Melissa Samoskevich - Ice Hockey Coach - University of Delaware Athletics

Melissa Samoskevich

Title:
Assistant Coach
Email:
msamo@udel.edu

Melissa Samoskevich (SAM-a-ske-vich), an IIHF World Champion with Team USA, joined the University of Delaware ice hockey program as its first-ever assistant coach in July of 2024.

In her first season at Delaware, the Fightin’ Blue Hens saw continuous growth throughout the year. The program recorded its first-ever victory with a 2-1 win over Holy Cross on October 5, 2025. UD had 18 different skaters register at least a point during the season and had 12 different goal scorers. Delaware’s power play produced 12 goals, including going 11-for-45 over the final 14 games.

Samoskevich arrived in Newark after spending the 2023-24 season as an assistant coach at Princeton. She aided the Tigers to a 14-12-6 record and an appearance in the ECAC Championship quarterfinals. With the Tigers, she assisted with video analysis, practice planning, drill implementation, special teams, and game management.

In the 2022-23 season, Samoskevich finished her third year on a collegiate staff, serving as the director of player development and operations at her alma mater, Quinnipiac. The Bobcats went 30-10 in Samoskevich's season on the bench, making the ECAC Hockey semifinals and earning an at-large NCAA tournament bid on the way to making the regional final.

Samoskevich spent the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons at Penn State with Coomey, helping the Nittany Lions to an overall record of 34-13-7 and 24-5-5 in College Hockey America over those two years.

Following her final season at Quinnipiac, Samoskevich was named to the U.S. team for the 2019 IIHF Women's World Championship in Finland, playing in all seven games as the Americans put together an undefeated run to win the gold medal for the fifth-consecutive tournament. Samoskevich had two goals during the pool-play round, one each against Finland and Russia.

The 2019 IIHF Worlds were just the most recent time Samoskevich was called to wear the red, white, and blue, having represented Team USA at a pair of U18 Women's World Championships. In 2014 in Hungary, Samoskevich had a pair of helpers during the pool-play round as the U.S. won silver, and in 2015 in Buffalo, the U.S. won gold with Samoskevich having a six-goal tournament including a hat trick against Russia to close an unbeaten run through pool play and two goals in a semifinal win over the Czech Republic.

After graduating from Quinnipiac in 2019 with a history degree, Samoskevich began her professional career by playing part of the 2019-20 season professionally in Sweden with Brynäs IF. Later that season, she returned to the U.S. to play first with the PWHPA's New England team and then with her home-state Connecticut Whale in the NWHL/PHF. Samoskevich has continued her tenure with the Whale through the team's most recent season, which wrapped in March 2023.

During her undergraduate career at Quinnipiac, Samoskevich scored 54 goals, good enough to graduate third in program history, and 55 assists, for fifth on the Bobcats' list, for 109 points, fourth-most in program history. Samoskevich was an ECAC Hockey All-Rookie honoree in 2016 while helping the Bobcats to the ECAC tournament title.

A Sandy Hook, Connecticut native, Samoskevich, who prepped at Shattuck St. Mary's before playing at Quinnipiac, is the oldest of three hockey-playing siblings. Her sister, Maddy, also played at Quinnipiac (2020-24) and was drafted in the fifth round of the 2025 PWHL Draft by the Vancouver Goldeneyes. Her brother, Mackie, helped lead Michigan to the Frozen Four in 2022 and 2023. He was selected 24th overall in the 2021 NHL Draft by the Florida Panthers and won the Stanley Cup in 2025.