Boston Fleet forward and multiple PHF record holder Jillian Dempsey retires from hockey

After a 12-year professional career, Jillian Dempsey announced her retirement from hockey on Tuesday.

The announcement came via Dempsey’s Instagram account where she quoted Sidney Crosby, “what do you call a life dedicated to hockey? I call it time well spent.”

Dempsey also shared some of her own thoughts on her career and her life of hockey.

“It is bittersweet to retire from playing the game I love,” Dempsey wrote. “I feel overwhelming gratitude for the incredible journey. Thank you to everyone who has supported me and been in my corner. You know who you are.”

Dempsey, who is from Winthrop and attended the Rivers School in Weston, spent nearly her whole career playing in Massachusetts.

Playing four years at Harvard, Dempsey was twice nominated for the Patty Kazmaier Award for the top female college ice hockey player, finishing in the top 10 her senior year in 2013.

After Harvard, she was the 10th overall selection in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League draft, going to the Boston Blades. In 2015, she left the Blades for the Boston Pride of the newly formed National Women’s Hockey League.

Dempsey played in the NWHL which later became the Premier Hockey Federation, for the entirety of its existence. The forward won three league titles with the Pride and set league records for career games played, goals, assists, and points.

When the PHF ceased and the PWHL took shape, she took her first professional contract outside Massachusetts. In the first PWHL Draft in 2023, the Montreal Victoire took Dempsey in the 11th round. She went on to play 24 games for Montreal that season before signing a reserve contract with the Boston Fleet for 2024-25.

On the international circuit, Dempsey won gold with the United States at the 2011 4 Nations Cup, and took home silver at the 2012 IIHF World Women’s Championship.