BC Bulletin

Quartet of BC Alums Make 2026 United States Women’s Olympic Hockey Team

Boston College will be well represented in Milan as Cayla Barnes, Hanna Bilka, Alex Carpenter, and Megan Keller will put on the red, white, and blue in February. 
Chris Vogel|
Former Eagles Cayla Barnes, Megan Keller, and Alex Carpenter (middle three) are joined by Hilary Knight (left) and Lee Stecklein (right) after Team USA wins 2025 IIFH Women's World Championship.
Former Eagles Cayla Barnes, Megan Keller, and Alex Carpenter (middle three) are joined by Hilary Knight (left) and Lee Stecklein (right) after Team USA wins 2025 IIFH Women's World Championship. | Matt Zambonin, IIHF

Team USA has announced the 23 women's players that will be on the plane to Italy next month where the Americans will look for their second gold medal in three tries and for revenge after Canada prevailed in the 2022 gold medal game. The roster features former college standouts from across the country and includes a quartet of former Boston College skaters. 

Cayla Barnes will head to her third Olympic games and her first as a professional as her first two came during her Boston College career that spanned from 2017 until 2023. The California-born defensewoman ranks in the top ten among Boston College’s defensewomen with 20 goals, 55 assists, and 75 points and helped lead the Eagles to three national tournament appearances. After graduating from Boston College, Barnes transferred to Ohio State where she had an assist on the only goal in the national championship game. Barnes was drafted fifth overall in the 2024 PWHL Draft by Montreal and played one season for the Victoire before signing with the expansion Seattle Torrent.

The two-time Eagle captain made her Olympic debut as a teenager at the 2018 games in PyeongChang where she was the youngest player on Team USA. Despite her young age, she played in all five games, was featured on both special teams units, and was trusted with an overtime shift in the gold medal game victory against Canada. In 2022, she was trusted to play significant minutes and took advantage, posting a goal and five assists over seven games on the way to her second Olympic medal, this one a silver.

A former collegiate teammate and current PWHL teammate of Barnes' is Hannah Bilka, who is set to make her Olympic debut after a breakout season in the PWHL. Bilka broke on to the scene her freshman year at Boston College, leading the Eagles with 37 points on way to winning the 2019-20 WHCA National Rookie of the Year award. The Shattuck-St. Mary’s product made an All-Hockey East team in each of her four years on the Heights and never finished lower than third on the team in points. After the 2022-23 season, Bilka headed to Ohio State where she led the Buckeyes in scoring and recorded the primary assist on the game winning goal in the national championship. 

Beyond the collegiate level, the Texan represented the United States at three World Championships and the last two Rivalry Series. Following the national championship victory, Bilka was selected fourth overall by the Boston Fleet in the 2024 draft before being made available in the 2025 expansion draft where she was selected fifth overall by Seattle Torrent. In 23 career PWHL games, Bilka has posted 17 points on seven goals and ten assists despite being limited by a knee injury in her rookie season.

Widely regarded as the greatest player to ever put on the maroon and gold, Alex Carpenter will head to her third Olympic games. Carpenter’s accolades in her four seasons at Boston College read like a book; 2015 Patty Kazmaier Award winner, three-time All-American, two-time All-American First Team, and one of three players to be named a Hockey East First Team All Star four times at the time of her graduation. She holds six Boston College career records; goals, assists, points, power-play goals, game-winning-goals, and plus/minus. The Bay Stater’s 278 points is the most by any Eagle, man or woman. Boston College made the Frozen Four in all four seasons Carpenter played in: 2012, 2013, 2015, and 2016, including making the national championship game in 2016. In 2015-16 she led the Eagles to 40 straight wins to start the season and was the focal point in an attack that averaged 5.2 goals per game and set the NCAA record with 379 assists and 592 points.

Carpenter made her Olympic debut as a 19-year-old in 2014, leading the United States with four goals, including the only goal for the United States in a gold-medal game loss to Canada. Four years later, she was a shocking final cut from the 2018 Olympic team, failing to make a 23-women roster she was long considered a lock for. She rebounded and made the 2022 team, going on to earn her second Olympic silver medal. Outside of the surprising 2018 omission, Carpenter has been a mainstay in the United States national team setup, collecting seven gold medals and three silvers at IIHF World Championships between 2013 and 2025, including being named Best Forward at the 2024 championships. 

Professionally, she became the first ever draft pick in the PWHL in 2015 when she was drafted by the New York Riveters. After returning to Boston College for her senior season, her rights were traded to the Boston Pride where she posted 29 points in 17 games during her rookie campaign in 2016-17. After one season with the Pride, Carpenter headed to China to play for an expansion team in the CWHL and later ZhHL. With the launch of the PWHL, the North Reading product signed with New York and was named an alternate captain, leading the league in assists in its inaugural year. In 2025, she signed with Seattle after being left unprotected in the expansion draft. Carpenter scored the first goal in Seattle Torrent history, with the goal coming against her former team.

The final Eagle to make the roster is Megan Keller. She will head to her third consecutive Olympic Games. Keller was one of the most dominant defensewomen in Hockey East history, being twice named the conference’s Cammi Granato Award Winner as the Hockey East Player of the Year, Hockey East Defensewoman of the Year three times, and a four-time First Team All-Hockey East selection. Beyond conference honors, the Michigander was the program's first three time All-American First Team selection and the second ever defensewoman to be a top-ten finalist of the Patty Kazmaier Award, including being a top-three finalist in 2018-19, her senior season. She graduated with the program and Hockey East record for goals, assists, and points by a defensewoman with 45 goals, 113 assists, and 158 points.

Keller took a leave of absence from Boston College to make her Olympic debut in 2018, leading the United States in shifts plated and tied for highest plus/minus at +5 as part of the team's gold medal victory. She would also feature in 2022, once again playing significant minutes, including leading the team in ice time during the gold medal game loss to Canada. In addition to Olympic play, she has represented the United States at ten IIHF World Championships, winning seven titles and finishing runner up the other three times.

Professionally, Keller signed with the Boston Fleet ahead of the PWHL’s inaugural season and has been with the franchise for all three seasons, the first two years as an alternate captain before being named captain ahead of the 2025-26 season. In 2023-24 she was named a finalist for PWHL Defender of the Year and was named a Second Team All-Star.

The United States begin its Olympic campaign against Czechia on Feb. 5 before playing the rest of its preliminary round games against Finland, Switzerland, and Canada from Feb. 7 until Feb. 10. The knockout stage begins with the quarterfinal on Feb. 13, the semifinals on Feb. 16, and the medal round on Feb. 19.

The men's roster was also announced on Friday morning and featured two former Boston College players.

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Chris Vogel
CHRIS VOGEL

Chris Vogel has spent the last five years in sports media; including as a play-by-play broadcaster for ACC Network Extra and Hockey East on ESPN. He’s a graduate of the University of Massachusetts and in his final year as a graduate student at Boston College, where he serves as the radio voice of Boston College Women’s Hockey on WZBC 90.3; the flagship radio network of Boston College Women’s Athletics. He’s the host of the “All Things Hockey” podcast, and cover women’s college hockey for College Hockey On SI.

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