The Playmaker Has Landed in Las Vegas
In a league that has not historically produced many elite offensive defenders, Kendall Cooper’s rookie season was a genuine landmark. Two goals and 17 assists in 30 games, a 0.63 points-per-game pace from the blue line is not a hot streak or a statistical anomaly. It is the output of a player who understands the game at a level that most rookies, at any position, simply do not. Her 17 assists led all PWHL rookies, set a new single-season record for assists by a defender in league history, and included the first six-game assist streak ever recorded in the PWHL. In her first year.
She just signed a two-year deal with PWHL Las Vegas as the expansion franchise’s first-ever player. Add her to your fantasy roster before your league mates connect the dots.
What She Did in Minnesota
Cooper was drafted sixth overall by the Minnesota Frost in the 2025 PWHL Draft, and she wasted no time justifying that selection. She averaged 21:29 of ice time per game. That was good for second on the team behind only Lee Stecklein and also contributed six power-play assists on a Frost blue line that led the PWHL in scoring. She was a cornerstone of a defensive pairing with Mae Batherson that started together in 16 of 30 regular-season games and functioned as one of the league’s most productive two-way defensive units.
The six-game assist streak is the detail that defines her game. Cooper does not produce in bursts, she produces consistently, shift after shift, because her reads are fast, her passes are precise, and she understands how to move the puck through a defense. At Quinnipiac, she finished with 116 career points in 158 games — the most by a defender in program history. The PWHL record she set in her first season is simply the next line on a resume that has never stopped growing.
The Las Vegas Opportunity
Cooper arrives in Las Vegas as the anchor of an expansion blue line, reunited with Batherson and expected to be the primary defensive producer from day one. The role upgrade is significant. In Minnesota she was one piece of an experienced, loaded Frost team. In Las Vegas she is the cornerstone and the player the power play is built around.
A projection of 2 goals and 20 assists in 30 games for 2026–27 is entirely reasonable. A modest step forward from her record-setting rookie campaign that accounts for expanded deployment and a full season of comfort at the PWHL level. For a defender who averaged better than half a point per game as a rookie on a team that did not need her to carry the offence, those numbers in a featured role feel conservative rather than optimistic.
The Fantasy Verdict
Offensive defenders who produce at a consistent clip are the rarest commodity in PWHL fantasy. Cooper proved last season that she is one of them. She is now entering year two with more ice time, more responsibility, and more opportunity than she has ever had. The expansion context means she may be undervalued at the draft table. That is your advantage. Take it.
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