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She may not remember it, but three-time NHL All-Star P.K. Subban held Charlotte Hallett as a baby.

Her father, Matthew Hallett, coached Subban during Hallett’s childhood. With men’s hockey firmly situated in the household, Hallett constantly attended and watched games on television growing up.

Hallett’s exposure to boys’ hockey has fueled her experience as a senior at Syracuse, where she’s its tallest and most physical player at 6 feet tall. With her late-career switch from defense to forward, she’s leaned on her co-ed experiences to enhance her craft. After posting just one goal per season in her first three years with the Orange, Hallett’s scored six goals in her final campaign, tied for second on the team.

From the moment she could walk, Matthew enrolled Hallett at a co-ed team, Timbits, a Canada-based club sponsored by Tim Hortons donuts. Matthew — a former Ontario Hockey League scout volunteer and AAA minor hockey coach — brought Hallett to his team’s practices, where she’d roam the bench and observe the sport’s physicality.

Even when Hallett outgrew organized co-ed hockey, her one-year stint at Pittsburgh Penguins Elite Hockey gave her the chance to face boys again. Every week of practice ended with a scrimmage between the U16 and U18 boys squads.

Feisty. Annoying. A rat. That’s the archetype Hallett lives and breathes — the same breed as Florida Panthers forwards Brad Marchand, Matthew Tkachuk and Sam Bennett, who’ve thrived with their pesky playstyle.

The one constant with Hallett’s approach, despite the positional change, is her unparalleled physicality. But since most players are half a foot shorter than her, that often results in penalties.

“If you were to ask her about ‘big girl penalties,’ she’s been getting them since she was 10 years old,” Matthew said. “She’s the equivalent of a 6-foot-7 male hockey player. Her shoulder is going to be at the head level of the opponent.”

It’s no coincidence Hallett’s recorded 62 penalties and spent 157 minutes in the box across four seasons at SU. She’s the first player in team history to lead in penalty minutes for three straight seasons. Through 30 games this year, she’s committed 21 penalties for 53 minutes.

Fifteen of those minutes came at once.

On Nov. 15, 2025, SU was one day removed from its worst defeat of the season — a 7-0 loss to then-No. 6 Penn State. Syracuse trailed the Nittany Lions 2-1, and with three minutes remaining in the first period, Hallett had already made her physicality felt, launching occasional bumps just to get under her opponents’ skin.

Hallett then skated toward PSU’s bench. She went in with a jab and out with a five-minute fighting major and a 10-minute misconduct.

“The coaches helped, from my freshman year to now, find out how to have my physical presence without getting too many penalty minutes,” Hallett said. “Obviously, with my height and strength compared to a lot of girls, it’ll happen. For the most part, I get a positive response for it. It’s a part of my role to be more physical and help with that side of the game.”

Just ask Ben Davis, who worked with Hallett with the North York Storm before leaving for Pittsburgh. He also helped perfect her craft at Hyperfit Training Centre, where he’s been the president for 22 years at a co-ed camp.

“The game is changing,” Davis said. “If you watch the PWHL, they’re getting players from college hockey. There has to be some sort of evolution because you can’t ask these kids to not hit in college, and then, all of a sudden, be masters at body checking.”

“The game is becoming more physical,” SU alum Tatum White, who now plays professionally for Neuchâtel Hockey Academy Dames in Switzerland, said. “Even in the actual rulebook, they’ve started to let more go in terms of hitting.”

Davis was keen on maximizing Hallett’s height to prepare for the next level. Someone of her size is rare. She’s tied as the tallest player in Atlantic Hockey America.

Hallet’s giant-like demeanor is scary and intimidating. She hits harder and skates louder than most of her peers. But nobody wants to lower their head, counting down each second in the penalty box just to do it all over again.

Her physicality has always come with a blessing and a curse, but she’s had a forte all along that would aid her positional transition.

Lily Wilkin | Design Editor

“She’s always had a great shot. At 14 years old, there’s kids that have it, kids that don’t,” Davis said. She got it early, and she used it effectively.”

Despite shooting being essential to a forward’s repertoire, nobody saw Hallett as someone who could play up the ice. Matthew said she joined SU to succeed Lindsay Eastwood, who stands 6-foot-1 and delivered 75 points through four seasons as an offensive-minded defender. Before his retirement, former head coach Paul Flanagan aggressively pursued Hallett.

Her high school experience with Toronto Jr. Aeros, Penguins Elite and even the U16 Ontario squad eased her move to the collegiate level, but making the jump under a new coach frightened her. Hallett had no idea Flanagan was on his way out and that Britni Smith would be hired to lead the Orange for her entire collegiate career.

An unsatisfying career began taking shape, and the penalty minutes mounted each game. But halfway through the 2023-24 season, Smith proposed a question to the team.

“Anyone play forward?”

Hallett raised her hand.

“Yeah, I used to play a bunch of it.”

It took time for Hallett to feel comfortable on offense. She pinpoints the regular season finale of her sophomore year against Mercyhurst as when she “accepted the fact” she could enjoy her new position. Just a week prior, it seemed she wouldn’t score all season. That was until the Markham, Ontario, native found the back of the net in a 3-0 rout of RIT on Feb. 10, 2024, and simultaneously hit her stride for the rest of the campaign.

“It’s so important to have a player like that that can be so versatile for us,” Smith said. “She loves that role, and the players really respect her for it as well.”

Another year went by. More penalties with one goal to her name for the third straight season. Time was ticking, and Hallett knew she had to go out with a bang.

It didn’t matter that she wasn’t a top-six forward. Even on the third line, Hallett has plunged ahead of the pack as a senior. She scores once in every seven shots she puts on goal — SU’s most efficient mark among players with double-digit appearances.

Hallett has four regular-season matchups left, plus one last AHA playoff run and an opportunity to help Syracuse reach its first NCAA Tournament since 2022.

That was four years ago, when Hallett was lacing up her skates to hit the ice at UMPC Lemieux Sports Complex, scrimmaging boys once a week for Penguins Elite. Now a college senior, she’s determined to leverage her newfound success to give SU a chance.

“If I were to be asked if I wanted to go permanently play defense again, I don’t think I’d even want to,” Hallett said. “I’ve really enjoyed being a forward.”

Published on January 26, 2026 at 11:24 pm
Contact Jason: jaglick@syr.edu | @jason_glick