Amanda Pelkey has done a lot in her hockey career from the NCAA, to Olympic Games, PWHPA, PHF, and now the PWHL. She's checked all the boxes and more than she could have ever dreamed.
Amanda Pelkey has done a lot in her hockey career from the NCAA, to Olympic Games, PWHPA, PHF, and now the PWHL. She's checked all the boxes and more than she could have ever dreamed.
Amanda Pelkey has already checked all the boxes.
She left the University of Vermont as the school's all-time leading point scorer, and has compiled Olympic gold medals and World Championship medals, all while playing in just about every league professional women’s hockey had to offer.
Now a member of PWHL Boston in the team’s inaugural season, Pelkey is checking off boxes she never could have imagined when she was an aspiring hockey player dreaming of making it big.
“I think the little girl would be pretty pumped,” said Pelkey.
Sold-out arenas, national television deals, and being a full-time professional hockey player are things Pelkey could have never foreseen.
“I get to actually be a part of history, and all of the boxes that I wanted to check were already checked,” said Pelkey. “So now, you really enjoy being a part of another great league that we’re all hopeful is going to last and be the end all be all league.”
While playing in front of the home crowd in Boston’s season opener at the Tsongas Center earlier this month was a surreal moment for Pelkey, all the emotions came out at once in Saturday’s win over Montreal. Pelkey scored the overtime game-winner in Boston’s first win as a franchise, writing the first chapter in a new edition of a Boston/Montreal rivalry—a box Pelkey sure never thought would exist.
“For all of us, it was really electric,” Pelkey said. “Even though you’re the opponent, you could only feed off that energy. Our team did that all sixty minutes and plus the overtime. That goal specifically, I just got lost around the net and tried to lose my defender, and Gigi (Marvin) was making great plays all night, so I was lucky to be in the right spot at the right time.”
Like most players across the PWHL, Pelkey’s path to Saturday night’s heroics wasn’t easy. Pelkey bounced around multiple professional leagues, dealing with the uncertainty of the future of professional women’s hockey in the process. Across stints in the NWHL, PHF, and PWHPA, Pelkey’s first entirely professional season didn’t come until last year when she posted a line of 5-14-19 with the Metropolitan Riveters in the PHF.
“I learned a lot from each league in different ways,” said Pelkey. “Last year, to be honest, was the first year that I was fully pro, which is really cool. I owe a lot to the people that made that happen and gave me that opportunity along with my teammates, so it was a special year last year as well to come back to the PHF.”
But, as Pelkey has become all too familiar with, her time with the Riveters was cut short. Despite being under contract for another season, the PHF was dissolved, leaving Pelkey with another period of uncertainty. That’s when Pelkey was brought back to where it all started.
The Montpelier, Vermont native could have played her collegiate hockey wherever she wanted across Hockey East. While the historic programs at Boston University or Boston College are attractive to any player growing up in New England, Pelkey had a gut feeling to stay home.
“I knew that I wanted to stay on the East Coast, and when you’re a young hockey player you’re drawn to the BC’s and BU’s and Northeastern, UNH,” said Pelkey. “Quite honestly all the Hockey East teams I was looking at and had offers to go to. It was kind of one of those things where for me when I decided to choose UVM, it truly was a gut feeling.”
It’s safe to say Pelkey made the right choice. The standout forward left her name written all over the Vermont history books, leaving her storied four-year career as the all-time leader in goals (49), assists (56), and points (105). From there, Pelkey started her professional career while also representing Team USA in the World Championships and Olympic Games, capturing gold medals in each.
“Playing there put me in a position that I really had no other choice but to elevate my game, and I think that it was coming off of spending a lot of time with the National Team and going to camps and coming back to the team, I feel like I brought a lot of energy from those camps and confidence from those camps,” said Pelkey. “It forced me to be in a position to try and perform pretty much every single night. I really liked that pressure and I kind of grew off it.”
When Pelkey graduated from UVM, she had a decision to make on where to look for the beginning of her professional playing career. What better team than the Boston Pride, becoming the first player to sign with the franchise in June of 2015 ahead of the NWHL’s inaugural season. Again, Pelkey was staying home.
“It was the first ever league to pay players, and my mindset was if I could go live in Boston and get my rent paid for, it was the coolest thought ever,” said Pelkey. “Pretty much the day after graduation I moved there to train full-time and was fortunate enough to be a part of the inaugural season. Another historical moment, which is pretty cool.”
In her first season with the Pride, Pelkey posted seven goals and three assists for ten points in 17 goals as the Pride were awarded the Isobel Cup as league champions. In just her first professional season, she helped bring a championship to Boston’s legendary sports scene.
“I think we all have vivid memories of being able to win the first ever Isobel Cup, and it was really special,” said Pelkey.
Pelkey played two more seasons with the Pride in 2016-17 and 2018-19, notching a career-high 12 points in her last season before shifting to the Team Scotiabank in the PWHPA. Before long, she moved to the PHF, where she played for the Riveters for one season.
When the PHF was bought out last June, Pelkey was no stranger to the situation. Reevaluate her options and wait for another league to welcome her aboard.
“It’s one of those things where you have to bounce back and reevaluate truly what you want to do, and I think for me Boston was a city where I thought, OK, well, if I’m lucky enough, that’s where I get to be and have it come full circle, and that’s just where my mind kept going,” said Pelkey. “I’m pretty happy that this is where I landed.”
Pelkey joined PWHL Boston, hoping the signing would be the New England native’s final homecoming to the region she knows so well. Pelkey is beyond grateful to have the honor of representing the historical sports city of Boston for the second time in her career.
“It’s one of the best,” said Pelkey. “You’re just surrounded by sports. And not only sports, but you’re surrounded by a lot of success in sports. So I think it’s really cool to be back here and to be a part of it, and hopefully, we get to be added to the list.”
Regardless of what happens for Boston in the PWHL’s inaugural season, there’s one final box Pelkey is adding to her list of goals: to make an impact on the city she loves.
“Whether it’s practice or a game, I just hope that I make an impact in some sort of positive way, and that can be in many different forms,” said Pelkey. “I just think at the end of the day after this season, if I made a positive impact, then I’m happy.”