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By bettering the players around her, Fleet captain Megan Keller became the best
"And there’s no one better than Megan Keller," a former coach says.
Dotting the walls of Boston College’s women’s hockey facility are photos of some of the greatest players to come through the program — world champions, Patty Kazmaier Award winners, and Olympians.
Every once in a while, if the current team is lucky, some of the players from the photos return to Chestnut Hill for an afternoon. The athletes who previously existed to them on video and in legend become real, flesh-and-blood human beings.
No visitor draws more awe than Megan Keller, the three-time Olympic medalist and seven-time world champion, the one who led NCAA defenders in scoring for three years and who graduated BC as the program’s all-time leader in defense scoring with 158 points.
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She scored the golden goal as Team USA beat Canada in overtime for the gold medal at the 2026 Olympics, and as the captain of the Boston Fleet this season, she paced the team to its best regular season in franchise history and the No. 2 seed in the Walter Cup playoffs, which begin Thursday at the Tsongas Center.
Throughout her career — whether at BC, on Team USA, or with the Fleet — Keller has elevated the play of those in her orbit, which in turn drove her to new heights.
“It’s pretty awesome to see how much our current players look up to her and want to be like her,” BC coach Katie Crowley said. “That’s what you want. From little kids growing up to our players now, you want them to push to be one of the best.
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“And there’s no one better than Megan Keller.”
After her junior year of college, Keller took a year off from school to centralize for the 2018 Olympics, where she led the Americans in ice time and propelled Team USA to its first gold medal in 20 years.
When Keller returned to Chestnut Hill the following year, Crowley could sense a shift in her game. She was faster, stronger, and more confident than before her Olympic debut — and Crowley noticed a gradual difference in the rest of her roster, too.
“She elevated those around her so much more,” Crowley said. “Everyone knew they had to play at a faster pace. They had to move pucks quicker and be a little more physical. When you have a player like Megan, the team wants to be better.”
That’s a feeling Haley Winn can relate to. Boston’s top pick (second overall) in the 2025 PWHL Draft often finds herself on a defense pairing with Keller, creating one of the most dynamic blue-line duos in the league.
They are two of the Fleet’s top four scorers this season — Keller is second with seven goals and 15 assists, and Winn is fourth with five goals and 14 assists.
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They work well together, assistant coach Stefanie McKeough said, “because [Winn is] a student of the game and has a wonderful teacher in that partner.”
Winn goes to Keller whenever she has questions, and Keller is quick to offer advice and extra reps in practice. But the relationship doesn’t just go one way.
“Obviously I’m a rookie in the league, and there’s not a whole lot that I need to be telling her by any means, but if there ever is something she can get better at, she wants to know,” Winn said. “Even if it’s coming from a rookie, she doesn’t care. She’s always trying to get better.”
But while some athletes of Keller’s caliber have a reputation for being workaholics, that’s not her reality. During drills and weight-room sessions, the defender is the most competitive person in the room.
But she also has an off switch.
“She’s not out there doing anything crazy extra, but she’s doing everything right,” said Fleet center Hannah Brandt, Keller’s longtime roommate. “She has great balance in her life.”
She and Brandt have lived together for three years in a house they call “The Shelter” because of the constant stream of teammates filtering in and out.
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As the team captain, Keller is often the one spearheading team get-togethers, whether it’s a concert, a movie night, or an evening out in Boston. An avid music fan, she spends the offseason going to concerts and rating them on her Instagram account, @MegsGoingOnTour.
She’s the class clown with coaches and teammates between drills at practice, but when the whistle blows, her drive to win is unparalleled — something McKeough said “you can’t teach.”
“That’s always something I’ve struggled with, to be honest — hockey is what I do, not who I am,” Winn said. “She’s a good reminder that you’re able to have so much fun outside the rink and still be dialed when you come in and be the greatest defender in the world that she is.”
Keller doesn’t show a shred of ego and ardently refuses to talk about herself, among the reasons why Crowley is thrilled that her athletes look up to Keller. She proves it’s possible to be the best in the world at her position and still be “just a normal person,” Crowley said.
“It’s always about how her team helped her, how everybody else helped her get to where she is,” Crowley said. “And she deserves a lot of the credit herself, but she won’t take it.”
Growing up outside of Detroit, Keller followed her older brother, Ryan, into the rink at such a young age that they couldn’t find hockey pads small enough. The siblings battled it out in the driveway and the basement, leaving holes in the walls and dents in the ceilings.
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Their parents prioritized making sure their kids were, first and foremost, great teammates and hard workers. Homework came first, then hockey. Playing a bad game was fine, but if a bad game was the result of a bad effort, that’s where her parents drew the line.
That mind-set paid off for both Keller children on the ice. Ryan topped out after four years at Michigan State, though he won a third consecutive beer league championship this year. (“Big year for the Kellers,” his Olympic gold medalist sister said with a laugh.)
The younger Keller, now nearly 30, is destined for the Hall of Fame and is still getting better. A shoo-in for PWHL defender of the year honors, she set career highs in goals (7), assists (15), and points this season, including a four power-play goals and three game-winners.
“Someone that’s so into their craft, so unbelievably competitive, such a high-end, elite talent but also so humble — that comes from your upbringing,” Fleet coach Kris Sparre said. “As a parent, I hope my kids are like that one day.”
But Keller brushes off her individual accolades and eye-popping numbers. They’re merely byproducts of her focus on making the team — and even the next generation of hockey players — better around her.
“Who wouldn’t want to play in a D-pair with her?” Crowley said. “She gives credit to those around her, but that also is her helping them learn and helping them get better — whether it’s Haley Winn or it’s my 12-year-old daughter.”
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