Taylor Cassidy Woods (born September 26, 1994) is a Canadian professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

player and

strongwoman A strongwoman is a woman who performs feats of strength in a show or circus, or a woman who competes in strength athletics. Traditionally, strongwomen have had a special appeal, as women involved in demonstrated feats of strength were exceptions ...

, currently playing in the

Premier Hockey Federation The Premier Hockey Federation (PHF), formerly the National Women's Hockey League (NWHL), is a women's professional ice hockey league located in the United States and Canada. The league was established in 2015 with four league-owned teams and ha ...

(PHF) with the

Toronto Six The Toronto Six is a professional women's ice hockey team based in Toronto playing out of Canlan Ice Sports – York. They are one of two Canadian teams in the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF) (formerly known as the National Women's Hockey League ...

. A

defenceman Defence or defense (in American English) in ice hockey is a player position that is primarily responsible for preventing the opposing team from Goal (ice hockey), scoring. They are often referred to as defencemen, D, D-men or blueliners (the la ...

who has also played as a

two-way forward In ice hockey, a two-way forward is a forward who handles the defensive aspects of the game as well as the offensive aspects. Typically, a player's frame is not an issue in whether he can be a two-way forward. Perseverance is key to being a two-wa ...

, she is both a

Clarkson Cup The Clarkson Cup (french: La Coupe Clarkson) is a women's ice hockey trophy, which from 2009 to 2019 was awarded to the winner of the Canadian Women's Hockey Championship (CWHL champion). With the folding of the Canadian Women's Hockey League (CW ...

champion and an

Isobel Cup The Lady Isobel Gathorne-Hardy Cup, often shortened to Isobel Cup, is the championship trophy awarded annually to the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF) playoff winner. It is named after Lady Isobel Gathorne-Hardy, one of the first known women to p ...

champion.

Playing career

Woods began playing in the

Saskatchewan Female U18 AAA Hockey League The Saskatchewan Female U18 AAA Hockey League (SFU18AAAHL), formerly the Saskatchewan Female Midget AAA Hockey League, is a U-18 ice hockey league in the province of Saskatchewan, Canada. The league operates under the supervision of the Hockey Sa ...

(SFU18AAAHL), the top

minor ice hockey Minor hockey is an umbrella term for amateur ice hockey which is played below the junior age level. Players are classified by age, with each age group playing in its own league. The rules, especially as it relates to body contact, vary from cla ...

league in the province, as a

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

freshman A freshman, fresher, first year, or frosh, is a person in the first year at an educational institution, usually a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational institutions. Ara ...

with the Notre Dame Hounds of

Athol Murray College of Notre Dame Athol Murray College of Notre Dame is a private, co-educational boarding high school located in Wilcox, Saskatchewan, Canada. It was founded by the Sisters of Charity of St. Louis in 1920 as St. Augustine school when they established Notre Dame ...

. She was the team’s top point scorer in her first season, notching 23 points in 28 games, and was a top-three point scorer on the team in the following two seasons. With the Hounds, Woods won gold at the 2011 Esso Cup, Canada’s national women's midget hockey championship, in addition to setting a tournament record with 12 assists. During her senior year, 2011–12, she played in the

Junior Women's Hockey League The Junior Women's Hockey League is an ice hockey league established in 2007 by Bill Driscoll and Kush Sidhu, coaches of North American Hockey Academy and the Washington Pride, respectively, in order to provide opportunities for young females to d ...

(JWHL) with the Balmoral Hall Blazers of

Balmoral Hall School Balmoral Hall School (BH) is a private all-girls day/boarding school in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. History Balmoral Hall was founded in 1901 as Havergal College, located at 122 Carlton Street. The name was changed in 1917 to Rupert's Land Coll ...

and set a team record for assists in a season, with 41 assists in 30 games.

NCAA

Woods joined the

Cornell Big Red women's ice hockey The Cornell Big Red women's ice hockey program represents Cornell University and participates in Division I collegiate hockey in the ECAC Hockey conference. They play at the Lynah Rink in Ithaca, New York. The Ivy League announced in July 2 ...

program in 2012, beginning as a third-line

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics * Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentri ...

and playoff specialist during her rookie

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

season. She scored in her first game with the university, finishing her

rookie A rookie is a person new to an occupation, profession, or hobby. In sports, a ''rookie'' is a professional athlete in their first season (or year). In contrast with a veteran who has experience and expertise, a rookie is usually inexperienced ...

year with 22 points, good for third on the team in goals, including a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

in the

ECAC Hockey ECAC Hockey is one of the six conferences that compete in NCAA Division I ice hockey. The conference used to be affiliated with the Eastern College Athletic Conference, a consortium of over 300 colleges in the eastern United States. This relati ...

Tournament Semifinal. For her third year with the university, she switched positions to play as a defenceman, before moving back to forward for her senior season. She finished her time at Cornell with 81 points in 131 games and remains the sixth leading all-time

short handed Short-handed is a term used in ice hockey and several related sports, including water polo, and refers to having fewer skaters (players) on the ice during play, as a result of a penalty. The player removed from play serves the penalty in the p ...

scorer for the team.

Professional

Woods was drafted 23rd overall by the

Brampton Thunder The Markham Thunder was a professional women's ice hockey team in the Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL). From 1998 through 2017, the franchise was known as the Brampton Thunder and Brampton Canadettes-Thunder before relocating from Brampton, O ...

in the

2016 CWHL Draft The 2016 draft for the Canadian Women's Hockey League took place on August 21, 2016. Players must register before midnight on August 1, 2016 and pay an entry fee of CDN $150. By virtue of finishing with the worst record during the 2015-16 CWHL re ...

and signed with the team ahead of the 2016–17 season. The team moved from

Brampton Brampton ( or ) is a city in the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario. Brampton is a city in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and is a List of municipalities in Ontario#Lower-tier municipalities, lower-tier municipalit ...

Markham, Ontario Markham () is a city in the Regional Municipality of York, Ontario, Canada. It is approximately northeast of Downtown Toronto. In the 2021 Census, Markham had a population of 338,503, which ranked it the largest in York Region, fourth largest ...

and were renamed the Markham Thunder in 2017. Woods stuck with the team through the move and won the Clarkson Cup, the

Canadian Women's Hockey League The Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL; french: Ligue canadienne de hockey féminin ‒ LCHF) was a women's ice hockey league. Established in 2007 as a Canadian women's senior league in the Greater Toronto Area, Montreal, and Ottawa, the league ...

(CWHL) championship trophy, with the Thunder in

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

. The 2018–19 season was her third with the Thunder. Though she didn’t know it at the time, she scored the last regular season

goal A goal is an idea of the future or desired result that a person or a group of people envision, plan and commit to achieve. People endeavour to reach goals within a finite time by setting deadlines. A goal is roughly similar to a purpose or ai ...

in league history as the CWHL collapsed in May 2019. In May 2019, she joined the newly formed

Professional Women's Hockey Players Association The Professional Women's Hockey Players Association (PWHPA) is a nonprofit 501(c)(6) organization dedicated to advocating for the promotion of professional women's ice hockey. It was founded in May 2019 following the dissolution of the Canadian W ...

(PWHPA), which emerged following the collapse of the CWHL. During the 2019–20 PWHPA Dream Gap Tour, she played for Team Johnston at the Unifor Women's Hockey Showcase in September 2019 and for Team Spooner at the Secret Women's Hockey Showcase in January 2020. She opted to part ways with the PWHPA in April 2020 and signed with the

, the first Canadian expansion team of the National Women's Hockey League (NWHL; renamed Premier Hockey Federation (PHF) in 2021), as one of the original five players to join the team, and was named an

alternate captain In ice hockey, the captain is the player designated by a team as the only person authorized to speak with the game officials regarding rule interpretations when the captain is on the ice. At most levels of play each team must designate one captai ...

. Her first NWHL goal was scored on January 24, 2021 versus the

Minnesota Whitecaps The Minnesota Whitecaps are a professional ice hockey team in the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF; formerly known as the National Women's Hockey League). They play in Richfield, Minnesota, part of the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area, at ...

and she scored a total of 4 goals in the six game regular season, shorted due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. Woods resigned with the Six for the

2021–22 PHF season The 2021–22 PHF season was the seventh season of the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF), which was known as the National Women's Hockey League during the previous six seasons, in North America. After mostly playing in a bubble environment the prev ...

and had the most offensively productive season of her professional career, scoring 3 goals and 14 assists for 17 points in twenty games.

International

Woods competed as member of Team Canada at the 2012 IIHF World Women's U18 Championship. She joined a roster filled with other future hockey stars, including

Cayley Mercer Cayley Mercer (born January 18, 1994) is a Canadian women's ice hockey player. She most recently played with the Shenzhen KRS Vanke Rays of the Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL) in the 2018–19 season. Mercer played with the Clarkson Gold ...

Laura Stacey Laura Rachel Stacey (born May 5, 1994) is a Canadian ice hockey player, currently affiliated with the Montreal chapter of the Professional Women's Hockey Players Association (PWHPA) and a member of the Canadian women's national ice hockey team. ...

Erin Ambrose Erin Ambrose (born April 30, 1994) is a Canadian women's ice hockey player with the PWHPA and the Canada women's national ice hockey team. She made her debut with the Canada women's national ice hockey team at the 2014 4 Nations Cup. Playing ca ...

Emerance Maschmeyer Emerance Maschmeyer (born October 5, 1994) is a Canadian ice hockey goaltender for Team Bauer, playing from the Montréal hub of the PWHPA. She is a member of Canada women's national ice hockey team (Team Canada), with whom she won the 2021 II ...

, and future Toronto Six teammate

Elaine Chuli Elaine Monica Chuli (born May 16, 1994) is a Canadian ice hockey goaltender, currently playing with the Toronto Six of the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF), formerly the National Women's Hockey League (NWHL). She played college ice hockey with th ...

. Woods scored Canada’s opening goal of the tournament, in their match against

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

, and was named best player of the game by the team. She finished the tournament with three goals and three assists and her performance helped Team Canada sweep the tournament and win gold that year.

Strongwoman career

Woods placed first in the under- weight category of the 2023 Arnold Amateur Strongwoman World Championship at the

Arnold Sports Festival The International Federation of BodyBuilding & Fitness, IFBB Arnold Sports Festival, also known as the Arnold Schwarzenegger Sports Festival, is an annual multi-sport event consisting of professional bodybuilding (''Arnold Classic''), Strongman ( ...

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

Awards and honors

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Woods, Taylor 1994 births Living people Athol Murray College of Notre Dame alumni Balmoral Hall School alumni Brampton Thunder players Canadian women's ice hockey forwards Cornell Big Red women's ice hockey players Ice hockey people from Manitoba Isobel Cup champions Markham Thunder players People from Morden, Manitoba Toronto Six players