Taylor Samantha Baker (born July 30, 1997) is a Hungarian-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 ...

defender and member of the Hungarian national team. She has played in the

Swedish Women's Hockey League The Swedish Women's Hockey League (), abbreviated SDHL, is the elite league for women's ice hockey in Sweden. It was established in 2007 as the by the Swedish Ice Hockey Association and was renamed prior to the 2016–17 season. The league has ...

(SDHL) with

Brynäs IF Brynäs IF is a Swedish professional ice hockey team from Gävle. The club currently plays in the Swedish Hockey League (SHL), promoted from the HockeyAllsvenskan, the second tier of ice hockey in Sweden, following the 2023–24 season. The ...

since January 17, 2025.

Playing career

Baker began playing ice hockey early in her childhood, around 3 or 4 years of age, and developed on

minor Minor may refer to: Common meanings * Minor (law), a person not under the age of certain legal activities. * Academic minor, a secondary field of study in undergraduate education Mathematics * Minor (graph theory), a relation of one graph to an ...

teams in her home city of

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

. Her

junior Junior or Juniors may refer to: Aircraft * Ekolot JK-05L Junior, a Polish ultralight aircraft * PZL-112 Junior, a Polish training aircraft * SZD-51 Junior, a Polish-made training and club glider Arts and entertainment Characters * Bowser Jr., ...

career was played with the Toronto Jr. Aeros in the

Provincial Women's Hockey League The Ontario Women's Hockey League U22 Elite (OWHL), formerly the Provincial Women's Hockey League, is a women's junior ice hockey league in Ontario, Canada. Founded in 2004, it is considered to be the highest level of amateur women's ice hockey ...

(Provincial WHL). She played one regular season game with the Jr. Aeros in the 2012–13 and 2013–14 Provincial WHL seasons before fully joining the team for the 2014–15 season. Across her final two seasons with the team, 2014–15 and 2015–16, she scored 10 goals and 19 assists for 29

points A point is a small dot or the sharp tip of something. Point or points may refer to: Mathematics * Point (geometry), an entity that has a location in space or on a plane, but has no extent; more generally, an element of some abstract topologica ...

in 72 games and racked up 62

penalty minutes A penalty in ice hockey is a punishment for an infringement of the rules. Most penalties are enforced by sending the offending player to a penalty box for a set number of minutes. During the penalty the player may not participate in play. Penalties ...

. During Baker’s four seasons with the Jr. Aeros, the team's roster featured a number of future

Premier Hockey Federation 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 ...

(PHF) and

Professional Women's Hockey Players Association The Professional Women's Hockey Players Association (PWHPA) is a nonprofit 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 Women's Ho ...

(PWHPA) players, including Jessie Eldridge, Loren Gabel, Mikyla Grant-Mentis, Emma Greco, Sarah Knee, Daryl Watts, and Breanne Wilson-Bennett.

NCAA

Her

college ice hockey College ice hockey is played principally in the United States and Canada, though leagues exist outside North America. In the United States, competitive "college hockey" refers to ice hockey played between colleges and universities within the go ...

career was played with the

RIT Tigers women's ice hockey The RIT Tigers women's ice hockey team is one of two college ice hockey teams representing Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in the Atlantic Hockey America (AHA) conference of NCAA Division I. The team plays in suburban Rochester, New York a ...

program in the

College Hockey America College Hockey America (CHA) was a college ice hockey conference in the United States. It participated in the NCAA's Division I as a hockey-only conference. The conference's final membership featured six women's teams, with three in Pennsylvani ...

(CHA) conference of the

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest division of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athlet ...

during 2016 to 2020. A traditional

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

, Baker amassed modest collegiate statistics in offensive categories but was a standout in blocked shots. She led the team in her first season with 60 blocked shots and tallied 49 and 45 blocked shots respectively in the following two seasons.

Professional

The end of Baker’s college career coincided with the onset of the

COVID-19 pandemic in North America The first cases of the COVID-19 pandemic of Coronavirus Disease 2019 in North America were reported in the United States on 23 January 2020. Cases were reported in all North American countries after Saint Kitts and Nevis confirmed a case on 2 ...

. Options to play in Canada or the United States were suddenly in short supply, so she pursued opportunities in Europe and opted to sign with the women’s ice hockey team of

MAC Budapest Budapest Akademia HC (also known before as MAC HKB Újbuda) is a Hungarian ice hockey team that currently plays in the Erste Liga. They play their home games at Tüskecsarnok, located in Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital a ...

, which plays in the

European Women's Hockey League The European Women's Hockey League, abbreviated EWHL, is an international ice hockey league. Created as the Elite Women's Hockey League in 2004 by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), the EWHL comprises clubs from several countries in ...

(EWHL) and the Női OB I bajnokság. She played the 2020–21 season and 2021–22 season with MAC Budapest. Returning to Canada after six seasons playing abroad, Baker signed with the newest expansion team of the

(PHF), the

Montreal Force The Montreal Force () were a professional women's ice hockey team in the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF), based in Montreal, Quebec. The team was established in 2022 and debuted in the 2022–23 PHF season. The Force played only one season, as ...

, one day before the

2022–23 PHF season The 2022–23 PHF season was the eighth and final ice hockey season of the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF) – known as the National Women's Hockey League during its first six seasons (2015–2021). League business The PHF decided not to hold ...

began. That season, she and Christine Deaudelin tied as the Force’s top scoring defencemen, with nine points each. Following the buyout of the PHF in June 2023, Baker signed in the newly established

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) with

PWHL New York The New York Sirens are a professional ice hockey team based in the New York metropolitan area that competes in the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL). They are one of the six charter franchises of the league. The team plays its home gam ...

. She played in 22 of 24 games with New York during the 2024 PWHL season. Ahead of the

2024–25 PWHL season The 2024–25 PWHL season was the second season of operation of the Professional Women's Hockey League. Six teams competed during the season, located in Lowell, Saint Paul, Laval, Newark, Ottawa, and Toronto. In the playoffs, the Minnesota Fr ...

, PWHL New York was renamed the New York Sirens. Baker re-signed with the freshly renamed team but played in only three games before her contract was released on January 4, 2025. Baker relocated to Sweden soon thereafter to sign with Brynäs IF for the remainder of the

2024–25 SDHL season The 2024–25 SDHL season was the eighteenth ice hockey season of the Swedish Women's Hockey League (SDHL). The regular season began on 13 September 2024 and concluded on 16 February 2025. Teams Skellefteå AIK (women), Skellefteå AIK earn ...

. She joined former PWHLer Maude Poulin-Labelle and Hunagrian national team captain Fanni Garát-Gasparics, in addition to a number of national team players from other nations, on the Brynäs roster.

International play

Baker was offered Hungarian citizenship and the chance to compete with the Hungarian national team while playing with MAC Budapest. She made her debut with the Hungarian national team in the qualification tournament for the

2022 Winter Olympics The 2022 Winter Olympics, officially called the XXIV Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Beijing 2022 (2022), were an international winter multi-sport event held from 4 to 20 February 2022 in Beijing, China, and surrounding areas wit ...

, at which Hungary narrowly missed qualifying. Her first

IIHF Women's World Championship 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 ...

was the 2022 Top Division tournament in Denmark and she also represented Hungary at the 2023 Top Division tournament.

Personal life

Baker was born on July 30, 1997, in Toronto to Nancy and Peter Baker. One of three siblings, she has two brothers. She earned a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

in biomedical sciences from

Rochester Institute of Technology The Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is a private university, private research university in Henrietta, New York, a suburb of Rochester, New York, Rochester. It was founded in 1829. It is one of only two institute of technology, institut ...

(RIT) and an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

with a concentration in sports business from

Toronto Metropolitan University Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU, or Toronto Met), formerly Ryerson University, is a Public university, public research university located in Toronto, Canada. The university's core campus is situated within the Garden District, Toronto, Gar ...

in 2023. Baker holds

multiple citizenship Multiple citizenship (or multiple nationality) is a person's legal status in which a person is at the same time recognized by more than one sovereign state, country under its nationality law, nationality and citizenship law as a national or cit ...

– Canadian by birth and Hungarian via

naturalization Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-national of a country acquires the nationality of that country after birth. The definition of naturalization by the International Organization for Migration of the ...

. She does not speak Hungarian.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Baker, Taylor ice hockey 1997 births Living people Canadian women's ice hockey defencemen Hungarian women's ice hockey defencemen Ice hockey people from Toronto MAC Budapest (women) players Montreal Force players RIT Tigers women's ice hockey players Toronto Metropolitan University alumni New York Sirens players Toronto Jr. Aeros players 21st-century Canadian sportswomen 21st-century Hungarian sportswomen