When Amanda Kessel first joined the Penguins' executive management program in 2022, she made clear that she wasn't retired as a player.
"I knew someday my playing career would come to an end," she said. "And that isn't now."
Kessel, 32, spent a year learning in the Penguins' program before being hired as the special assistant to the general manager/president of hockey operations last summer. Still, she expressed a desire to resume playing one day in the new Professional Women's Hockey League. She didn't declare for the draft for the PWHL's inaugural season, instead spending the year working with the Penguins and rehabbing some nagging injuries.
After declaring for this summer's draft, Kessel was selected 41st overall by Montreal.
Montreal's head coach Kori Cheverie worked with the Penguins during training camp as part of the NHL's guest coach program.
Kessel, a forward, played two years professionally in the NWHL with the New York/Metropolitan Riveters in 2016-17 and 2018-19, taking a year off from the league in the middle to play for Team USA and win Olympic gold. She was an All-Star in 2016-17, and was named All-Star MVP at the game held in Cranberry at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex. When many of the women of the NWHL split with the league to form the Professional Women's Hockey Players Association -- a group that played exhibition games while working to form a better, more sustainable professional league -- Kessel joined the PWHPA and played games with the group from 2019-21 and 2022-23.
Internationally, Kessel is an Olympic gold medalist, a two-time Olympic silver medalist, a four-time World Championship gold medalist, a three-time World Championship silver medalist, and a two-time World Junior Championship gold medalist. She's a three-time NCAA champion with the University of Minnesota and won the Patty Kazmaier Award-winner as the top women's player in college hockey.
Kessel, officially, remains on the Penguins' staff for now. It's not clear what her role may be in the front office moving forward, if she does continue to have one.
I asked Kyle Dubas in Buffalo on Saturday about Kessel declaring for the draft and her future with the Penguins.
"I don't want to speak for Amanda, and she's been outstanding in our front office," Dubas told me. "It's a tough one, because the PWHL finally started to get rolling, and it's a great avenue for women to play and be rewarded financially for their talents. So I'd like to see Amanda live that out and make sure that she's happy on that front. But at the same time, we'd love for her to stay in the front office. She was outstanding in the year on so many fronts, and her potential on the front office side is unlimited. She can run her own NHL team one day. Just the progress that she's made this year has been spectacular. So, we'll see what happens there. That's Amanda's own personal thing, and we're supportive either way."
Kessel said herself in 2022 that her "ultimate dream" would be to be the general manager of an NHL team one day. But for now, she's not done playing professionally.
