Neal: After five seasons at Minnesota State, Jamie Nelson jumps into Gophers hockey lineup

Jamie Nelson was traveling to her home in Andover in March when she received the text message she hoped for but from someone she didn’t expect.

It was Gophers women’s hockey coach Brad Frost. And he wanted her to play for him.

“Frost was the first coach to reach out to me, and I remember getting a text from him, and I was kind of just like, this isn’t real,” Nelson said. “Like, this is so surreal that now, like, he’s texting me, he’s interested in me.

“It almost felt like an out-of-body experience, like it was hard to wrap my head around, and things moved really quick. But it was just a very exciting time.”

The evolving college eligibility rules have led to more athletes changing schools as graduate transfers. Nelson played five seasons at Minnesota State Mankato — a knee injury limited her to two games her sophomore season. She sought a change to prolong her career.

Coaches like bringing in the grad transfers because they are not freshmen. They don’t have to adjust to college life, adapt to being around better competition or take longer to learn new systems. It’s a chance to add an impact player or a depth piece.

“You can’t teach experience,” Frost said. “Especially in the WCHA. Here’s a player that’s played in every rink. She’s played against all the WCHA teams, and she’s had success against all of them. And so her experience was something that jumped off the page.”

During her career with the Mavericks, Nelson had 42 goals and 61 assists for 103 points, third in program history. She led the Mavericks in scoring as a freshman and a senior ... who would not want that production on their team?

Nelson, who was on the Star Tribune’s All-Metro team as a senior at Andover in 2020, could have pulled over and replied to Frost’s message that she was headed for the Gophers. But she decided to wait until she got home to debate the pros and cons.

By the time Nelson arrived home, Frost wasn’t the only one interested in her services. One coach offered to put down the phone and immediately drive straight to her home to sign her.

“Within 24 hours, I think every team in the WCHA called, except for [one],” Tim Nelson, Jamie’s father, said. “So I think that really was huge for her, confidence-wise.”

Jamie Nelson now gets to play for the team she squared off against numerous times through the years. She no longer has to be checked by Gophers high-scoring, hard-nosed forward Abbey Murphy, other than in practice. And she gets to play in Ridder Arena in an atmosphere she has always enjoyed.

“In her defense,” Frost said, “they did take us to three games both years.”

Nelson signed with the Gophers in April. She played in Da Beauty League, the popular offseason hockey workshop at Braemar Arena in Edina, on a championship-winning team that included Frost star Taylor Heise and current Gophers teammates Allie Franco and Ava Lindsay.

A first-liner at Mankato, Nelson is down the pecking order with the Gophers, with only four assists so far. The opportunity to try to help the Gophers win their first NCAA title since 2016 made the move worth it.

Frost needs the transfer to work out. The Gophers have found a title to be elusive. They’ve reached the Women’s Frozen Four in two of the past three seasons, only to lose to Wisconsin.

It’s time for the Gophers to break through, and Frost might have one of his deepest teams this season. That will be important in February, when he loses Murphy and a couple of other players to the Olympics in Italy and will need Nelson to continue to win.

“I have very high expectations,” Nelson said. “Frost has been really hard on us that, this year, our expectations are to win a championship, and that they came up short last year and that that’s not going to happen this year.”