Team USA’s Gabby Kim shoots on net during a practice at the USA Hockey Women’s National Festival on Monday in Lake Placid. (Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)

LAKE PLACID — Some of the top women’s hockey players from across the United States are in Lake Placid this week for the annual USA Hockey Women’s Festival and the Girls National Under-18 Select Player Development Camp.

The camp, which kicked off on Monday and will run until Saturday, features more than 100 women’s hockey players from three different levels, while serving as a key step in the selection process for upcoming international competition, including the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games.

Thirty of these players are vying for a spot on the U.S. national team, which will go to the upcoming Olympics; however, that roster won’t be announced until later this year. Meanwhile, 46 women are trying out for the U.S. Under-18 women’s select team, and 46 others for the U.S. Collegiate women’s select team.

“After our camp this first week, we’ll cut our rosters down for the U18 and college teams and select a roster of 25 players from each of those,” Women’s National Team Programs Director Katie Million said. “Then, Hockey Canada will be coming into town next week, and we’ll play the three-game series with them.”

Those series games will take place at the Olympic Center’s 1932 Jack Shea Arena and in the 1980 Herb Brooks Arena. Admission is required for those games and can be purchased at tinyurl.com/y7m939mt.

–

The upcoming Games

–

While the intensity is always high, it’s especially elevated for the national team with the Olympics less than 200 days away.

The U.S. has always succeeded in women’s hockey, having medaled at every single Olympics since women’s hockey debuted in 1998; but they’ve won gold twice — in 1998 and in 2018 — Canada has won the other five golds.

With the U.S. coming off an IIHF Women’s World Championship title in April, Million is really excited about the potential for this group.

“If you look at the roster, we have a really nice mix of veterans and younger players, and I’ll just say, I think that’s a little bit of our secret sauce,” she said. “It’s just to have a good balance of ages, abilities and players’ personalities that have really come together and gelled as a team. It’s fun to see this group together because they do have a lot of fun together, and I do believe that you have to have fun to be successful.”

The current 30-player group, which will be split up into 23 players — 20 skaters and 3 goaltenders — for the Games, includes six athletes who have competed at multiple Olympic Games. But there’s also a handful who are hoping to make their first appearance at the Games.

But for Kendall Coyne Schofield, who has competed in three Olympics, age is just a number. Experience is something else, and all of the players have that.

“You can look at our players who are younger in age, but if you look at their experience, they have an incredible amount of experience,” she said. “They may be young, but they’re just that good and they have an incredible amount of experience that they bring every day, and when they step on the ice, that they’ll bring forward into the season as well.”

Taylor Heise is among the young group hoping to make their first Olympics. The now-25-year-old was cut from the Olympic roster in 2022, but since then has proven to be one of the top U.S. women’s hockey players.

She was named the IIHF World Women’s Championship MVP in 2022, was selected first overall in the PWHL draft in 2023 and has since helped lead her PWHL team, the Minnesota Frost, to back-to-back championships. But to her, making the Olympics would mean everything.

“I think it would mean the hard work that I put in for the past 19 years was worth it,” she said. “All the competitions and everything that I missed, the things that I did and all that. It’s not the specific thing that’s going to make me realize all that was worth it, but it’s definitely something that kind of pats you on the back and helps you to see that everything you did was worthwhile. The Olympics is something I’ve watched since I was probably 8 or 9, and just being able to be a part of that whole thing would be amazing.”

–

An important time

–

This camp has a little bit more meaning than it did in years prior. In the past, the squad would formalize in September before the Games, and essentially live together until then. That won’t be the case this time around.

“Having a professional league, for our players, they’ll go play in that professional league and they’ll play on their college teams, then we’ll go to the Olympics,” Million said. “We feel like with the viability of those leagues and for them to have places to play and have competition, the residency isn’t necessarily needed like it used to be in the past.”

Million added that USA Hockey will be getting together at least once a month before formalizing the roster. During this camp, and another camp in September, they’ll take notes and evaluate players.

“Every time we step on the ice together, every touch point is an opportunity to evaluate,” she said. “Then, in November and in December, we’ll get together with Hockey Canada and play our Rivalry Series Games, and we’ll play four games.”

Having competed in several Olympics, Coyne Schofield said the mood at these camps is to keep the intensity up, while also focusing on what they can control.

“I think that’s one thing that this group does a really good job of is focusing on what we can control and leaving out what we can’t,” she said. “I mean, anytime you’re trying to be the best team in the world, it’s going to be competitive, it’s going to be intense and you need that.”

–

Growth in the game

–

Having watched a handful of practices this week, Million said she’s always blown away by how skilled and advanced the players are. And it’s not just from the national players, it extends to the younger teams, as well.

“We just had a development camp for U15, and then a 16, 17 camp and a U19 camp,” she said. “Just the future is bright, let’s put it that way. There’s always excitement and seeing those kids and how advanced they are.”

The game is growing in skill and in some parts of the world, in popularity. The PWHL itself has seen that firsthand.

After completing its second season, the league is already set to expand with the addition of two more teams — now marking eight total teams. Both viewership and overall attendance have skyrocketed, according to the PWHL’s website.

Coyne Schofield, a member of the Frost alongside Heise, said the landscape of women’s hockey is evolving before everyone’s eyes, and it’s incredible where it’s at. She thinks it’s only going to keep getting better and bigger.

“I look at the U18 players here and I can’t wait to see the opportunities and experience that those players are going to have that some of the older players here didn’t have,” she said. “That’s the purpose of leaving the game better than when we found it, and I think everyone’s been carrying that mission forward. We stand on the shoulders of those who came before us, and that’s the reality for those of us who are here. The players who aren’t here will help build what we have here today.”

Before speaking with the Enterprise on Tuesday, Heise took some time to talk with some young fans who watched the U.S. practice. She noted that not everything is perfect in the league, but she’s hopeful that it will change in the years to come.

“We’ve had some flights that don’t go through, we’ve had buses and all that stuff,” she said. “But it’s those things that make you happy and excited for the future because every young kid that’s watching, they’re not going to have that. We’re going to have everything ironed out by that point and everything’s been getting better year after year after year. So it’s been fun to watch and fun to be a part of it.”