Jane Daley tallied four assists and eight total shots in six games at the 2025 IIHF Under-18 Women’s World Championship. 

During the 2026 tournament, the 16-year-old from Medfield, Massachusetts had a coming out party.

Daley led all skaters with 12 goals and 17 points, earning tournament MVP honors and the Directorate Award as the tournament’s best forward. Her scoring played a key role in helping Team USA go undefeated on its way to the gold medal. Daley also set a new tournament record with her 12 goals, besting Haley Skarupa’s 11-goal total from 2012.

Growth is to be expected at this age, but what Daley has accomplished with her development over the past year has been extraordinary. She credits moving from the 16U to the prep team at Shattuck St. Mary’s in Faribault, Minnesota, for much of her improvement. 

U.S. teammate and Shattuck linemate Kylie Amelkovich said that’s because Daley is highly competitive. She’s better, Amelkovich said, because she’s constantly being pushed by being around older players and she hates to lose. 

Through 19 games played with Shattuck this season, Daley’s recorded 15 goals and 18 assists, but Amelkovich said Daley is not looking to hog the puck. Her scoring is a product of her playing well and learning to be in the right place at the right time so her teammates can feed her the puck. 

“I think the difference between this season and last season is Jane is playing with higher-level players, and that drives her to get better and better at practice every day,” Amelkovich said. “The more she works with better players, the more people she has to work with, the greater her success is going to be.”

The two brought the chemistry they’d built playing together in prep school to Team USA. Amelkovich is credited with an assist on seven of Daley’s 12 goals and Daley assisted on one of Amelkovich’s two goals. 

“I just think it’s ridiculous. I’m happy for her. It’s insane,” Team USA coach Courtney Kennedy said of Daley’s three straight hat tricks during the tournament.  “She’s using her speed and using her ability. I think she’s scary good and there are even more levels to her. I think hers is a name you’re going to hear more of. Jane doesn’t do it for individual glory. She’s such a team player. It just happens to be on her stick. She uses her pull away speed. And she has an absolute missile of a shot. I feel bad for any goalie that has to face it.”

Despite her record-setting performance at the 2026 tournament where she racked up a hat trick in each of her team’s first three games, Daley said she does not believe herself to be a scorer. Instead, she credited her linemates for working together and sharing the puck. 

Daley, Amelkovich and Talla Hansen combined for 45 of team USA’s 148 points at the tournament. The key to their success, Daley said, is constant communication both on the ice and on the bench. 

The U.S. took silver in the 2025 tournament, and the feeling of that loss drove Daley ever since. With 10 players on last year’s roster who had experienced that heart break, the goal as soon as they got back on the ice was to win gold. 

“I think after losing last year, we came back and we want to win,” Daley said. “We have a little chip on our shoulders. Last year wasn’t how we wanted it to be.”

That attitude and the sense of family that surrounded Team USA was built months before the tournament began. USA and Canada played a set of three games in August of 2025, with the U.S. winning twice. Those wins hyped up the Americans and gave them the confidence boost they needed to believe in themselves when it came time to play in Nova Scotia. 

“Winning is surreal. I’m just happy we won. No matter what the score was, we fought hard here and we came away with it,” Daley told TSN immediately after winning gold. “I haven’t really focused on [the goals] at all. We just won. That’s what is the most important to me right now.”

Daley is in her junior year at Shattuck and recently announced her commitment to play at Ohio State starting in the 2027-28 season. With a March 2009 birthday, she’s eligible to play in her third U18 Women’s Worlds in January 2027 and could possibly break more records. 

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.