Natalie Darwitz Q&A: On Hockey Hall of Fame Induction, Krissy Wendell-Pohl and More

More than a decade after playing her last game for Team USA, Natalie Darwitz wasn't exactly waiting by the phone for the day the Hockey Hall of Fame called.

In fact, on June 25, when the class of 2024 was announced, Darwitz was at a leadership summit hosted by the Minnesota Wild. Her phone started buzzing as she was speaking on stage. At first she thought there was an emergency with her children, but when she saw the calls were coming from Toronto, Darwitz attributed it to spam.

Finally, Cammi Granato, one of the first women inducted into the Hall of Fame, who now sits on the committee, texted her former teammate: Dar, answer your phone.

“I knew I was eligible, but I kind of forgot,” Darwtiz said in an interview with The Athletics last week.

Darwitz, 41, last played competitive hockey in 2010 as captain of Team USA at the Vancouver Winter Olympics, and she has a Hall of Fame resume for the 12 years she was eligible for enshrinement. She made her Team USA debut as a 15-year-old at the 1999 Women's World Championship and led the 2002 Olympic Games in goals just a few years later as a teenager. Darwitz won three Olympic medals, eight world championships and two NCAA titles in three years at the University of Minnesota. She was named to multiple All-Star teams, led major tournaments in scoring and was named the best forward at the 2008 World Championships, her first tournament as captain of Team USA.

In 55 games at world championships and the Olympics, Darwitz scored 43 goals and 83 points. Her 1.7 points per game at the Olympics is fourth most all-time.

Monday night's induction has been a long time coming for Darwitz, who will enter the Hall of Fame along with her longtime teammate Krissy Wendell-Pohl. They will become only the second pair of women to be inducted into the same class since Granato and Canadian forward Angela James in 2010. They are also only the third and fourth American women to be inducted into the Hall, behind Granato and defenseman Angela Ruggiero.

Darwitz, who recently guided the PWHL's Minnesota team to its first-ever Walter Cup championship before her shocking departure, spoke with The Athletics ahead of Monday's induction ceremony about her career, her friendship with Wendell-Pohl and more.

Some questions and answers have been edited for length and clarity.

First of all, congratulations. Was induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2024 on your radar?

To be honest, it really wasn't. I don't think you put on your skates dreaming of getting into the Hall of Fame. I think that's a byproduct of your career and what you do on and off the ice. If it happened, great. If not, it wouldn't take away from my career, what I've achieved and the impact I've made. You don't know how it will shake out. Some years they completely ignored the females. And so it was one of those things, like you say to your players, control what you can control. And this was something I had no control over. The hay was in the barn. What I did was in the barn and it was up to the committee to vote me in and vote Krissy in. I wasn't nervous that the ship had sailed, but I wasn't worried about whether or not to get on either.

But it is of course a huge honor to receive the call. And knowing that Krissy and I are the third and fourth US-born players, that's significant. I mean, you have Cammi, you have Angela and that's it. So it is quite important to be the next number called.

Longtime teammates Natalie Darwitz and Krissy Wendell-Pohl will be inducted into the Hall of Fame on Monday evening in Toronto. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

What does it mean to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame with someone you shared much of your career with?

This is definitely the best case scenario. It would also be cool to go in with another female. But not only were me and Krissy teammates for seven years on Team USA, and three with the Gophers, we were linemates 99 percent of those years. And we weren't just teammates, we actually grew up together.

We were placed on an American team when I was 15, she was 17. We moved to Lake Placid when I was in high school, and she had just graduated. We went through college together. We watched each other grow up, mature, go through special phases of our lives, go through unique phases during the Olympics, when it was, you know, cutthroat and stressful. Players are cut, people are sent home; the ultimate highs and lows and we helped each other through it all. So the fact that we went in together makes it even more special.

Can you give us a scouting report on Krissy Wendell-Pohl?

She is the best player I have ever seen, and I had a great opportunity to see her up close and in action. I always had way more assists than goals and I always joke. The reason for that is I just made a breakout pass to Krissy in the D-zone and then went through four, five players and the goalie and somehow I got a primary help. She was dynamic, she was electric. You knew a toe drag was coming and she was still able to get it off. Other teams tried to throw the body on her and take her off her game, but she was just too good. And she made the other team at 17 and I'm pretty sure she was at the top of the Canadian scouting report her entire career. She could do it all, and I was lucky enough to be paired with her on the phone. The scouting report promises good luck in trying to stop her.

What was it like breaking into the national team at the age of 15?

A lot of that locker room was right on the heels of winning gold in Nagano, right? And here I am, a 15-year-old coming in, and not a single player treated me like I was 15. They treated me like a teammate.

I think our first match was against Canada, and I remember my first match was against Danielle Goyette, the oldest player. And so everyone made a joke: you're fifteen and you're competing against someone twice your age. But when the puck hit the ice, I was just playing hockey. That's how I approached it. I was the youngest sibling to an older sister and an older brother and I think that helped put me in a situation where I could be around people older than me. And I think it goes back to Cammi Granato as a leader. She said, Hey, this kid can play, so we're going to do everything we can to make her feel at home here.

What are some highlights that stand out to you when you look back on your career?

I was just very lucky. I still have people to this day reminiscing and going back to how we would pack the rinks in Minnesota. I was a senior in high school when I played in my first Olympics, so the fact that I call my friends home and they say, “We had the game in science class,” is just wild. I think about hometown parades, growing the game in the community, going to the University of Minnesota. The student scene was very different from the international scene. Internationally, you actually play five games that have significance at the Olympic Games. While the college season is over 30 games, that was kind of our NHL, right? So it was great to win back-to-back national championships. The American program opened so many doors and opportunities for me. I've visited countries that I wouldn't have seen if I wasn't playing hockey.

Now it's cool to come full circle and come across someone in the hockey world who says, I remember seeing you play, or I took my daughter to see you play and you impressed her. Yes, you play to win championships, win games and do well. But I think hearing the stories about influencing other people, how you're the reason they started playing hockey or a dad let their daughter play because I paved the way or Krissy paved the way, are the cool stories that make you emotional.

Natalie Darwitz was captain of Team USA from 2007-2010. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

What did it mean to wear the C for Team USA for the last three years of your career?

The timing of it was quite transformative for me. I started coaching after 2006 and honestly it has helped me grow as a person. Before that, I was super shy and introverted and didn't really speak much and just took care of business. But having to coach brought me out of my shell a little bit and I returned to the US team after the 2006 Olympics and thought, I can only do so much on the ice, I have to start helping other players. So I just put myself out there and that's when Erika Lawler and Meghan Duggan came on the team and I just reached out a little bit more than I had in the past because I was so introverted. The following year, Krissy sadly retired and shortly afterwards I was appointed captain. It was a huge honor. Where are we, five Olympic Games in? So it is a huge honor to be with such a team captain.

Why did you start coaching while you were still playing?

A few reasons. First of all, we didn't have a PWHL, we didn't have full-time leagues. I used to play for the Whitecaps and at the weekends it was a few games. So you had to get a part-time job and my dad was the coach of our high school team and he said, Hey, you're going to be my assistant coach. At first I didn't want to coach, but I just fell in love with it. It made me better as a player because I saw the game differently. It helped me be a better communicator and helped me build relationships, and that in turn helped me go back and be a better teammate on Team USA.

Dad knows best. He knew it would be good for me. Then it became a career and things kind of went well after that.

You stopped playing in 2010, at the age of 27. What ultimately led to that decision?

I don't even know if I ever retired intentionally. I simply declined to go back to the American camp. In 2009 I had a pretty significant wrist injury and I forheld surgery because recovery took about six months. So after the 2010 Olympics I had surgery. At that time I knew I could still play mentally and physically. But it was at that time that I got tired of traveling and living out of a suitcase. And anyone who knows Minnesotans knows they were house sparrows. And I think my heart just knew I needed a break. And when I took the break, it turned out that I actually liked this break. I enjoyed coaching and I kind of transitioned from player to coach.

It's great that there's a PWHL now and players' careers are longer and they're playing into their 30s and maybe they're playing into their 40s, I don't know. When I think of the Hall of Fame, I think of someone with gray hair, because it's usually male and has had a long, healthy career in the NHL, and Krissy and I didn't have that.

(Top photo: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)