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The 2025 Hockey Hall of Fame induction is Nov. 10. This year's class includes Jennifer Botterill, Zdeno Chara, Brianna Decker, Duncan Keith, Alexander Mogilny and Joe Thornton in the Player category and Jack Parker and Daniele Sauvageau in the Builder category. Here, NHL.com staff writer Derek Van Diest profiles Decker. Brianna Decker never played a game she desperately didn't want to win. Even in practice, up against some of her closest friends, Decker's competitiveness was legendary. Just ask Meghan Duggan, the retired captain of the United States Women's National Team and her teammate with the U.S. and at the University of Wisconsin. "She was one of the most competitive people I have ever met, probably unmatched," Duggan said. "We would practice with the national team, and we were both so competitive, we would go at it, and we'd battle hard in the corner, and I'd give her a slash, and she would turn around and cross-check me in the face. There were times when we would drop the gloves, we were just so fired up in practice, we were so competitive. We were best friends, and we laughed about it in the locker room after." Decker's competitive nature drove her to an Olympic gold medal, two silver and six IIHF Women's World Championships for the United States, and eventually an induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame. The fire was lit at a young age growing up with three brothers, Bryan, Ben and Brody, in Dousman, Wisconsin. She took up hockey with them and grew up playing against them in the backyard and skating on the local pod where no quarter was given. "If she came into the house crying, her mom would tell her she doesn't get to play with the boys anymore," said Gordie Stafford, Decker's coach at Shattuck-St. Mary's School. "Then it was like, 'OK, I guess I better suck it up,' and she brought that with her when she came to play with us." Decker immediately took to hockey when introduced to the sport, and it wasn't long before she was considered one of the best female players in Wisconsin moving up through the various age groups. "The unique thing was that my parents never played, so when my older brothers (Bryan and Ben) got involved, it was pretty new to our family," Decker said. "My parents told me that once I first got out on the ice, I loved it, I enjoyed skating and enjoyed playing the game and competing. "I started out playing with boys and I think I just felt at home, like I was playing with my three brothers at home. I just loved being able to compete with the boys and play with the boys." Decker's first taste of success came by winning the Wisconsin state championship with the Madison Capitols Under-14 boys' team. She then attended Shattuck-St. Mary's in Faribault, Minnesota, to play for Stafford, whose son Drew played 13 seasons in the NHL as a forward with the Buffalo Sabres, Winnipeg Jets, Boston Bruins and New Jersey Devils. It was the first time Decker played on an all-girls' team. She helped Shattuck-St. Mary's win under-19 national titles in 2005, 2006 and 2009 before playing at the University of Wisconsin. Decker returned to Shattuck-St. Mary's as an associate coach under Stafford in 2022. This season, the 34-year-old is going into her first year as an assistant with the Minnesota Frost of the Professional Women's Hockey League. "It's very rare with female hockey players to have somebody that is such an offensive killer, such an offensive shark and that's what she is," Stafford said. "She's certainly right up with the most competitive athletes that I've ever been around. "She has a fiery personality, and she loves her teammates. I've been around the locker room a lot and there's those players in the locker room that crack everybody up and keep everybody together and she was one of those. She just loved her team." Decker first represented the United States at the 2008 Under-18 Women's World Championship, winning gold and then another in 2009. The following season, she joined the University of Wisconsin and had 27 points (15 goals, 12 assists) in 27 games as a freshman. "You don't want the real good players to leave our state if at all possible, and obviously when she went to Shattuck and started to showcase herself around the state, she was on our radar real fast," Wisconsin coach Mark Johnson said. "To me, the most impressive thing was her competitiveness. With her, once you got to know her, and once you got to work with her and really find out about her identity, to me, that's the No. 1 thing that sticks out." As a sophomore in 2010-11, Decker helped Wisconsin win its fourth NCAA national championship. She had 80 points (34 goals, 46 assists) in 41 games that season, becoming a collegiate star. Decker played with the United States national team for the first time at the 2011 World Championship. She finished second in tournament scoring with 11 points (four goals, seven assists) in five games, helping the United States win gold with a 3-2 overtime victory against Canada in the final. "She was one of the best players in the world, early through her Wisconsin days and all the way up through the national team, and until she retired," Duggan said. "We became friends right away at Wisconsin when we played together there and then were pretty much attached at the hip from then on out. "She was one of those people that demanded nothing less than 100 percent of herself and those around her. That obviously works really well in the team game and the team environment. She was just one of the best and I'm so happy for her and I'll be there for that induction day to celebrate her, and I'm looking forward to it." Decker became a core member of the U.S. national team after the gold-medal victory in 2011. She went on to win gold at the World Championship in 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2019, and silver in 2012 and 2021. She competed in her first Olympics at the 2014 Sochi Games, losing the final to Canada 3-2 in overtime. Decker and the United States avenged the loss four years later at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics with a 3-2 shootout win in the gold-medal game. "Every Olympics is different, and obviously being able to win gold, that was the goal we set out to do ever since I was on the national team," Decker said. "I think the greatest part about winning gold was being able to win it for the players who had lost in the previous Olympics or in 2010. Those girls were grinding at that process even longer than I was and that was one of the most rewarding things is being on a team and win it for them." In between her first two Olympics, Decker graduated from Wisconsin and went on to play professionally with Boston Blades (CHWL), Boston Pride (NWHL) and Calgary Inferno (CHWL). She won the Bob Allen Women's Player of the Year Award in 2015 and '17, given annually by USA Hockey to the most outstanding U.S.-born women's ice hockey player. She was inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame with the Class of 2024. "She had one way of doing things and that was hard," Johnson said. "She was a dog in a lot of situations and a hungry one. If you took the puck from her, that probably wasn't good for you because she's coming back twice as hard to try and make sure she gets it back. "In the big games, in our games against Minnesota and the hard games we had against Duluth, she was always at her best because her competitiveness at both sides of the rink were really high and that's when she shined." Decker was a key member of a dominant national team that won four consecutive World Championships and Olympic gold in South Korea, a golden era for women's hockey in the United States. "I just think she always wants to be the best in whatever she's doing," said former U.S. teammate Kacey Bellamy. "Her demeanor and pregame preparation and how she would just be in the locker room in the zone and take everything in. That came to mental skill, team meetings, off the ice and on the ice. She was just a sponge with everything and gave 100 percent in whatever she was doing." Decker competed in her third Olympics, the 2022 Beijing Games, and left in the first period of the opener, a 5-2 win against Finland. She was forced to miss the rest of the tournament but stayed in China despite breaking her leg and tearing ligaments in her ankle. "That was a crappy injury to be honest," Decker said. "I felt good about our team going into it and I felt from a leadership standpoint we were on track, and I just wanted more than anything to be able to come back with that gold medal again, and so it was devastating. "I was grateful I was able to stay and I'm glad they gave me the option, because coming home would have been even harder, so it was good to be with the team that I had trained with for the previous six months." The United States lost 3-2 to Canada in the gold-medal game. Undoubtably, a healthy Decker would have made a difference. "It was great to have her around after she was injured, I think it would have been an odd feeling if she wasn't there," said teammate Amanda Kessel. "At the same time, it was sad and to lose your No. 1 center in a short tournament, we knew it was going to be a big challenge from there. From her standpoint, it was heartbreaking to see that. You train your whole life for those four years and for her, it was really hard to see her have to go through that and as a team, it was a big hole for us." Decker retired March 2, 2023, at the age of 31. She made peace with the way her career ended abruptly and is focused on her role as a Frost assistant. She first has to make a quick stop in Toronto. Decker got the call she was being inducted into the Hall of Fame from Ron Francis, chairman of the induction committee, and Lanny McDonald, the outgoing chairman, in June while tending to her yard. "I was honestly in pure shock," Decker said. "You don't dream of getting into the Hockey Hall of Fame, I dreamt of playing for the Wisconsin Badgers as a kid. Now I'm going to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, and it just seems so surreal to me that I'm going to be a part of history. I hope that my step kids, when they get older, they can go find me in the Hockey Hall of Fame and I think that would be a really cool moment to see that happen."
