It didn't take long for the Minnesota Frost to lose their first players to an expansion team, as Vancouver signed unprotected defenders Claire Thompson and Sophie Jaques to PWHL contracts for the 2025-26 season Wednesday.

Thompson and Jaques are both finalists for the league's defender of the year award for this just-completed championship season.

After losing two players on the first day they could be signed, the Frost were allowed to pull back one of their unprotected players. They did so by reclaiming last year's second-round pick, forward Britta Curl-Salemme.

Curl-Salemme joins Kendall Coyne Schofield, Lee Stecklein and Taylor Heise as the four players protected from selection in the signing period and Monday's expansion draft.

Both Thompson and Jaques are gifted, offensive-minded defenders at a position that was maybe the Frost's best on a team that won its second consecutive Walter Cup in the league's second season.

Thompson was the first player signed, to a one-year contract, by the new Vancouver franchise during an exclusive signing period that allows it and newcomer Seattle to sign five players each by Sunday, ahead of Monday's expansion draft.

Carlos Gonzalez, The Minnesota Star Tribune
Sophie Jaques (16) battled for the Frost during a game March 26 at Xcel Energy Center.

Jaques signed a three-year contract with Vancouver.

Thompson did not play in the league's inaugural season last year because she was just starting medical school.

The Frost and all the other teams among the league's original six were allowed to protect three players from the signing period and the expansion draft.

"It's going to impact everyone," Frost coach Ken Klee said Monday. "We play by the rules that are handed to us, whether on or off the ice."