Annapolis Native, Lacey Eden, is a hockey dynamo for Team USA and the Wisconsin Badgers
When it comes to the playing the highest level of women’s ice hockey, Annapolis native Lacey Eden just goes for it, no matter the result. Her first shot to make the U.S. Olympic team came in 2022 and she was very close to doing so.
Having played for the NCAA Division I 2021 national championship team—the University of Wisconsin—and in the International Hockey Federation World Championships the same year, helped her emerge as a strong candidate for Team USA.
Recognizing her talent, Team USA invited her and 27 other players to its Olympic residency program, but Eden, who attended Archbishop Spalding in Severn for two years, ended up being one of the final cuts. Not making the U.S Olympic team that year, which competed in the Beijing, China, Olympics devastated Eden.
“I would do anything to be on the Olympic team,” explains Eden, who has played on three Wisconsin national title teams, so far.
Eden, a 5-foot-8 senior forward, made another strong push at making the Olympic squad in the second half of last year, participating in USA Hockey’s 30-player evaluation camps in Canada and the United States. But she fell short of making the team, again, in late December.
“It’s something I have spent the last eight years training for every single day,” Eden says. “I would really do anything to be on that team. I really wanted it more than anything.”
Eden still has some big hockey moments ahead. She hopes to end her collegiate career with a fourth national title in late March. “I want to finish my college career on a high note,” Eden says of another NCAA crown. “It gets more and more special with every title you win.”
Photographs courtesy USA Hockey and University of Wisconsin Athletics
Coming up in late June, Eden expects to get drafted into the Women’s Professional Hockey League (WPHL). The odds favor her. The Hockey News ranks the 22-year-old Eden as the fifth best player available for the draft.
The WPHL is in its third year and offers Eden (94 points in 63 games from 2024 to 2026) a good way to start a career. “It’s a really good league and one that pays the athletes well enough to make a living,” Eden says.
How long have you been thinking about playing on the U.S. Olympic team? It has been a dream of mine forever. It’s an obsession. It’s something I have spent the last eight years just training for every single day. I would do anything to be on the team.
With your college and world championship experience, were you expecting to be on the Olympic team? Anything could happen really. The last couple of weeks in December were the most important for me. I really focused on that. I had to play my game and show my value to make the team. We had six one-week training camps throughout the season with USA Hockey. The last one was in Edmonton.
What’s the feeling of winning three national championships? It is surreal to look back at all that I have accomplished in my Wisconsin career. I want to finish my career on a high note—with another national championship. It gets more special with every title you win. As I get older, I can look back and think of the moment of winning a national championship. I think about where I was in life at that point. Once you get one, you just want more.
Why did you end up picking Wisconsin? Wisconsin has a long history of being a winning program. I wanted to win and play with the best players in the country and be the best player. We have won three national championships and hopefully we can grab another in March before I graduate. I made the right choice, and I think it has worked out pretty well.
Photographs courtesy USA Hockey and University of Wisconsin Athletics
Explain your strengths as a hockey player. What are most known for? I am known as a two-way player. I think I am a very smart player. I see the ice well and passing lanes before they open up. I have goal-scoring ability and a knack for shooting the puck to the right places. I have a great shot and a net-front presence. I can score from a lot of different areas. I am also very defensively sound and play a 200-foot game.
What kind of training do you do on and off the ice? I have been training pretty hard since high school. I try to be on the ice as much asPossible—like three hours a day. I will even do more than that on some days. At Shattuck, we had ice available all the time. Sometimes, I was on the ice for four hours a day. Off the ice, I am committed to being in the gym. In the offseason, I work out for four hours a day. I go into the gym at least five days a week. I will be in the gym for an hour and a half. Then I supplement that with sprinting, plyometrics, and cardio.
Do you want to play professional hockey? I will go into the Professional Women’s Hockey League draft once the Wisconsin season is over. This is its third season. It’s really cool that we have this platform. Now, there are eight teams, and they will probably expand next year to 10 to 12 teams. It’s a really good league. It’s something I have dreamed of. So, I am excited to take that next step.
Can you talk about the top caliber teams you played for growing up? What were the most interesting things about them? I started playing Navy Youth Hockey. I was four years old. I played for both boys and girls there. After that, I made a triple-A team, Team Maryland in Rockville. I played for them for three years. Then, I joined another triple-A team, the Little Caps in Arlington, Virginia. I played on boys teams until my junior year of high school. It really helped me develop. The boys force you to play more physical and faster. There just wasn’t great girls hockey in the area when I was younger.
Why did you leave Spalding after your sophomore year? I went to a prep school in Minnesota (Shattuck-Saint Mary’s School). Shattuck is known for developing hockey players. I really wanted to go there, and it turned out to be the best thing for my development. I loved Spalding, so it was definitely sad to leave there. Everybody has their different paths. I felt it would help me out in the long run.
