Kessel talks Dream Gap Tour, growth of women's game in Q&A with NHL.com

In NHL.com's Q&A feature called "Sitting Down with …" we talk to key figures in the game, gaining insight into their lives on and off the ice. Today, we feature professional women's hockey player Amanda Kessel.

Amanda Kessel has always been very competitive.
Whether it was skating with her brothers or eagerly awaiting the 2023 IIHF World Championships after a disappointing 2022-23 Rivalry Series against Canada, the 31-year-old forward remains driven to succeed.
Now she's using that competitiveness to help grow the four-team Women's Professional Hockey Players Association.
"We're just kind of at the beginning of it," Kessel said. "People before us laid a foundation and hopefully my kids someday can step right in. Too often girls have to retire at 22, 23-years-old and they haven't even hit their peak probably."
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The PWHPA's Secret Dream Gap Tour recently made a weekend stop in Arlington, Virginia, for four games at the MedStar Capitals Iceplex. Kessel's Team Adidas won each of its games and she had assist in each.
In addition to playing, Kessel is involved with the Pittsburgh Penguins executive management training program, a one-year fellowship designed to give women and minority groups administrative expertise in preparation for a job in NHL management.
"It's been awesome," Kessel said. "I think what attracted me to it is it was people like ourselves in it, professionals who've kind of hit your peak and you're the best in your profession and then trying to see what you would like to do after that. That's a hard transition. This was an opportunity for me to be able to experience the business side as well as the hockey side. So I've been rotating through a bunch of different programs. I started out on the business side and now I'm on the hockey side. Not having one single role, I'm still able to play and continue my career which was big for me, but I've really gained insight into what I might like and might not like."
Kessel's brother Phil, 35, plays for the Vegas Golden Knights, and her other brother Blake, 33, had a long minor league career and is now a youth coach in New Jersey.
In a Q&A with NHL.com, Kessel discussed her career, the growth of the WPHPA and her plans for the future.
March is Women's History Month. As someone who has helped make hockey history, what does that mean to you?
"It means a lot. It's something that, as I've grown, I understand the importance of it and all the work that people did before myself to get us to this point, but there's still a lot of work to be done. I take a lot of pride in being a role model and to see all the support that we have for women's hockey and to be able to be in a position where people are looking up to you, I take a lot of pride in it."
You've seen some record crowds this year, both for the 2022-23 Rivalry Series and for a PWHPA game. What does that mean for the growth of women's hockey and where do you see the game right now?
"I think it goes along with 'if you build it, people will come.' I think a lot of times our issue is just visibility, having the marketing. And we've had NHL organizations, a lot of people buying in, and that's really the difference. Once you kind of have the foundation and build it right, the people will come, but a lot of times you miss those opportunities and I think that's where people don't quite understand. It's always the argument, if you don't bring in enough people to maybe move the salaries, but also then you're missing out on the marketing."
What do you think of the crowd here for the games today?
"Washington, D.C.'s been kind of like a hotbed for hockey and women's hockey especially. In the last couple of years, you've just kind of seen that growth and they've really bought into the women's side. Unbelievable event. We come here and they really treat us like professionals. You come in and it makes a huge difference when you have an organization that buys in, and the fans showed up."
The 2022-23 Rivalry Series didn't end the way that you hoped (the USA won the first three games before Canada won four straight, the last two by scores of 5-1 and 5-0). How much are you looking forward to the 2023 World Championships?
"Yeah, that was a tough one to swallow. Our last couple of games against Canada were some of the more…disappointed that I've been after playing Canada. So fortunately, it wasn't world championships, but you're always…there was a championship on the line, and we have a lot of pride but to be able to go back to Canada and have World Championships there, I think we're all kind of itching to get back."
We just passed the five-year anniversary of the gold medal game at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics. Looking back now, what stands out for you about that tournament?
"Just the team. You can really see, like when you have a great team, you need every single person, and every single person trusts each other. On ice you remember those memories but not necessarily who scored every single goal at the tournament or anything like that. It's kind of the memories in between and afterwards and bringing it back and how we kind of had the entire country behind us. It's something that, it seems like far in the past, but it also seems like yesterday."
Looking down the road, is it coaching, the management side? Which do you find more interesting?
"I think I'm still trying to figure that out. Definitely want to be on the hockey side. I'm not sure if coaching or management, which one I like more at this moment, but I've been able to see a little bit of both, so it'll be helpful."
Beyond the World Championships, what's ahead for you? The 2026 Olympics are still three years away. Is that in your plans or is it too soon to discuss that?
"I would like it, 2026, to be in my plans. We try out three or four times a year to continually make the team, so I hope that I can keep up my level of play and make another run for it, but I guess it's probably something that I'll just take year by year and see how everything's going."
What was it like growing up with your brothers? Did you play a lot together, or against each other?
"Myself, Phil and my other brother Blake, we all trained together in the summer for a lot of years, so that was kind of always the highlight of our summer. Us three would go to the gym together, go to the rink, and golf. Go to my grandma's for lunch. So we kind of spent most of our summers together. I owe a lot of credit for my career to both of them just because they continually pushed me and there's nobody that I liked beating more than my brothers."
I've read Phil's very competitive. Who's more competitive, you or him?
"I don't know. My middle brother (Blake), he has the worst temper but all of us are competitive. No game ever, ever ends well. It doesn't matter what game. Somebody's mad every single time, so I think that's helped me in my career. We always pushed to win. It was never cordial in any type of competition."