When USA Hockey announced its 2025 National Festival roster, one player's absence stood out: defender Kali Flanagan. A 2018 Olympic gold medalist, a fixture in the pipeline for USA’s blue line for years, and fresh off a season where she logged heavy playoff minutes for the Toronto Sceptres in the PWHL, Flanagan’s name was nowhere to be found.
The omission is short-sighted for Team USA. Flanagan, 30, is a trusted right-shot defender for the Sceptres, playing minutes comparable to established Olympians like Lee Stecklein and Cayla Barnes.
Flanagan's Team USA résumé already speaks for itself. She debuted with the senior squad at the 2017 World Championship, winning gold, and followed that with Olympic gold in 2018.
“I feel really proud that I was able to represent Team USA at that time, and be a part of the team that brought an Olympic gold medal home for the first time in 20 years,” Flanagan said when asked about that tournament.
“Being able to represent Team USA on an Olympic stage and to experience an Olympic Games was the biggest privilege I could have asked for.”
Since then, she’s carved out a professional career that’s shown her reliability in every environment. She was a standout with the Boston Pride, helping them win the Isobel Cup in 2022 and earning Defender of the Year honors in 2023. She’s since become a trusted part of Toronto’s defensive core in the PWHL, earning big minutes under Troy Ryan — who also happens to be the head coach of Team Canada.
That trust from Ryan may be one of the strongest endorsements of all.
“I think the first season was huge for me,” Flanagan reflected. “I came into a new environment — I didn’t really know the coaching staff that well. I didn’t know Troy at all. I had only played against him with Team USA. That first season gave me a base to earn his trust, and coming into this past season, the time on ice proved that I did gain some of that trust.”
Paul Mara, who was part of the coaching staff with Team USA during the 2018 Olympics, remembers that Flanagan was one of the top defenders on the American team.
“In the [gold medal] overtime, she was one of our top six defensemen. In overtime, you have to play six, and she was one of the defenders that we relied on to go out there every single time and carry the puck and handle the puck and make the right decisions.
“Just her skating ability, her poise with the puck, her confidence with the puck, is everything that a defender needs to be an elite player in this world.”
It’s not hard to see why she earned her coaches' trust. Flanagan describes herself as a skating defender who relies on her feet to control the game.
“I think my feet are my biggest asset,” she said. “Obviously I’m not the biggest player out there, so when I’m trying to defend, I use my feet to defend and make that first pass and kind of evade the forecheck; that’s where I try to lean on in terms of my skill set.”
For a clear testament to how valuable Flanagan is in big games, look at her time-on-ice during the 2025 PWHL playoffs. The other four American defenders were used far less per period than Flanagan, once you factor in the multiple overtime periods each played:
- Flanagan wasn’t just ahead of Anna Wilgren (someone that you could argue she is in direct competition with for a spot) — she was ahead of everyone, even her Toronto teammate Harmon and USA stalwarts like Stecklein and Barnes.
- These numbers make her omission stand out even more: she was literally the most-used American defender in the PWHL playoffs.
So why was she left out?
Part of it may be stylistic preference. Head coach John Wroblewski has leaned toward defenders who play with an attack-first, transition style — players like Cayla Barnes, Caroline Harvey, and Haley Winn, who can jump into the rush and drive offense.
But most curious of all, USA is employing Laila Edwards — one of the NCAA’s best offensive forwards — on defense. Wroblewski himself admitted the staff wants to “see what her length and skill can bring to the back end.”
That may be creative development, but it comes at the expense of leaving out an established, right-shot pro defender who has already thrived in the highest league in the world.
Another factor in Flanagan’s omission is the view that Team USA has moved past veterans. She turned 30 this year, an age that in past eras might have been seen as the twilight for women’s hockey players. But in today’s game, that’s no longer the case. Stars like Hilary Knight, Kendall Coyne Schofield, Natalie Spooner, and Renata Fast have shown that players in their thirties can not only compete but thrive at the highest level.
Flanagan sees it as a shift made possible by the PWHL.
“I think before we just didn't really know because there wasn't a platform for us to continue playing,” she said. “There were so many girls that could have continued playing but had to hang up their skates to have a different career. And so I think it’s really cool to see what they’ve done. All of those players have won huge awards — for example, look at Renata [Fast], who’s 30, having just won Defender of the Year last year.”
That perspective matters, because Flanagan’s age should now be seen as an asset: she’s old enough to bring stability and experience, yet still skating at a level that earned her big minutes in the deepest defensive corps in the PWHL.
The imbalance is striking. Seventeen defenders were invited: 10 from the NCAA, only 7 from the PWHL.
And there is the issue of balance. Among the 17 defenders at camp, thirteen are left shots and only four are right shots. Narrow it down to the nine who actually skated with the Olympic group, and the split is six left, three right — with Edwards included among the righties despite being a natural forward. That leaves just two true right-shot defenders in the senior pool. Flanagan’s omission only deepens that gap.
As Mara describes, “She’s a phenomenal hockey player but an even better person. I think she lives her life with a smile on her face and a positive attitude. And she’s someone that's very infectious that you want to be around. She's always laughing, she’s always smiling, and just a great person to have on your team.
Having endured being left off the team for recent tournaments establishes Flanagan as a valuable leader in his view:
“Sometimes that makes you a stronger person, a better leader and a better person and a better hockey player.”
That’s why her omission feels bigger than just one player missing a camp. It’s about what USA Hockey values — youth over experience, experiments over balance — even at an event as large as the Olympics. Flanagan has already proved she can thrive against the best, and coaches at the highest level still trust her in critical situations. Leaving that kind of defender at home isn’t just a tough break for her — it may be a costly one for Team USA.