Michelle Picard - Deputy Commissioner / Director of Player Development
In December 2019, former NWHL All-Star Michelle Picard was named Deputy Commissioner/Director of Player Development.
Picard’s responsibilities include player development, free agency, game and event scheduling, grassroots programs, and building on the league’s relationships with national governing bodies and collegiate hockey programs.
With the U.S. National program, Picard was a member of Team USA that captured silver at the 2014 Olympics, and won gold in 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2019 at the World Championships. Picard was a team captain as a junior and senior at Harvard. In her senior season, she was named All-Ivy League first team and was an ECAC defender of the year finalist.
She played three seasons in the NWHL with the Riveters, winning the Isobel Cup in 2018 and serving as team captain in 2018-19. She was also the captain of Team NWHL – a collection of top players who played the U.S. Olympic Team in two exhibition games in 2018 – and a recipient of the NWHL Foundation Award for her work in hockey at the grass-roots level.
Picard is Director of Girls’ Hockey with the New Jersey Colonials and is a volunteer coach with Hockey in New Jersey, which provides children the opportunity to play hockey for free.