Caroline Ouellette (born May 25, 1979) is a Canadian former

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 ...

player and current associate head coach of the Concordia Stingers women's ice hockey program. She was a member of the Canadian national women's ice hockey team and a member of Canadiennes de Montreal in the

Canadian Women's Hockey League The Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL; ) was a women's ice hockey league. Established in 2007 as a Canadian women's Senior ice hockey, senior league in the Greater Toronto Area, Montreal, and Ottawa, the league expanded into Alberta (2011) and ...

. Among her many accomplishments are four Olympic gold medals, 12 IIHF Women's World Championship medals (six gold, six silver), 12 Four Nations Cup medals (eight gold, four silver) and four

Clarkson Cup The Clarkson Cup () is an ice hockey trophy awarded to Canada's national women's champions. Commissioned by former Governor General Adrienne Clarkson, the trophy was first unveiled in July 2006 when Clarkson ceremoniously presented it to the Ca ...

championships. Ouellette is in the Top 10 in all-time NCAA scoring with 229 career points. She is a member of the

Triple Gold Club The Triple Gold Club is the group of ice hockey players and coaches who have won an Ice hockey at the Olympic Games, Olympic Games gold medal, a Ice Hockey World Championships, World Championship gold medal, and the Stanley Cup, the championship t ...

(not officially recognized by the IIHF for women) as one of only three women to win the Clarkson Cup, an Olympic gold medal and an IIHF Women's World Championship gold medal. Along with teammates

Jayna Hefford Jayna Hefford (born May 14, 1977) is a Canadian retired ice hockey player and current Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations for the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL). Hefford got her start in the sport of ringette but soon moved ...

and

Hayley Wickenheiser Hayley Wickenheiser (born August 12, 1978) is a Canadian former ice hockey player, 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 ...

, Ouellette is one of only five athletes to win gold in four consecutive Olympic games. Nicknamed Caro by her teammates, she started playing hockey at the age of nine. She is the co-founder of athletichub.com, which helps student-athletes navigate the recruitment process, and an ambassador for

Right to Play Right To Play is an international non-profit organization whose mission is to use play to empower vulnerable children to overcome the effects of war, poverty, and disease. Right To Play's work is connected to the UN's Sustainable Development Goa ...

and Carrément Rose. Ouellette retired as a player from Canada's national women's team on September 25, 2018. In 2023, she was inducted into both the

IIHF Hall of Fame The IIHF Hall of Fame is a hall of fame operated by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). It was founded in 1997, and has resided at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto since 1998. Prior to 1997, the IIHF housed exhibits at the Interna ...

and the

Hockey Hall of Fame The Hockey Hall of Fame () is a museum and hall of fame located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Dedicated to the history of ice hockey, it holds exhibits about players, teams, National Hockey League (NHL) records, memorabilia and National Hockey Le ...

Playing career

Ouellette played for Team Quebec at the 1995

Canada Winter Games Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, and won gold for Canada's Under 18 team in 1997. When the Canadian Under 19 women's hockey team was founded on May 15, 1996, Ouellette was one of the players named to the team. One of her teammates was future Olympic speed skater

Cindy Klassen Cindy Klassen, (born August 12, 1979) is a Canadian retired long track speed skater. She is a six-time medallist having achieved one gold, two silver, three bronze at the Winter Olympics. She is the only Canadian Olympian to win five medals in ...

. The head coach was

Daniele Sauvageau Daniele is an Italian male given name, the cognate of the English name Daniel. Danièle is also a French female given name, an alternative spelling of Danielle. The name "Daniel" originates from the Hebrew Bible and is associated with the prophe ...

Ouellette represented Team Quebec at the 1998 Esso women's hockey nationals. She scored a goal and two assists in the bronze medal game, as Team Quebec was awarded the Maureen McTeer Trophy. During the

2011 IIHF Eight Nations Tournament The IIHF 12 Nations Invitational Tournament Series was held in Vierumäki, Finland (August 24–31), Courchevel, France (August 28–30), and Füssen, Germany (November 9–13). The competing nations will be the national women's teams. This is a n ...

, Ouellette assisted on all three goals as Canada defeated Finland by a 3–2 tally in round robin play. In the gold medal game of the 2011 Four Nations Cup, Ouellette notched a goal in a 4–3 loss. Ouellette has taken part in 3 Olympic Games, 9 World Championships and 9 Four Nations Cups. In 157 international games with Team Canada, Ouellette has racked up 169 points. In a game versus Russia at the

2012 IIHF Women's World Championship The 2012 IIHF World Women's Championships was the 14th such event hosted by the International Ice Hockey Federation and took place in Vermont, United States, at the Gutterson Fieldhouse in Burlington, Vermont, Burlington, and the Cairns Arena in ...

, Ouellette logged three assists in a 14–1 victory. Ouellette would score the game-winning goal in overtime versus the United States in the final game at the

, as Canada claimed the gold medal.

NCAA

Ouellette attended the

University of Minnesota Duluth The University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) is a public university in Duluth, Minnesota, United States. It is part of the University of Minnesota System. UMD offers 17 bachelor's degrees in 87 majors, graduate programs in 24 different fields, a tw ...

and played for the

Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs women's ice hockey The Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs women's ice hockey team plays for the University of Minnesota Duluth at the AMSOIL Arena in Duluth, Minnesota. The team is a member of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) and competes in the National C ...

program. Ouellette set an NCAA record for most shorthanded goals in one game with 2. This was accomplished on November 14, 2003, versus North Dakota. In the 2004–05 season, Ouellette was a factor on more than 60 percent of goals scored by the Bulldogs. Among the top nine scorers on the Bulldogs, she had nine penalties, which were the fewest. Throughout her NCAA career, she never had double digits in penalties. By season's end, she was one of three finalists for the Patty Kazmaier Award. Ouellette is ranked third in all-time leading scoring in Bulldogs history and was named to the WCHA All-Decade team in 2009. She joined the national team in 1999 and has won four world championships (1999, 2000, 2001 and 2004) and four Olympic gold medals with the team (2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014).

CWHL

During the

2000–01 NWHL season The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

, Ouellette played with the Montreal Wingstar and finished third in league scoring with 53 points. She would also spend one season competing with the

Minnesota Whitecaps The Minnesota Whitecaps were a professional ice hockey team in the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF). They played in Richfield, Minnesota, part of the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area, at the Richfield Ice Arena. Established in 2004, the ...

in the former

Western Women's Hockey League The Western Women's Hockey League (WWHL) was a women's hockey league in Canada. The league was established in 2004, and consisted of teams in Canada (some former National Women's Hockey League teams) and one from the United States. The league offi ...

. In 2008–09, Ouellette joined the

Montreal Stars Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

. She won CWHL Top Scorer of the Month honours in November (tying the league record with 19 points in just six games) and December. At year's end, she was named CWHL Most Valuable Player. By winning a third gold medal in women's Olympic hockey, she became the Bulldog hockey player with the most gold medals. By winning the 2009

, Ouellette became an unofficial member of the Triple Gold Club (the accomplishment by women is not yet officially recognized by the IIHF), as she became one of only three women (at the time) to win the Clarkson Cup, a gold medal in

ice hockey at the 2002 Winter Olympics Hockey at the 2002 Winter Olympics was held at the E Center in West Valley City and Peaks Ice Arena in Provo, Utah, United States. The men's and women's tournaments were won by Canada, defeating the hosts United States in both finals. Me ...

, and a gold medal at the

IIHF World Women's Championships The IIHF Women's World Championship is the premier international women's tournament in ice hockey. It is governed by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). The official world competition was first held in 1990, with four more champions ...

. In 2010–11, Ouellette won the

Angela James Bowl The Angela James Bowl was a women's ice hockey trophy introduced in 2007-08 to recognize the top points scorer in the newly formed Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL). The trophy was donated in order to help preserve the statistical history of t ...

as the CWHL's scoring leader with 68 points. She also became the first two-winner of the league's Most Valuable Player award. In the championship game of the 2011 Clarkson Cup, Ouellette led all scorers with three points (one goal, two assists). On December 11, 2016, Ouellette logged a pair of assists, eclipsing the 300-point mark. Of note, Ouellette became the first player in the history of the CWHL to reach this plateau.

Coaching career

For the 2007–2008 season, Ouellette was an assistant coach with the

women's hockey team alongside American Olympic ice hockey player

Julie Chu Julie Wu Chu (born March 13, 1982) is an American-Canadian former Olympic ice hockey player who played forward on the United States women's ice hockey team and defense with Les Canadiennes of the Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL). She won ...

. With

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 ...

, she was an assistant coach for the Women's National Under-18 Team for a three-game series vs. the US in August 2008. She joined the coaching staff of the Concordia Stingers women's ice hockey program in the autumn of 2012.

Personal life

Ouellette graduated from the University of Minnesota Duluth in 2005 with a degree in criminology and women's studies, and she graduated from the National Police Academy in Quebec in 2000. She played for Quebec in

softball Softball is a Variations of baseball, variation of baseball, the difference being that it is played with a larger ball, on a smaller field, and with only underhand pitches (where the ball is released while the hand is primarily below the ball) ...

at the 1997 Summer

Canada Games The Canada Games () is a multi-sport event held every two years, alternating between the Canada Winter Games and the Canada Summer Games. They represent the highest level of national competition for Canadian athletes. Two separate programs are or ...

. On September 11, 2010, the Centre Etienne Desmarteau in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, named one of the two rinks in the arena in Ouellette's honour. Caroline Ouellette is involved in raising funds for the Quebec Breast Cancer Foundation, a disease that has affected the Ouellette family. On January 21, 2011, Ouellette, along with University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldog alumni

Jenny Potter Jennifer Lynn Schmidgall-Potter (born January 12, 1979) is an American ice hockey player. She is a member of the United States women's national ice hockey team. She won a gold medal at the 1998 Winter Olympics, silver medals at the 2002 Winter ...

and

Maria Rooth Maria Elisabeth Rooth (born 2 November 1979 in Ängelholm, Sweden) is a retired Swedish ice hockey player. She is the only University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey player to have her jersey retired. Rooth was alternate captain and one of t ...

, took part in a ceremonial faceoff to mark the first ever game at Amsoil Arena at her

alma mater Alma mater (; : almae matres) is an allegorical Latin phrase meaning "nourishing mother". It personifies a school that a person has attended or graduated from. The term is related to ''alumnus'', literally meaning 'nursling', which describes a sc ...

in Duluth. She participated in various festivities commemorating the 2012 NHL All-Star Game in Ottawa, Ontario. Said festivities included an interview (along with a fan question and answer period) at the Sirius XM Stage at the Scotiabank NHL Fan Fair, the Energizer Night Skate at the Ottawa Rink of Dreams (relocated from the Rideau Canal), and attended the Molson Canadian NHL All-Star Skills Competition on Saturday, January 28, 2012. On April 17, 2012, Ouellette (along with

Meghan Agosta Meghan Christina Agosta (born February 12, 1987) is a Canadian women's ice hockey forward, who last played for the Montreal Stars of the Canadian Women's Hockey League. Agosta played for the Canada women's national ice hockey team and is a thr ...

Gillian Apps Gillian Mary Apps (born November 2, 1983) is a women's ice hockey player. Apps was a member of the Canadian National Hockey Team that won back to back gold medals in three consecutive Olympic Games. As a psychology major at Dartmouth College in ...

Courtney Birchard Courtney Birchard-Kessel (; born July 14, 1989) is a Canadian ice hockey coach and former player, currently serving as the head coach of the Princeton Tigers women's ice hockey team. During her playing career, she was a member of the Canadian n ...

, and head coach

Dan Church Dan Church (born May 14, 1973) is a Canadian ice hockey coach and executive. He was head coach of the Canadian national women's hockey team, which won the gold medal at the 2012 IIHF Women's World Championship. He is also the head coach for the Y ...

) took part in the opening faceoff of the playoff game between the

Ottawa Senators The Ottawa Senators (), officially the Ottawa Senators Hockey Club and colloquially known as the Sens, are a professional ice hockey team based in Ottawa. The Senators compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Di ...

and the

New York Rangers The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in New York City. The Rangers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern Conference. The team plays ...

at ScotiaBank Place. Ouellette is married to American hockey player and Olympic silver-medalist

. Ouellette and Chu announced the birth of their daughter Liv in November 2017. They welcomed their second child, Tessa, in May 2021.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

Awards and honours

Hockey Canada

*2019 Hockey Canada Female Breakthrough Award * Isobel Gathorne-Hardy Award, 2013

CWHL

* Clarkson Cup Top Forward, 2009 * Clarkson Cup Top Scorer, 2009 * CWHL Most Valuable Player, 2008–09 and 2010–11 * CWHL First All-Star Team, 2008–09 *

, 2010–11

NCAA

*Caroline Ouellette, 2003 NCAA Division I Women's Ice Hockey Tournament Most Valuable Player * Caroline Ouellette, NCAA leader, 2003–04 season, Points per game, 2.38 * Caroline Ouellette, NCAA leader, 2003–04 season, Assists per game, 1.47 * February 7, 2005: Caroline Ouellette became the third Minnesota Duluth player to be named a Patty Kazmaier Top-10 Finalist for two straight seasons. * March 3, 2005: Caroline Ouellette is named UMD's first ever WCHA Student-Athlete of the Year, while also earning a spot on the All-WCHA First Team. In addition, she is named to the WCHA All-Academic Team. * March 6, 2005: Caroline Ouellette is named to the WCHA All-Tournament Team. * March 14, 2005: Caroline Ouellette becomes the second Bulldog to be named a Patty Kazmaier Top-3 Finalist. * March 23, 2005: Caroline Ouellette is honored with the USCHO.com Sportsmanship Award and a Second Team selection. * March 28, 2005: Caroline Ouellette is named a CCM All-America First Team selection for the second straight season.

National honours

* In the 2019 Canadian honours, she was appointed as an

Officer of the Order of Canada The Order of Canada () is a Canadian national order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the centennial of Canadian Confederation, the ...

. This will give her the

Post Nominal Letters Post-nominal letters, also called post-nominal initials, post-nominal titles, designatory letters, or simply post-nominals, are letters placed after a person's name to indicate that the individual holds a position, an academic degree, accreditation ...

"OC" for Life. * In 2023, she was inducted into the

References

External links

*
Caroline Ouellette website

Live The Dream, Caroline Ouellette, Life After the World Championships for Ouellette
*
Interview de Caroline Ouellette à la revue Elle Québec
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ouellette, Caroline 1979 births Living people 20th-century Canadian LGBTQ people 20th-century Canadian sportswomen 21st-century Canadian LGBTQ people 21st-century Canadian sportswomen Angela James Bowl winners Canadian expatriate ice hockey players in the United States Canadian LGBTQ sportspeople Canadian women's ice hockey forwards Clarkson Cup champions Hockey Hall of Fame inductees Ice hockey people from Montreal Ice hockey players at the 2002 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 2006 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 2010 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 2014 Winter Olympics IIHF Hall of Fame inductees Les Canadiennes de Montreal players LGBTQ ice hockey players Medalists at the 2002 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 2006 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 2010 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 2014 Winter Olympics Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs women's ice hockey players Officers of the Order of Canada Olympic gold medalists for Canada Olympic ice hockey players for Canada Olympic medalists in ice hockey