After announcing before the 2025-26 PWHL season that it would be her last in order to focus on her studies, Hannah Brandt made her retirement from hockey official at the age of 32, following an illustrious career capped with one Olympic and three World Championship Gold medals, but falling short of the Triple Gold Club after the Boston Fleet were eliminated from the Walter Cup postseason by Ottawa.

A standout at the University of Minnesota, Brandt helped lead the Golden Gophers to three NCAA titles in her four collegiate seasons (2013, 2015, 2016), being named a Patty Kazmaier Award finalist in each season of her career. Joining the then-independent Minnesota Whitecaps after college, Brandt would follow the Whitecaps to the NWHL in 2018-19 where she would win the Isobel Cup, the last under the NWHL before shifting to the PHF. Rather than join the PHF, Brandt would instead join the PWHPA, spending two seasons with Minnesota before being drafted 27th overall by Boston in the inaugural PWHL Draft in 2023. Brandt would spend all three of her PWHL seasons with the Fleet, making the inaugural Walter Cup final in 2024; however, Boston would fail to make the playoffs in 2025, and was eliminated by the Ottawa Charge in the 2026 semifinals, ending her career short of the Walter Cup.

A Minnesota native, Brandt would join the senior American squad shortly after her lone Under-18 Championships in 2011, being named to her first World Championship squad in 2012. In her five World Championship appearances, Brandt would capture three Gold (2015, 2017, 2019) and two Silver (2012, 2022) medals, along with picking up three Gold (2016, 2017, 2018) and one Silver (2014) in each of her Four Nations Cup appearances. Brandt’s biggest achievement, however, was her 2018 Olympic Gold at the PyeongChang Games, made more special being played in Korea, the birth country of her adopted sister Marissa, who suited up at the same Games for the Unified Korean team. Brandt would capture an Olympic Silver at the 2022 Beijing Games, capping her international career at the World Championships later that year.

Over the course of her long career, Brandt would capture the IHLC a dozen times, first in the lead-up to the 2011 World Championships, with the final coming eleven years later during the Rivalry Series. We wish Hannah and her family the very best for his retirement and the things to come!

Photo Credit: Inside Hook – IIHF – HHOF – IOC