Denna Christine Laing (born May 12, 1991) is an American former professional ice hockey player. She last played for the

Boston Pride The Boston Pride was a professional women's ice hockey team based in Boston, Massachusetts. It was one of the four charter franchises of the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF). The Pride played at Warrior Ice Arena, which is also the practice fac ...

of the

National Women's Hockey League The Premier Hockey Federation (PHF) was a women's professional ice hockey league in the United States and Canada that operated from March 2015 until June 2023. The league was established in 2015 as the National Women's Hockey League (NWHL), com ...

(NWHL) until a career-ending injury. At the collegiate level, she accumulated 77 points while competing for the

Princeton Tigers women's ice hockey The Princeton Tigers women's ice hockey team represents Princeton University in the ECAC Hockey conference in the NCAA Division I women's ice hockey. They play at the Hobey Baker Memorial Rink. In the 2019–2020 season, they won their first ECA ...

program from 2010 to 2014. She was also the captain her junior and senior year.

Playing career

CWHL

Selected in the 8th round of the 2014 CWHL Draft, Laing played for the

Boston Blades Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and financial center of New England, a region of the Northeastern United States. It has an area of and a ...

of 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 ...

(CWHL) during the 2014–15 season, accumulating two points in 18 games played. She competed in all postseason games and helped the Blades capture the 2015 Clarkson Cup.

NWHL

In 2015, Laing signed with the

of the new NWHL professional league. On December 31, 2015, Laing participated in the

2016 Outdoor Women's Classic The 2016 Outdoor Women's Classic presented by Scotiabank was an ice hockey game played on December 31, 2015, at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, between the Boston Pride of the National Women's Hockey League and Les Canadiennes of t ...

, the first outdoor professional women's hockey game. During the first period, Laing went into the boards head first. Removed from the ice on a stretcher, she was taken to the hospital. On January 8, 2016, Laing's family announced that she had had a severe

spinal cord injury A spinal cord injury (SCI) is damage to the spinal cord that causes temporary or permanent changes in its function. It is a destructive neurological and pathological state that causes major motor, sensory and autonomic dysfunctions. Symptoms of ...

and that she had limited movement of her arms and no feeling in her legs.

Post-playing career

Laing competed in the

2017 Boston Marathon The 2017 Boston Marathon was the 121st running of the Boston Athletic Association's mass-participation marathon. It took place on Monday, April 17 (Patriots' Day in Massachusetts). Geoffrey Kirui won the men's race in 2:09:37 and Edna Kiplaga ...

, being pushed in a special racing wheelchair by fellow Massachusite and former

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

star Bobby Carpenter. The pair finished the race with a time of 4:32:30.

Awards

;ECAC * All-Academic Team (2013) * Second Team All-Ivy (2014) ;Princeton Team Awards * Rookie of the Year (2011) ;NWHL * NWHL Foundation Award (2016) * NWHL Perseverance Award (2016)

Statistics

References

External links

*
Denna Laing
at

Princeton Tigers The Princeton Tigers are the athletic teams of Princeton University. The school sponsors 35 varsity teams in 20 sports. The school has won several NCAA national championships, including one in men's fencing, three in women's lacrosse, six in me ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Laing, Denna 1991 births Living people American female wheelchair racers Boston Blades players Boston Pride players Clarkson Cup champions Ice hockey players from Massachusetts Sportspeople from Marblehead, Massachusetts People with tetraplegia Princeton Tigers women's ice hockey players American women's ice hockey forwards Ice hockey people from Essex County, Massachusetts 21st-century American sportswomen