Carla Rae MacLeod (born June 16, 1982) is a Canadian
ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...
coach and retired member of the
Canadian national women's hockey team. She is the current head coach of the
Czech national ice hockey team
The Czech Republic men's national ice hockey team is the national ice hockey team of the Czech Republic. Since 2021, the team has been officially known in English as Czechia. It is one of the most successful national ice hockey teams in history ...
and
Ottawa Charge
The Ottawa Charge (French language, French: ''Charge d'Ottawa'') are a professional ice hockey team based in Ottawa that competes in the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL). They are one of the league's six charter franchises. The Charge p ...
in the
Professional Women's Hockey League
The Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL; , LPHF) is a women's professional ice hockey league in North America. The league comprises eight teams, four each from the United States and Canada. The teams play a Season (sports), regular season ...
(PWHL).
Playing career
MacLeod was born in
Spruce Grove
Spruce Grove is a city that is west of Edmonton, Alberta, in Canada. The city is adjacent to the Stony Plain, Alberta, Town of Stony Plain and is surrounded by Parkland County.
With a 2021 population of 37,645, Spruce Grove is the List of cit ...
,
Alberta
Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...
. MacLeod attended
Bishop Carroll High School in Calgary, Alberta.
Carla MacLeod represented Team Alberta at the National Championships in 1999 and 2001. On both occasions, MacLeod would win the
Abby Hoffman Cup
The first instances of organized women's ice hockey in Canada date back to the 1890s when it was played at the university level. The Women's Hockey Association claims that the city of Ottawa, Ontario hosted the first game in 1891. In 1920, Lady ...
.
Wisconsin Badgers
She played with the
Wisconsin Badgers women's ice hockey
The Wisconsin Badgers women's ice hockey team is the hockey team that represents the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin.
History
On October 8, 1999, the Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs played the Wisconsin Badgers in the first ever Women's ...
program in the
Western Collegiate Hockey Association
The Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) is a college ice hockey conference which operates in the Midwestern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a women's-only conference.
From 1951 to 1999, it operated as a me ...
for four years, serving as captain for the 03-04 and 04-05 seasons. She played for United States women's Olympic team coach
Mark Johnson at Wisconsin, where he likened her leadership to that of a second coach.
While at Wisconsin, MacLeod was bestowed with the University of Wisconsin Big Ten Medal of Honor (in recognition of athletic and academic achievement). In her senior year at Wisconsin, Macleod served as one of two undergraduate assistant coaches. The other undergrad coach was Olympian
Molly Engstrom. Macleod and Engstrom assisted coach Mark Johnson with analysis of game footage.
Hockey Canada
Her career as a defenceman for the national team began in 2003 with a silver win in the Four Nations Cup. In 2004, she played to a gold medal in the Four Nations Cup. In 2005, MacLeod made her world championship debut in 2005. She had been cut from the world championship team for two consecutive years before that. MacLeod would win silver at the 2005 IIHF Women's World Hockey Championship. In 2006, she played in the Winter Olympics in Turin, where she was named as a tournament all-star, and in the 2006 Four Nations Cup, where Canada won gold. In 2007, she played in the IIHF Women's World Hockey Championship, where Canada won its ninth world's gold medal. Prior to joining the national women's team, MacLeod was on the National Under-22 team from 1999-2003.
Retirement
On September 14, 2010,
Hockey Canada
Hockey Canada (which merged with the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association in 1994) is the national governing body of ice hockey and ice sledge hockey in Canada. It is a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation and controls the majority ...
announced that MacLeod, along with three other players retired from international hockey. After her retirement, she took a public relations job with the
Royal Bank of Canada
Royal Bank of Canada (RBC; ) is a Canadian multinational Financial institution, financial services company and the Big Five (banks), largest bank in Canada by market capitalization. The bank serves over 20 million clients and has more than ...
.
Coaching career
In the fall of 2010, she became an assistant coach with
Mount Royal University
Mount Royal University (MRU) is a public university in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Originally “Mount Royal College,” Mount Royal University was granted university status in 2009 by the provincial government. The university has an average class s ...
.
During the
2011–12 Canada women's national ice hockey team season, MacLeod was an assistant coach for the National Under 18 team that participated in a three-game series vs. the USA in August 2011. Since February, 2012 she has been serving as an assistant coach for the Japanese national team. In February, 2013 the Japanese national women's hockey team qualified for the first time for the 2014 winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Japanese media praise her coaching skills, her likable personality as well as her tactical understanding of the game which has been much needed for this team. They say she has given the players a hockey mentality and a style of play which puts pressure on opposing teams.
In April 2022 she became head coach of
Czech Republic women's ice hockey team. During the subsequent
2022 Women's Ice Hockey World Championships, the Czechs won their first bronze medal. She returned as the head coach for Czech team for the
2025 IIHF Women's World Championship
The 2025 IIHF Women's World Championship was the 24th edition of the IIHF Women's World Championship, an international ice hockey tournament organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), contested in České Budějovice, Czech Repub ...
.
In September 2023, MacLeod was named as head coach for
PWHL Ottawa team.
Personal life
Through her paternal grandmother, MacLeod is related to former Montreal Canadiens legend
Maurice Richard
Joseph Henri Maurice "Rocket" Richard ( , ; August 4, 1921 – May 27, 2000) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player who played 18 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Montreal Canadiens. He was the first player in NHL his ...
.
Career stats
Awards and honours
*2004-05 USCHO.com Defensive Player of the Year
References
Athlete profile Carla Macleod
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Macleod, Carla
1982 births
Living people
Calgary Oval X-Treme players
Canadian women's ice hockey defencemen
Ice hockey people from Alberta
Ice hockey players at the 2006 Winter Olympics
Ice hockey players at the 2010 Winter Olympics
Medalists at the 2006 Winter Olympics
Medalists at the 2010 Winter Olympics
Olympic gold medalists for Canada
Olympic ice hockey players for Canada
Olympic medalists in ice hockey
People from Spruce Grove
Wisconsin Badgers women's ice hockey players
Canadian expatriate ice hockey players in the United States
Ottawa Charge coaches
21st-century Canadian sportswomen