Minnesota Frost ready to defend their PWHL title. But first, let’s raise a banner.

Six months ago, Minnesota’s entry in the newly formed PWHL raised the Walter Cup as league champions. On Sunday evening at Xcel Energy Center, it will raise a banner.

A pregame ceremony prior to a season-opening matchup with the New York Sirens will link the past with the present as the championship banner takes its place in the rafters. What the future holds for the team now known as the Frost will hinge in large part on how it responds to the message head coach Ken Klee has been delivering since the title celebration was in its infancy.

“Part of being a pro hockey player is that you have to have the mentality that someone is always chasing you, someone wants your job,” Klee reiterated as the team made final preparations for the new season. “We have to get better.”

Better defensively? Klee can’t ask for much more than he got from his team last season. The Frost arguably have the best goaltending tandem in the league in Nicole Hensley and Maddie Rooney, and team defense was the backbone of the championship run.

Offense is a different story.

Klee was frustrated at times last season by the team’s inability to finish scoring chances. It is clearly the area where he hopes his team will take the biggest step forward. Taylor Heise and Grace Zumwinkle, a pair of former Gophers who jumped right in from the college game last season to have a major impact in the PWHL, figure only be better in their second professional seasons.

The Frost need others to do the same.

“We have to score more consistently throughout our lineup,” Klee said. “We can’t wait for a big night from Taylor or some of our more prolific scorers. It needs to be by committee.”

Zumwinkle, who took home the PWHL Rookie of the Year award, is optimistic that the offense will be improved.

“I think we added a lot of depth throughout our lineup,” she said. “If you look at this league, every line can play, every line can produce.”

The Frost were thrilled with the way the draft unfolded in the spring, and Klee feels the team added players who will give the offense a boost.

“We are better adding Britta Curl, adding Dom Petrie, adding Brooke McQuigge,” Klee said. “(First-round pick) Claire Thompson is the elite of the elite, she is a top-five ‘D’ in the world. She instantly makes our offense better.”

For their part, Zumwinkle and Heise trained together in the offseason, and both feel their games are the better for it.

“We play the game differently,” Zumwinkle said, “but I think it helps to see how she views the game. That helped me a lot in the offseason, and hopefully I can bring that out onto the ice.”

Klee knows they have put in the work, and expects big things from both players this season.

“Zum is continually looking to get better,” he said. “She’s a shooter, but she can’t just be a shooter. She is a power forward who can make plays, she can play physical. I think she’s still rounding out her game.

“I think when a young player has success, as a shooter for example, they might think all I have to do is shoot. She needs to be a complete player.”

Klee is looking for similar things from Heise — along with a focus on shooting the puck more. Heise appeared to have gotten the message in last season’s playoffs and will look to play a similar style moving forward.

“The playmaker that I am doesn’t work unless I’m a shooting threat as well,” she said. “It’s all a work in progress.”

Heise said her offseason also involved working extensively with various skill coaches to “amplify” her game.

“Whether that’s one-timers or working along the boards,” she said. “Last year I felt I got drawn out on the outside of the perimeter. This year I’m looking to get inside more.”

The Frost will begin the season with Heise centering a line with Kendall Coyne Schofield and Michela Cava. The second line has Kelly Pannek at center and Zumwinkle and Curl on the wings.

On paper, the added scoring punch appears to be in place. Let the games begin.