Penn State's All-Time Scorer Just Signed With Vegas' New Pro Team

Tessa Janecke rewrote the record book at Penn State, then added Olympic gold for good measure. Now the 22-year-old forward is putting pen to paper with PWHL Las Vegas, the expansion club trying to make the desert a women's hockey town.

Vegas Grabs College Hockey's Most Decorated Scorer

PWHL Las Vegas made its first real splash of the offseason this month, locking up forward Tessa Janecke to a two-year deal that runs through the 2027-28 season. Janecke went third overall to the expansion franchise back in June's PWHL Draft, its very first selection as a club, and she's now the first player from that draft class to actually put pen to paper.

Getting that pick in the first place took some maneuvering. Vegas sent Hilary Knight's signing rights to Detroit to move up the board, a swap that in hindsight looks like it was built with one player in mind. General manager Dominique DiDia, who represented Janecke as an agent before crossing over to the front office, ran the meetings that sealed the deal, a bit of history between player and executive that clearly didn't hurt.

The Penn State Résumé That Made Her Impossible to Pass On

Janecke didn't sneak up on anybody. Across four seasons with the Nittany Lions she built a scoring log that still stands as the program benchmark: 89 goals, 112 assists, 201 total points, the most productive career in Penn State women's hockey history. She was named Atlantic Hockey America's Player of the Year in three straight seasons and closed out her senior year as a finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Award, the top individual honor in the college game.

The team success matched the individual numbers. Janecke helped Penn State win four consecutive AHA titles and drag the program to its first-ever Women's Frozen Four appearance, a run that ended in the national semifinal against eventual champion Wisconsin. For a program that spent years scrapping for national relevance, that stretch put Penn State hockey squarely in the sport's conversation, with Janecke as the face of it.

From Milan Gold to the Las Vegas Strip

The college résumé is only half the story. Janecke has spent recent summers stacking hardware with Team USA, taking the top prize at two separate IIHF women's world tournaments in 2023 and 2025, including the overtime winner against Canada in that second final, to go with a silver from an earlier trip. This past February she helped the Americans capture gold at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan Cortina, chipping in five assists across seven games.

Janecke has said the fresh-start energy of an expansion market is part of the appeal, calling Las Vegas a cool spot to build something new and pointing to the grassroots hockey buzz that's been building since the Golden Knights arrived. That same buzz is exactly what fills the arenas for college hockey nights on the Strip, and it's a big reason the sport keeps drawing bigger crowds here every season. If you haven't caught a live college game yet, grabbing tickets to one this year is a good way to see up close the kind of pipeline that produced a player like Janecke.

What It Means for Hockey in the Desert

Vegas' front office didn't stop with Janecke. That same draft class delivered Wisconsin winger Lacey Eden at fifth overall, and the club has since added Minnesota State product Sydney Langseth on a two-year contract, giving the roster an early identity built almost entirely out of college hockey standouts.

For a market that's absorbed an NHL franchise, hosted a Frozen Four, and now stood up a PWHL club inside of a decade, signing away the most decorated player in Penn State history is one more sign the desert isn't just watching hockey grow anymore. It's becoming a place where the sport's best college products want to land next.

Janecke's Trophy Case: The Résumé Vegas Just Bought

Before she ever laces up for Las Vegas, Tessa Janecke already built one of the fullest trophy cases in college hockey. Here's what's inside it.

1. Penn State's all-time leading scorer: 201 career points across four seasons, more than any Nittany Lion before her.
2. Program goal-scoring record: 89 career goals, the most in Penn State women's hockey history.
3. Three-time AHA Player of the Year: Named the Atlantic Hockey America league's top player in three straight seasons.
4. Patty Kazmaier Award finalist: Recognized among the top players in NCAA women's hockey during her senior season.
5. First Frozen Four run in program history: Helped the Nittany Lions reach the national semifinal, where they fell to eventual champion Wisconsin.
6. Back-to-back World Championship gold with Team USA: Won gold in 2023 and 2025, including the overtime winner against Canada in the 2025 final.
7. 2026 Olympic gold medalist: Recorded five assists in seven games as Team USA won gold at the Milan Cortina Games.
8. Third overall pick, 2026 PWHL Draft: Selected by PWHL Las Vegas after the club acquired the pick from Detroit in a deal tied to Hilary Knight's signing rights.

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