PITTSBURGH — The NHL was far from Krissy Wendell-Pohl's mind when she got the unexpected phone call from the Penguins.
Her distinguished hockey life had taken her all over. She captained Minnesota to back-to-back National Championships in 2004 and 2005. She represented the USA on numerous occasions on the world stage, including at the 2002 and 2006 Olympics. She had lived in Europe while her husband and former NHL player, John Pohl, played out his professional career.
But now, at 40 years old and with her playing days in the past, Wendell-Pohl felt content settling into life as a high school administrator and a mother of three young girls — 13-year-old Emily, 11-year-old Anna and 9-year-old Lucy.
"Once we started a family, it was mom first for me," Wendell-Pohl said. "Hockey kind of took a back seat, which I was OK with, because I love being a mom. I love having kids."
Then, things changed. Chris Pryor, the Penguins director of player personnel, reached out with an opportunity that made Wendell-Pohl rethink the next step in her hockey life. How would she like to serve as an amateur scout in the Minnesota area?
"When I think of scouting, I think of traveling and flying all around," Wendell-Pohl said. "I was like, 'There's no way I'm ready for all of that.'
"But as we chatted about what it is, being local and being here in Minnesota where there's a lot of great colleges and high schools and juniors that are really close by, it made it more realistic and made me more excited."
The Penguins hired Wendell-Pohl based on her credentials, her knowledge of the game, her eye for talent and her passion. But in doing so, they also made a bit of franchise history. Wendell-Pohl represents the first female scout in the organization's history.
In recent years, women have begun to crack through the glass ceiling and enter the world of male-dominated sports. In 2018, the Toronto Maple Leafs hired the NHL's first full-time female amateur scout, Noelle Needham. Then in September of 2019, the Seattle Kraken hired former Team USA star and Hockey Hall of Famer Cammi Granato as the NHL's first female professional scout.
"We're seeing it more and more, with women getting involved in male-dominated sports," Wendell-Pohl said. "It's great to see. Our three daughters, they're pretty excited about the example it can set for them."
While the hiring is a milestone moment for the Penguins, it's far from the only time she's excelled in a male-dominated sports climate.
As a kid growing up in Brooklyn Park, Minn., Wendell-Pohl's parents encouraged her to play a number of different sports. So she skated with the boys during the winter and in the summer time donned the gear as the catcher of the Little League baseball team.
In 1994, her team advanced all the way to the Little League World Series to represent the Central region. With her dad serving as the coach, Wendell-Pohl broke down one barrier as the first girl to start as a catcher in the history of the tournament.
"For me, I was pretty much the only girl on my team for as long as I can remember for most of my youth," Wendell-Pohl said. "The community I grew up in was incredibly supportive. I never felt like I wasn't welcomed or I wasn't part of the team."
Although Wendell-Pohl played a number of different sports, hockey was always her passion. Even after making her record-setting start, she actually flew home from the Little League World Series a few days early to ensure she wouldn't miss a hockey game.
From there, Wendell-Pohl built a resume few athletes can even imagine.
In high school, she won the Minnesota Ms. Hockey award in 2000. At the college level, she was honored with the 2005 Patty Kazmier Award as the best NCAA Division I Women's Ice Hockey Player. Then on the international stage, she added medals of every color with a silver medal at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, a bronze medal at the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy and a gold medal at the Ice Hockey Federation Women's World Championship in 2005.
She eventually retired in 2006 and started a family with her husband. Asked which part of that long resume she's most proud of, Wendell-Pohl couldn't choose just one moment.
"Just the people and the journey and the experiences we had along the way were probably my favorite thing," she said.
Because of the unique nature of the job, Wendell-Pohl is looking forward to balancing her home life with her new responsibilities within the Penguins organization. She plans to bring her daughters along for some of her local scouting trips and, who knows, maybe inspire them to one day continue to follow the same path she's helping to blaze.
