Natalie Darwitz, the general manager who built the Minnesota team into the inaugural champions of the Professional Women's Hockey League championship, is out as the team's GM, according to a report in The Athletic.

The PWHL, which just completed its first season, owns each of the six teams in the league and employs its staff and players. Darwitz, a three-time Olympic medalist and member of both the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame and the International Ice Hockey Hall of Fame, built the Minnesota team from scratch in 2023 and saw it win a pair of five-game playoff series, culminating with a 3-0 triumph over Boston in Game 5 of the championship series on May 29.

The departure of the Eagan native and two-time national champion with the Gophers comes three days before the league will hold its 2024 draft and awards show on Monday at Roy Wilkins Auditorium in St. Paul. The Athletic reported that Darwitz was told earlier this week that she would not be back as GM and was offered another position within the league. The report also said she was offered a chance to release a statement that she was moving on from the PWHL team.

Darwitz did not immediately respond to the Star Tribune's request seeking comment, and the Minnesota team would not confirm the news Friday morning.

The break-up would be a stunner in Minnesota hockey, where Darwitz, 40, has been a popular figure from her days as a youngster and high school star in Eagan, to her success with the Gophers and U.S. Olympic and National teams.

After her playing career, she transitioned to coaching, becoming an assistant with the Gophers in 2008, then leading the Lakeville South High School girls team. From 2015-21, she coached Hamline, leading the Pipers to a pair of NCAA Division III women's Frozen Four appearances. She returned to Minnesota in 2021 as the top assistant under coach Brad Frost, a position she held through the 2022-23 season. Darwitz accepted the job to be Hill-Murray's girls head coach but then took the PWHL Minnesota job.

With PWHL Minnesota, Darwitz drafted former Gophers star Taylor Heise first overall last fall, and Heise went on to be the MVP of the inaugural playoff.