Hayley Wickenheiser is a Canadian former ice hockey player. She’s also a resident physician and assistant general manager for the Toronto Maple Leafs. She was the first woman to play full-time professional men’s hockey in a position other than goalie.
She started playing minor ice hockey in outdoor rinks when she was five and played exclusively on boy’s teams until she was 13. In 1991, she represented Alberta in the 18 and under Canada Winter Games Imagine where she got a gold medal and was named the most valuable player of the final game.
At the age of 15, in 1994, she was named to Canada’s national women’s team for the first time and she remained a member of it until 2017 when she retired. Her first International Tournament was the 1994 World Championship held in Lake Placid, New York and Canada won gold. During her second world championship in 1997, they also got a gold medal and she earned a spot on the tournament’s All-Star team. In 1999, she helped Canada win another gold medal and was named the tournament MVP. In total, she has seven World Championship gold medals and three silver.
She was a member of Team Canada in the 1998 Winter Olympics when women’s hockey was introduced as a metal sport. Canada won silver and she was named to the tournament all-star team. During the 1998 Olympics, she impressed men’s Team Canada general manager Bobby Clark so much that he invited her to participate in the Philadelphia Flyers rookie camps in 1998 and 1999. In 2002, during the Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Utah, Canada won gold and she was named tournament MVP. Then they won gold again in the 2006 Winter Olympics and yet again she was named tournament MVP. On February 17th, 2010 she became the all-time leading Olympic goal scorer as Canada defeated Sweden 13 to 1 at the Vancouver Olympics.
For the Women’s Professional Hockey League, she was named MVP in 1996 at the Esso Women’s Hockey League Nationals. In ‘97 and ‘98 she won nationals with Edmonton Chimos and Calgary Oval X-treme and she was named MVP for both years.
In men’s professional hockey league in 2003, she became the first woman to score a goal playing in a men’s semi-professional league for the HC Salamat. In 2008, she signed a one-year contract with the Eskilstuna Linden. In 2011, she was named one of the “Top 100 Most Influential People in Hockey” at rank 59th by The Hockey News, one of the “25 Toughest Athletes” by Sports Illustrated, and one of the “Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Canada” by the Globe and Mail.
From 2010 to 2011 she was part of the Calgary Dinos women’s ice hockey team while she was completing her degree in kinesiology. She became the first ever Dino to win the Brodrick Trophy as CIS MVP. In 2017, she announced her retirement from professional hockey to pursue medical school and, in 2018, she was hired as the Assistant Director of Player Development for the Toronto Maple Leafs. 3 years later, she was promoted to senior director of Player Development for the Maple Leafs. In 2022, she was named Assistant General Manager of the Maple Leafs.
She was also an accomplished softball player as, in 2000, she was on the Canadian softball team for the 2000 Summer Olympics. Since the Olympics, she has not been active in softball.
In total, she has been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame (in 2019), the IIHF Hall of Fame (also in 2019), the Canada West Hall of Fame (in 2021), and Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame (in 2022). She’s played in five Winter Olympic Games (1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, and 2014) and multiple World Championships.