Amanda Kessel enters the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame as more than a hockey star

Amanda Kessel has always been good at making something out of nothing. “She just has this talent for lighting up a room,” her former teammate Lee Stecklein said.  Stecklein remembers one night in South Korea after Team USA won Olympic gold in 2018. The group stopped at a crowded local bar and struggled to find seats for everyone. Kessel solved the problem, as she was known to, with warmth. By the time the night was over, both strangers and teammates were crowded around playing a game she made with bottle caps.  “She just either made stuff or created the moments where you could play fun things just kind of out of nowhere,” Stecklein said.  That instinct followed Kessel onto the ice, where she became a three-time Olympic medalist, three-time NCAA champion and front office trailblazer. Finally, on Sept. 10, she was named part of the 2026 U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame class.  Her journey has not been without adversity, but as the people around her have learned, adversity is not enough to stop h