Fleet Forward Gigi Marvin Reflects On Illustrious Career

Boston Fleet forward Gigi Marvin has decided to hang up her skates after playing more than two decades of professional and international hockey. She announced her retirement from the PWHL on Monday.

Marvin’s international resume puts her among the most decorated players in USA Hockey history. She’s a five-time World Championship gold medalist and also won an Olympic gold medal as a member of Team USA in 2018. Along with her gold medals, Marvin has two Olympic and two World silver medals.

Marvin touched on one event in her career that she is most proud of, and there were many to choose from given her championship pedigree.

“The most significant and impactful and treasured thing for me is what Team USA, my teammates and I did in 2017 with the boycott event of the women’s World Championships,” she said. “Just to be able to push the sport forward and come together to be part of something bigger than ourselves, to leave the game in better hands for women and girls in the future.”

Before Marvin and her USA teammates won gold in 2018, they won equality off the ice with the 2017 boycott. The US women’s hockey team announced they were going to boycott the International Ice Hockey Federation world championship after negotiations with USA Hockey for support equal to that of the men’s team came to a standstill. The women were not asking for equal salaries to the male players, but they did want the same investments the men’s program received, such as development programs for younger girls playing hockey.

After one season with the Premier Hockey Federation’s Minnesota Whitecaps, Marvin played for three Boston franchises in her professional career. She joined the CWHL’s Boston Blades for the 2012-13 season and helped lead the squad to the 2013 Clarkson Cup. Marvin then signed with the Boston Pride of the NWHL. She was a member of the 2016 Isobel Cup-winning squad and earned Defensive Player of the Year honors that same season. Marvin took a year off before joining the PWHL Boston squad for its inaugural season. Being a Minnesota native playing in Boston was not lost on Marvin.

“Basically, I’ve been in Boston since 2011 on and off for the majority of the time, and it is funny because I played at the University of Minnesota and run a hockey camp in Minnesota,” Marvin said. “… However, I love this city. I go to a great church here and have incredible friends.”

Marvin tallied one goal and three assists in 24 games and added three assists in the playoffs for PWHL Boston last season. The Fleet faced the Minnesota Frost in the first-ever Walter Cup Finals. Minnesota defeated Boston 3-2 in the five-game series.