As the youngest sibling, Amanda would constantly be trailing her older brothers around. “Whatever they were doing, I wanted to do,” she said. “I played every sport, but I fell in love with hockey. Growing up in Wisconsin, that’s something that you do, skate on the pond.”
They would constantly battle each other whenever they were on the ice. Amanda remembers playing 1v1v1 with Phil and Blake, saying, “I think I would only have to shoot it in the net and Phil would have to hit a post. I had easier rules [laughs], but it was always, like, the competition between us was always there. That's something that I felt carried over to my career.”
Just the other day, Phil said he had been on the golf course reminiscing with a friend about the 4v4 and 5v5 games they would play with Amanda, Blake and Ryan Suter, with the longtime NHL defenseman and fellow Wisconsin native also part of the 2026 class.
“The competitiveness was crazy,” Phil said. “I mean, if people got to see what we used to do - slash and hit and fights in summer hockey - they probably wouldn't really believe some of the stuff that happens.”
Amanda loved nothing more than beating her brothers, who were also some of her biggest supporters.
“Every summer for, I don't know, four to six years, it was just the three of us that trained together. That's something that was always special to me,” Amanda said. “We'd be running tempos, and you're supposed to not go 100%. Well, I would run it 100% to try to beat Phil or whatever it was. That's just how we grew up and what pushed us so far to succeed.”
Phil turned pro after one year at the University of Minnesota, where he was named the WCHA’s Rookie of the Year. Amanda joined the Golden Gophers a few years later, winning national titles in two of her first three seasons before earning a silver medal at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
From there, she was forced to take a year off from school and hockey while dealing with the effects of a concussion sustained while playing for Team USA. Amanda was referred to Dr. Michael ‘Micky’ Collins, who currently serves as the clinical and executive director of the UPMC Sports Medicine Concussion Program, and eventually returned to the ice to win her third NCAA national championship in 2016.
It was a time of celebration for the Kessel family, as that same spring, Phil won the first of his two championships with the Penguins. He endeared himself to his teammates and the fans with his goal-scoring acumen, charmingly cantankerous personality and unique approach to the game. Pittsburgh ultimately had huge impacts on both of their U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame journeys, with Amanda later joining the Penguins hockey operations staff.
“Obviously the runs in Pittsburgh, you'll always remember those,” Phil said. “Those are my favorite years, right? Because as everyone knows, it's so hard to win. And we had a great group there, and we had a ton of fun, and a lot of great guys played. Some are still playing. Those years just stick out to me. Obviously, integral years to my career, and 10 years – it seems like yesterday that we did it. It goes by fast, right?”
He went on to play three years with the Arizona Coyotes before earning another Stanley Cup in his final NHL campaign in 2022-23 with the Vegas Golden Knights. Phil has been living in Arizona with his family ever since, “playing a lot of golf.” When asked if he would attend the 2017 Cup reunion this season, saying the fans would be ecstatic, Phil said that time will tell.
“The fans, the city - they love their sports, they love the Penguins. They treated me so well there. I'll be forever grateful for the city and the organization,” Phil said. “I still have tons of friends outside of hockey there that I still talk to today. I couldn't be more proud to be a Pittsburgh Penguin and part of the culture and the city there and that organization.”
Amanda enjoyed watching and experiencing those Penguins runs as a spectator. But when it came to her own on-ice goals outside of college, competing in tournaments like the Olympics and the World Championships were her Stanley Cup. That made getting the call about entering the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame even more surreal.
“It's something that was unexpected, getting a call a couple months ago. I think since then it really hasn't sunk in, just because this is what I did my whole life,” Amanda said. “You know, this is me. We didn't really have a steady professional women's hockey league at the time, so USA Hockey really was everything for the women's game.”
The U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Induction Celebration, which will include the formal enshrinement of the Class of 2026 along with the presentation of the NHL’s Lester Patrick Trophy, will be held on November 30 in Washington, D.C.
“I'm just happy to be inducted,” Phil said. “Obviously, I'm excited to go in with my sister. She was a great player. This is a great class.”
