University of Maine women’s ice hockey head coach Molly Engstrom is heading to Detroit.
Engstrom, who has served as the head coach for the women’s Black Bear hockey team since 2022, was picked for an assistant coaching spot on the new Detroit team of the Professional Women’s Hockey League, according to an announcement Friday morning.
The cities of Detroit, Las Vegas, San Jose and Hamilton, Ontario, were chosen this summer to expand the league from the current eight-team lineup.
The PWHL started its inaugural 2024 season with teams in Boston, Minneapolis–St. Paul, Montreal, New York City, Ottawa and Toronto. It expanded to Seattle and Vancouver for the 2025 season.
Engstrom, a native of Siren, Wisconsin, played at Wisconsin from 2001 to 2005 and was inducted into the school’s athletic hall of fame earlier this year.
Engstrom, who was a defenseman, is the only player in school history to earn WCHA Defensive Player of the Year honors twice. She was an All-WCHA first team selection both years.
In 2005, Engstrom was a finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Award which goes to the nation’s best player.
She played three seasons under Wisconsin coach Mark Johnson, who was the leading scorer on the gold medal-winning 1980 U.S. Olympic team.
Engstrom went on to become a two-time Olympic medalist for Team USA and in the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver received the tournament’s Best Defenseman Award after collecting three goals and four assists in five games.
Under Engstrom during UMaine’s 2025-26 season, the women’s team went 13-19-4 overall, and finished with an 8-12-4 in-conference record.
Engstrom isn’t the only member of the UMaine hockey community to head to the PWHL.
Carly Jackson, former goaltender for the UMaine women’s hockey team and the program’s all-time leader in wins, save percentage, shutouts and goals-against average, now plays for the Seattle Torrent. Jackson played with the Black Bears from 2016 to 2020.
Winger Tereza Vanisova also plays for the Vancouver Goldeneyes. She is UMaine’s all-team leading scorer with 129 points on 63 goals and 66 assists in 129 games from the 2016-17 to 2019-20 seasons.
BDN reporter Larry Mahoney contributed to this report.
