Alyssa Marie Gagliardi (born April 2, 1992) is an American

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

defender currently with the

PWHPA The Professional Women's Hockey Players Association (PWHPA) is a nonprofit 501(c)(6) organization dedicated to advocating for the promotion of professional women's ice hockey. It was founded in May 2019 following the dissolution of the Canadian W ...

. Born in

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...

and raised in Raleigh, North Carolina, Gagliardi is one of the first women from Raleigh to become a professional ice hockey player.

Playing career

Gagliardi played NCAA college hockey at Cornell University. During her four years with the team, she accumulated 89 points with the

Cornell Big Red women's ice hockey The Cornell Big Red women's ice hockey program represents Cornell University and participates in Division I collegiate hockey in the ECAC Hockey conference. They play at the Lynah Rink in Ithaca, New York. The Ivy League announced in July 2 ...

program. Gagliardi was a member of four ECAC championship teams with Cornell. She would serve as assistant captain for the team in her junior year, and co-captain in her senior year.

Professional

After graduation, Gagliardi turned professional with the

Boston Blades The Worcester Blades were a professional women's ice hockey team in the Canadian Women's Hockey League, based in Worcester, Massachusetts, and played their home games at the Fidelity Bank Worcester Ice Center. The team began play in the 2010–1 ...

of the CWHL in 2014. During the 2014–15 season, Gagliardi helped the club capture the

2015 Clarkson Cup The 2015 Clarkson Cup was a women's ice hockey tournament that was contested in Markham, Ontario to determine the champion of the Canadian Women's Hockey League from March 4 to March 7, 2014. The Boston Blades defeated the Montreal Stars by a 3-2 ta ...

. Of note, she participated in the

1st Canadian Women's Hockey League All-Star Game The 1st Canadian Women's Hockey League All-Star Game, took place on December 13, 2014 at Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Admission was free, and 6,850 people attended the game. The game aired live on Sportsnet One in Canada, as well ...

. In 2015, Gagliardi joined the Boston Pride of the new National Women's Hockey League. Gagliardi was selected to participate in the

1st NWHL All-Star Game The 1st NWHL All-Star Game took place on January 24, 2016 at HarborCenter in Buffalo, New York. The event featured two 20-minute periods in a 4-on-4 format and a Skills Competition. Team Pfalzer entered the game with a 4-0 lead having won all even ...

, which took place on January 24, 2016, at Harbor Center in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...

. The Pride would win the inaugural

Isobel Cup The Lady Isobel Gathorne-Hardy Cup, often shortened to Isobel Cup, is the championship trophy awarded annually to the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF) playoff winner. It is named after Lady Isobel Gathorne-Hardy, one of the first known women to p ...

, the championship of the NWHL. She also participated in the

3rd NWHL All-Star Game The 3rd NWHL All-Star Game took place on February 11, 2018 at TRIA Rink in Saint Paul, Minnesota. A skills competition was held the day prior on February 10, 2018. Brittany Ott of the Boston Pride and Amanda Leveille of the Buffalo Beauts serve ...

. Across 4 seasons with the Pride, she would put up 25 points in 65 games, winning the

in 2016, and being recognised with the NWHL Foundation Award in 2017. In May 2019, Gagliardi joined the #FortheGame movement, becoming a member of the

board. Later that year, she was also hired by the

Carolina Hurricanes The Carolina Hurricanes (colloquially known as the Canes) are a professional ice hockey team based in Raleigh, North Carolina. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference ...

of the

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

as their first girls’ and women’s hockey specialist.

International

In 2014 and 2015, Gagliardi played for the US National Women's Ice Hockey Team in the

Four Nations Cup The 4 Nations Cup is an annual women's ice hockey tournament, held between four major national teams in the sport; currently, these are Canada, the United States, Sweden and Finland. Until 2000, when Sweden joined, the tournament was the 3 Nation ...

tournament, winning the gold in 2014 and the silver in 2015.

Awards and honors

*NWHL Player of the Week, Awarded December 4, 2017

References

External links

* *
Alyssa Gagliardi
at Cornell Big Red * 1992 births Living people American women's ice hockey defensemen Boston Blades players Boston Pride players Cornell Big Red women's ice hockey players Isobel Cup champions Premier Hockey Federation players Place of birth missing (living people) {{US-icehockey-bio-stub