Alex Carpenter
Alexandra Carpenter is an American professional ice hockey forward for the Seattle Torrent of the Professional Women's Hockey League and the American national team.
Widely recognized as one of the top players in women's hockey, Carpenter won the Patty Kazmaier Award as the best player in NCAA in 2015 and holds numerous Boston College scoring records. She has represented the United States in multiple Winter Olympics and World Championships, earning silver medals at the 2014 and 2022 Olympics and gold medals at the World Championships in 2013, 2015, 2016, and 2019. She was named Best Forward at the 2024 IIHF World Championship where she tied for the tournament lead in scoring.
After being unexpectedly cut from the 2018 Olympic team despite being considered one of the world's best players, she spent several seasons playing in China before returning to North America. She signed with Seattle in 2025 after playing for PWHL New York during the league's inaugural season.
Early life
Born in North Reading, Massachusetts, Alex is the oldest child and only daughter of Julie Carpenter, a former competitive figure skater and former National Hockey League player Bobby Carpenter. She has two younger brothers: Robert and Brendan. The family relocated multiple times during Carpenter's childhood to accommodate her father's NHL career, including moves to Morristown, New Jersey, and Albany, New York. By the time Carpenter reached high school age, the family settled permanently in North Reading, with her parents recognizing the toll that frequent moves had taken on other NHL families. Her father built backyard ice rinks at each of their homes, following a tradition established by his own father. The backyard rink, illuminated by floodlights, became a central gathering place for the Carpenter children, with late-night skating sessions that Bobo Carpenter later described as "special moments" that brought the siblings close together.Despite being immersed in a hockey environment, Carpenter initially played soccer and did not take up hockey until age seven, which was considered late by hockey family standards. Bobby Carpenter intentionally did not pressure his children to play hockey, believing that "if the child doesn't want to do it, they're not going to be good at it." Once Carpenter began playing, her father provided extensive mentorship, often picking her up from school during his tenure with the Devils organization and bringing her to the team's practice facility in West Orange, New Jersey, for personalized training sessions focused on skating and puck control. On one occasion, she borrowed Brian Gionta's skates and took shots on Martin Brodeur after Devils practices. Carpenter played youth hockey with the Valley Jr. Warriors alongside her brother, describing the organization as "paramount to the careers that we have today." She was often the only girl on the ice, and at age 10, her father had to coach her on handling the attention and compliments from admirers.
When Carpenter was nine years old, her father took her to the Polar Bears Tournament in Connecticut, where she competed against much older players and demonstrated exceptional ability, leading Bobby Carpenter to recognize her potential for elite-level play. As a child, Carpenter watched the 2002 Winter Olympics at age eight, which inspired her Olympic aspirations. Her father introduced her to Vicki Movsessian, a member of the United States' 1998 gold medal-winning team, who brought her Olympic medal. Upon seeing it, the young Carpenter told her father, "that's really nice, but it's not going to be as nice as the one I'm going to wear."
In the fall of 2007, Carpenter joined The Governor's Academy in Byfield, Massachusetts, where she played for their varsity team beginning at 13 years old. Over four years, she totaled 239 goals and 427 points in 100 games, being named team MVP in each season and captaining the team as a senior.
Playing career
College
On July 22, 2010, Carpenter committed to play college ice hockey at Boston College. After fielding calls from over 20 programs on the first day she was eligible for recruitment, she chose between Boston College and Harvard, swayed in part by her experience playing alongside BC students at the international level and her respect for Eagles coach Katie King.In the 2011–12 season, Carpenter's freshman year, she led the Eagles in scoring with 39 points, the first freshman to do so since 2006. She was named a first team Hockey East All-Star and to the conference's All-Rookie Team, as well as its rookie of the month on four separate occasions.
In her sophomore season in 2012–13, Carpenter led the Eagles with 70 points, including a conference-leading 48 points in Hockey East play. She set a conference record with a 24-game point streak from October 21, 2012 to February 2, 2013, and was named player of the year for both Hockey East and New England. She recorded her 100th career point against UConn on February 17, 2013.
Carpenter took a leave of absence for the 2013–14 season in order to prepare for the 2014 Winter Olympics with the American national team.
During her junior season, the 2014–15 season, Carpenter recorded 37 goals and 44 assists for 81 points, all of which led the NCAA. She also led the nation in goals per game, assists per game, points per game, and game winning goals. She recorded multiple points in a game on 25 occasions, including six points against Harvard on November 28, 2014. For her achievements, she was named Hockey East player of the year and won the Patty Kazmaier Award, becoming the first Boston College player and the first player from the Hockey East conference to claim the award.
As a senior and one of three team captains in the 2015–16 season, Carpenter set program records with 43 goals, 45 assists, and 88 points in 41 games. She recorded four hat tricks, including four goals against Syracuse University on December 10, 2015, a game in which she set the program record for career goals. She was named Most Valuable Player of the Hockey East Tournament, scoring three goals and six points as Boston College claimed the conference championship. She and the Eagles' season would end in the finals of the 2016 Frozen Four, with the team having set NCAA records for assists and points in a season, with 379 and 592, respectively. She was named a top-three finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Award, but ultimately did not repeat as its winner.
Upon her graduation in 2016, Carpenter's 133 goals, 145 assists, and 278 points were the most in Eagles history. She also set program records in power play goals, game-winning goals, and plus/minus, and ranked fifth in all-time NCAA goals and points.
NWHL (2015–17)
Carpenter was the first player selected in the National Women's Hockey League's inaugural 2015 NWHL draft, chosen first overall by the New York Riveters on June 20, 2015. However, she opted to return to Boston College for her senior season rather than immediately joining the league. On April 28, 2016, Carpenter's playing rights were traded from the Riveters to the Boston Pride in exchange for the rights to Miye D'Oench, the Pride's fourth-round selection from the 2015 draft. During the summer of 2016, following her graduation from Boston College, Carpenter signed a one-year contract with the Pride worth $19,500, making her the highest-paid player from the 2015 NWHL draft class.In the 2016–17 season, Carpenter made an immediate impact with the Pride. She recorded 9 goals and 20 assists for 29 points in 17 regular season games, finishing as the league's second-highest scorer. She finished the season as the second highest scorer in the league.
Carpenter was selected to participate in the 2nd NWHL All-Star Game in February 2017, playing for Team Steadman, where she recorded a goal and an assist.
Following her single season in the NWHL, Carpenter registered for the 2017 Canadian Women's Hockey League Draft and was selected in the second round, 13th overall, by the Shenzhen-based Kunlun Red Star WIH, one of two Chinese expansion teams entering the CWHL. She would not sign with Kunlun until January 15, 2018, after being cut from the United States roster for the 2018 Winter Olympics.
Shenzhen KRS and Shenzhen KRS Vanke Rays (2017–2021)
Following her season in the NWHL, Carpenter registered for the 2017 Draft of the Canadian Women's Hockey League and was drafted in the second round, 13th overall by Shenzhen-based Kunlun Red Star WIH, one of the two Chinese expansion teams. On January 15, 2018, after being cut from the United States Olympic team, she signed with Kunlun, swayed in part by her father Bobby Carpenter being a coach of their Kontinental Hockey League club, HC Kunlun Red Star. The following season, the two Chinese CWHL teams were merged to become the Shenzhen KRS Vanke Rays, and Carpenter re-signed with the team. She would finish the 2018–19 season with 31 points in 28 games.With the CWHL ceasing operations after the 2018–19 season, the Vanke Rays joined the Zhenskaya Hockey League, the Russian women's league. Carpenter again chose to remain in China, citing the better facilities and player support provided by the team than what she had experienced in the NWHL. She supported the boycott of North American leagues that had led to the formation of the Professional Women's Hockey Players Association and occasionally attended its meetings despite being unable to participate in its events.
Carpenter served as Shenzhen's captain for the 2020–21 season, recording 29 goals and 55 points in 28 games in what would be her last season in China.
Professional Women's Hockey Players Association (2022–23)
On May 2, 2019, over 200 women's hockey players announced via coordinated social media posts that they would boycott any professional league in North America for the 2019-20 season.The players stated they were "coming together, not just as individual players, but as one collective voice to help navigate the future" of women's professional hockey. On May 20, 2019, the players formed the Professional Women's Hockey Players Association as a non-profit organization. The PWHPA organized the Dream Gap Tour that toured several cities in Canada and the United States, featuring community involvement events and exhibition games where the top players in the sport competed. The 2022–23 season saw Carpenter return to North America, participating in PWHPA events for the first time with Team Scotiabank, earning PWHPA All-Star honors and a spot in the skills competition at the 2023 National Hockey League All-Star Game.