Amanda Kessel

Amanda Kessel (born August 28, 1991) is an American professional ice hockey player, member of the United States women's national ice hockey team, and current National Hockey League front office executive with the Pittsburgh Penguins. She played college ice hockey at Minnesota from (2010–11 through 2012–13, and 2015–16). She has played professionally in the National Women's Hockey League and Professional Women's Hockey Players Association. Kessel was also the Captain of the Championship Team at the Pink Whitney Cup.

Amanda Kessel
Amanda Kessel playing for Team USA in 2017
Born (1991-08-28) August 28, 1991
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
Height 5 ft 6 in (168 cm)
Weight 130 lb (59 kg; 9 st 4 lb)
Position Forward
Shoots Right
PWHPA team
Former teams		 New Hampshire
Minnesota Golden Gophers
Metropolitan Riveters
National team  United States
Playing career 2010–present
Medal record
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place2018 PyeongchangTeam
Silver medal – second place2014 SochiTeam
Silver medal – second place2022 BeijingTeam
World Championships
Gold medal – first place2013 Canada
Gold medal – first place2017 United States
Gold medal – first place2019 Finland
Gold medal – first place2023 Canada
Silver medal – second place2012 United States
Silver medal – second place2021 Canada
Silver medal – second place2022 Denmark

Playing career

Before high school, she participated in the Madison Capitols Bantam boys team in 2005–06 and helped the team to state and regional championships. Kessel attended Shattuck St. Mary's in Minnesota. The 2007 edition of the team captured the U-19 national championship, while Kessel marked 102 points in 56 games. In her junior year, Kessel registered 44 goals and 56 assists for 100 points (1.29 goals per game and 1.65 assists per game). She accomplished the 100-point mark in 34 games and won her second consecutive U-19 national championship. She tallied 122 points (67 goals (1.46 goals per game) and 55 assists (1.20 assists per game) in just 46 games) in her final season. She was the team leader by 61 points.

NCAA
  • October 1, 2010: In her first game as a Golden Gopher, Amanda Kessel registered four points (two goals, two assists). The following day, Kessel scored the game-winning goal as the Gophers won by a 3–0 score. The game against Clarkson marked the first time in school history that the Gophers opened a season against a ranked opponent.[1]
  • On December 10, Amanda Kessel assisted on a career-high four goals in a conference victory over visiting Ohio State. The Gophers enjoyed a 6–0 win.[2]
  • November 18, 2010: Kessel registered five points (including four goals[3]) as the Golden Gophers defeated the New Hampshire Wildcats by an 11–0 tally. This was the worst loss in the 35-year history of the Wildcats program.[4]
  • November 19: Kessel earned her second hat trick of the series as the Gophers defeated New Hampshire by a 6–1 tally.[5]
  • September 10, 2014, the Golden Gophers announced that Kessel would sit out the 2014–15 season as a result of lingering concussion symptoms she had sustained while playing for Team USA.[6]
  • July 21, 2015: the Golden Gophers announced that Kessel would not be playing hockey for the 2015–16 season due to health reasons. Because she had previously taken a redshirt year on two prior occasions, she will no longer be eligible to play college hockey.[7]
  • February 3, 2016: The Golden Gophers announced that Kessel returned to the team. Despite earlier prognoses, she continued working to gain clearance from doctors to play hockey and succeeded late in the 2015–2016 season in time for the February 5–6 series against North Dakota.[8]

Team USA

As a member of the U.S. Women's National Team, Kessel has won a medal at all the international tournaments she has participated in:[9]

Before being named to the U.S. Women's National Team, Kessel was a member of the United States Under-22 Team and Under-18 Team. Kessel played for the United States Under-18 in 2009 and was named the World Under-18 tournament's most valuable forward. She scored six goals and 13 assists for 19 points to lead Team USA to a gold medal. In the 2008 Under 18 World Championships, she played in five games with Team USA and tallied 11 points, ranking third among all players in scoring. Kessel was named to the US team participating in the 2010 Four Nations Cup. She did not play due to an injury.[10]

Professional

Kessel was never drafted by a National Women's Hockey League team; league rules stipulate that a college player must be entering her senior year to be drafted, and Kessel's junior season was completed in 2013 before the league existed. Instead, she signed as a free agent with the New York Riveters on May 1, 2016.[11] Her contract of $26,000 was the largest NWHL contract to date.[11] Kessel was named one of the two captains for the 2nd NWHL All-Star Game. Scoring a hat trick in the All-Star Game, the first to do so in NWHL All-Star history, she would also be recognized as the game's Most Valuable Player.[12] After taking a season off from the NWHL due to national team commitments, she returned to the NWHL with the renamed Metropolitan Riveters for the 2018–19 season.[13]

PWHPA

Following the 2018–19 season, Kessel was one of many players to join the boycott on North American women's hockey leagues and join the new players' union, the Professional Women's Hockey Players Association (PWHPA), to push for better support of women's hockey. She was named a team captain at the January 2020 Toronto showcase.[14]

Skating for Team New Hampshire during the 2020–21 PWHPA season, Kessel participated in a PWHPA Dream Gap Tour event at New York's Madison Square Garden on February 28, 2021, the first women's ice hockey event at the venue.[15] Playing for a team sponsored by the Women's Sports Foundation, Kessel recorded a goal and an assist in a 4–3 win,[16] earning the Second Star of the Game.

Administrative career

On April 20, 2022, the Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League (NHL) announced that Kessel would be the first member of their Executive Management Program,[17] a one-year fellowship designed to give women and minority groups administrative expertise in preparation for a job in NHL management.[18] She earned a promotion on August 4, 2023 when she was named as a Special Assistant to the Penguins President of Hockey Operations and General Manager, Kyle Dubas. While her previous role saw her learning multiple facets of the team's day-to-day operations, including marketing and public relations, her new role is focused solely on hockey operations and club management with a focus on research and development as well as minor league operations.[19]

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs
Regular season Playoffs
Season Team League GPGAPtsPIM GPGAPtsPIM
2004–05 Madison Capitols U14 T1EBHL 21010 —————
2007–08 Shattuck St. Mary's Prep T1EHL 19U 161315288 —————
2010–11 University of Minnesota WCHA 3519304920 10110
2011–12 University of Minnesota WCHA 3829457415 33362
2012–13 University of Minnesota WCHA 4343499225 33690
2015–16 Univ. of Minnesota WCHA 1065114 35160
2016–17 New York Riveters NWHL 8414184 10110
2018–19 Metropolitan Riveters NWHL 13215176 10000
2020–21 New Hampshire PWHPA 63250 —————
NWHL totals 216293510 20110

International
Year Team Event Result   GP G A Pts PIM
2008 USA U18 1st place, gold medalist(s) 5 4 7 11 2
2009 USA U18 1st place, gold medalist(s) 5 6 13 19 2
2012 USA WC 2nd place, silver medalist(s) 5 3 7 10 0
2013 USA WC 1st place, gold medalist(s) 5 2 6 8 0
2014 USA OG 2nd place, silver medalist(s) 5 3 3 6 0
2017 USA WC 1st place, gold medalist(s) 5 1 5 6 0
2018 USA OG 1st place, gold medalist(s) 5 0 1 1 0
2019 USA WC 1st place, gold medalist(s) 7 3 2 5 0
2021 USA WC 2nd place, silver medalist(s) 7 0 4 4 0
2022 USA OG 2nd place, silver medalist(s) 7 3 5 8 0
2022 USA WC 2nd place, silver medalist(s) 7 3 4 7 2
2023 USA WC 1st place, gold medalist(s) 7 5 4 9 4
Senior totals 57 23 41 64 6

Awards
  • WCHA Co-Offensive Player of the Week (Week of October 12, 2011)[20]
  • WCHA Co-Offensive Player of the Week (Week of November 21, 2011)[21]
  • WCHA Offensive Player of the Week (Week of February 8, 2012)[22]
  • 2013 Patty Kazmaier Award (Collegiate National Player of the Year)[23]
  • 2014 Olympic Silver Medalist[24]
  • 2018 Olympic Gold Medalist[25]

Personal life

Kessel is the sister of Vegas Golden Knights player Phil Kessel and Blake Kessel, a retired professional ice hockey defenseman and current coach for Newark Ironbound 16U Premier in the USA Hockey Women's 16U AAA.[26]

Her father, Phil Kessel Sr., was drafted by the Washington Redskins and stayed on the injured reserve for one year.[27]

In 2019, Kessel paired with Eric Radford for the fifth season of CBC's Battle of the Blades, where hockey players paired with figure skaters to compete for their chosen charity. However, she and Radford were the first couple eliminated.

References
  1. USCHO Staff Report (October 1, 2010). "Kessel posts 4 points as Minnesota blanks Clarkson". USCHO. Archived from the original on April 6, 2019. Retrieved July 13, 2014.
  2. "Amanda Kessel bio". Gopher Sports. Archived from the original on June 27, 2018. Retrieved July 13, 2014.
  3. "Gophers Win 11–0 Against New Hampshire – University of Minnesota Official Athletic Site". Gophersports.com. Archived from the original on June 26, 2018. Retrieved December 4, 2013.
  4. "University of New Hampshire Official Athletics Website:Gilligan Records 27 Saves In Two Periods; Women's Hockey Loses 11–0 At No. 2 Minnesota". UNHWildcats.com. November 18, 2011. Archived from the original on March 3, 2014. Retrieved December 4, 2013.
  5. "Kessel Gets Second Hat Trick of the Weekend, Gophers Sweep New Hampshire – University of Minnesota Official Athletic Site". Gophersports.com. November 19, 2011. Archived from the original on May 24, 2012. Retrieved December 4, 2013.
  6. "U.S. hockey player out for college season with concussion". USA Today. September 10, 2014. Archived from the original on September 11, 2014. Retrieved September 10, 2014.
  7. Schlossman, Brad Elliott (July 21, 2015). "Gopher star Kessel won't play senior season". Grand Forks Herald. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved July 21, 2015.
  8. Leahy, Sean (February 3, 2016). "Amanda Kessel, concussion-free, set to return to Minnesota lineup". Yahoo! Sports. Archived from the original on February 3, 2016. Retrieved February 3, 2016.
  9. "Team USA – Amanda Kessel". USA Hockey. Archived from the original on August 29, 2014. Retrieved July 13, 2014.
  10. "The Official Website of Hockey Canada". Canadianhockey.ca. Retrieved December 4, 2013.
  11. "Amanda Kessel signs one-year deal with NHWL's New York Riveters". Archived from the original on February 15, 2017. Retrieved January 14, 2017.
  12. "NWHL Stars Shine Bright in Pittsburgh". NWHL. February 13, 2017. Archived from the original on February 15, 2017. Retrieved February 14, 2017.
  13. "Team USA Olympic Gold Medalist Amanda Kessel Returns to the Riveters". OurSportsCentral.com. June 4, 2018. Archived from the original on September 21, 2018. Retrieved June 4, 2018.
  14. "Secret Showcase headlines busy weekend for PWHPA". SB Nation. January 10, 2020. Archived from the original on October 16, 2021. Retrieved February 7, 2021.
  15. Analis Bailey (February 28, 2021). "PWHPA Dream Gap Tour hits Madison Square Garden ice for historic women's game". USA Today. Archived from the original on March 2, 2021. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
  16. "2021 Secret Dream Gap Tour recap: New York City". SB Nation. March 1, 2021. Archived from the original on September 16, 2021. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
  17. "Penguins Name Amanda Kessel First Hire of Executive Management Program". National Hockey League. Pittsburgh Penguins. April 20, 2022. Archived from the original on April 20, 2022. Retrieved April 20, 2022.
  18. Kaplan, Emily (April 20, 2022). "Three-time U.S. Olympic medalist Amanda Kessel joining Pittsburgh Penguins for one-year fellowship". ESPN. Archived from the original on April 20, 2022. Retrieved April 20, 2022.
  19. "Penguins Announce Hockey Operations Promotions | NHL.com". www.nhl.com. September 6, 2023. Retrieved September 7, 2023.
  20. "WCHA Press Releases". WCHA.com. October 12, 2011. Archived from the original on August 14, 2014. Retrieved December 4, 2013.
  21. Archived copy Archived June 13, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  22. Archived copy Archived October 11, 2015, at the Wayback Machine
  23. Matthew Semisch, NCAA.com (March 23, 2013). "Minnesota's Kessel wins Kazmaier Award". NCAA.com. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved December 4, 2013.
  24. "Team USA Amanda Kessel". USA Hockey. Archived from the original on October 26, 2017. Retrieved July 13, 2014.
  25. Rosen, Karen (February 22, 2018). "Golden Goal! Team USA Wins First Women's Ice Hockey Olympic Gold Medal in 20 Years". teamusa.org. Archived from the original on February 22, 2018. Retrieved February 22, 2018.
  26. DUHATSCHEK, Eric (February 19, 2014). "Kessel siblings aim to bring home double Olympic hockey gold". The Globe and Mail. Archived from the original on April 25, 2017. Retrieved April 24, 2017.
  27. Fitzgerald, Gary (April 25, 2012). "Great Redskins Drafts: A Look At 1981". redskins.com. Redskins. Archived from the original on December 5, 2017. Retrieved April 4, 2017.
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