the weekend.

"I love Buffalo," she said. "I want to come back here eventually, once I'm older and settle down here, so I'm super excited to get to share this with my family."

Knoll, 24, is focused on the season ahead while still basking in the glory of being part of the championship-winning Frost squad. Safe to say it's been a bit of a whirlwind year for her.

"Going back to last year with the draft and everything, I was still in school at that point," she said. "I was finishing up my master's degree, and I didn't finish that until August. Then, I only had a couple months until I had to report for training camp. I was only an invite last year, so I was a little uncertain of what would happen, but all I knew was I could just put my best out there and it would all work out. Thankfully, it did and I was able to get a spot on the team."

"It was a big jump from NCAA to the professional level," she added. "I think everyone in the league will say it takes a bit to get used to that, but throughout the season, everyone has their ups and downs and so did I. But by the end of the season, I think I figured it out personally and also found a way to help the team the best way I could. I'd say it worked out in the end."

Knoll was drafted 39th overall by the Frost in the seventh round of the 2023 PWHL Draft. She signed with the team following training camp, then registered two points in 21 regular season games. She stepped up big in the playoffs, skating in all eight games and notching five points, including a critical triple-overtime game-winner to put the Frost on deck for the title.

"I still think back on it, and it seems like it didn't happen almost," she said. "I look back at photos and videos and it's still so surreal. It was just so awesome to win with the great group we had. It's a bummer that a lot of our team is going to be different next year, but at least we can say that we won a championship and we did that together, and that bonds us forever."

Knoll's stellar playoff performance helped her earn a contract extension, as she re-signed with the Frost in late June before hitting free agency.

"Job security is always a good thing," she said. "Really happy that I was able to sign again with Minnesota for another year, before that deadline came up at the end of June. That was my goal. I obviously loved my first year out there and wanted to be able to stay for another year with a team that's won back-to-back championships."

"They've built such a culture and I got to be a part of that last year and now I get to have hopefully more of an elevated role and kind of share that culture with the new people that come into the team," she added.

Before Knoll returns to Minnesota for the upcoming PWHL season, she appreciated the opportunity to reflect on her hometown and how the hockey culture in Western New York helped her get to where she is today. Knoll attended Nichols School and played hockey there before eventually joining the Provincial WHL's Toronto Aeros, then spent five seasons at Northeastern.

"Hockey was the reason that I ended up going to Nichols," she said. "I loved every single bit of it and especially when I started. It's the legacy of Scott Welch and the program that he built there, I got to play under him for a little bit and then under Shelley Looney, who obviously everyone knows through USA Hockey."

"I had a lot of great coaches during my time there and I loved the concept of playing high school hockey and making those connections with my classmates, but also still being at home," she added. "That was one big thing for me is that I didn't want to leave home for high school so the fact that Nichols was able to have a competitive hockey program was really huge for me. It made my life before I went to university that much easier and made my dream a reality, in the sense that I could still play locally before going away for university."

This summer, she's been doing her part to give back, helping out with the Buffalo Jr. Sabres girls hockey program, mostly the 16U team, in a mentorship role.

"My biggest advice to any young girl [would be to] make those connections while you can," she said. "Part of being a professional is giving back and making those connections with the community. Those connections are invaluable; I really don't have any other word for it."

"To be able to look up to someone and not to see them as an idol, but as a person who you can feel comfortable talking to, that's my overall goal," she added. "The landscape of women's hockey is everchanging, so making connections wherever you go will be invaluable in the long run."

"That's my long-term goal, to continue to help not just little girls in Buffalo but kids all over the country," she added. "To start here in Buffalo is, I think, to see how far girls hockey has grown since I played youth hockey here. I played boys hockey up until I was in high school and that was just kind of the landscape for girls hockey in the area at the time. The fact that girls can start to play hockey at 12U now, or even younger, that's really awesome, so just trying to cultivate that and help out any organization I can. Growing the game in the area is super important to me."

Naturally, she'd like to see the PWHL expand to Buffalo someday.

"That would be my ultimate dream become a reality," she said. "But just growing the game right now is the biggest thing for us and locally for me. That's why the [PWHL's] Takeover Tours are so important. I hope maybe in the coming years, the Takeover Tour continues and Buffalo can get another game. In the meantime, it's so great that Toronto is a pretty close market for Buffalo fans. I hope that doesn't deter people from still making it out to games even in Toronto."

In the meantime, Knoll's focus is on the season ahead, as she'll soon shift back into training mode following her rookie pro season.

"I'm still getting used to the adjusted timeline," she said. "I did five years at university, so I'm used to ending in March and starting back up right around now. I'm getting used to setting a training schedule for what it looks like in the fall, when most other professional and college players go back and then it's just PWHL gifts left."

"I normally go out to Rochester and skate with a couple girls out there, so I'm just making sure that I keep training with like-minded people and players," she added. "I think that's the best thing I can do to get back in the full swing of training. There's always things to work on at this level, so I'm just trying to improve on the little things and that all adds up come November."

Though the Frost are now two-time defending Walter Cup champions, that's all in the past when the new season rolls around. Knoll is excited about the league's expansion to Seattle and Vancouver, noting that it may make Minnesota's travel schedule a bit easier now with a few shorter trips and two exciting new cities to visit. Still, she knows the journey to another championship won't be an easy one.

"It's a new year," Knoll said. "You want to remember how it felt and what we did to get there, but each year is going to be different. When the team won the first year (Knoll was still in college), it was a different path than we took the second year to get there. There's no one path to the end of the rainbow. Every year is going to be different, so it's just about remembering the lessons we've learned along the way and not necessarily trying to replicate that, but just keeping in the back of our minds what it takes. The goal is to get another Walter Cup; we just have to go step-by-step."