Carla MacLeod Spreads An Infectious Love For Hockey

Few approach the sport like Carla MacLeod. A star player herself, she enjoys being a coach more, and is spreading her infectious love for the sport across the PWHL and globe.

Meet Carla MacLeod: the bubbly, funny, gregarious head coach of PWHL Ottawa—the capital city’s entry in the new women’s professional hockey league..

A former player herself, MacLeod, 41, played in two Olympics for Canada, winning a gold medal with in 2010 with Marie-Philip Poulin, now a rival and opponent on PWHL Montreal. She credits Poulin for her second gold medal.

“She got two goals there, that rookie, back in Vancouver," MacLeod said.

But her road to becoming an Olympic champion and then coach started all the way back in the 1980s in Calgary.

“I have that classic Canadian story,” she said.

MacLeod was the third of four kids in a typical Canadian hockey household.

“When I was four years old, I asked my mom and dad if I could go into hockey. I think they are the coolest parents on the planet because they said yes,” said MacLeod.

“We grew up in a cul-de-sac full of kids so all we did was play and play hockey.”

As MacLeod describes it, hockey is who she is.

“It's just been in my blood.”

MacLeod began to play with the boys as so many of her generation did, as she climbed the hockey ranks in Calgary Alberta as a youth.

“There wasn't the opportunity, there weren't girls leagues yet. So, I played with the boys but had an incredible experience playing with boys.”

Growing up, watching the Olympics in Calgary, Carla knew from the age of 12 what her dream and goal was. It was to make the Olympic games. Unfortunately, back in the 1980s and 90s, if you were a girl. It was hard to play hockey at an elite level. It was not yet an Olympics sport. Not until 1990 was there an IIHF women’s World Championship.

But MacLeod’s parents pushed her to play the game she loved.

She says she was “certainly given opportunities that a lot of women my age weren't given at that time and I really do commend my mom and dad for that.”

MacLeod benefitted from the Olympic oval high-performance centre in Calgary. Ever since the 1988 Calgary Olympics, the Calgary Oval has been a high-performance sport facility, including for women’s hockey. MacLeod took full advantage of the Oval as youth training to become an Olympian.

She trained with the legends of the women’s game such as Hayley Wickenheiser, Cassie Campbell-Pascall, Kelly Bouchard, and Dana Antal. Carla sponged it up.

“I was a young punk just sort of kicking around with them and learning,” said MacLeod.

“I was really fortunate that way to be exposed to, how do you get to that level? I had a front row seat to watching women get to that level.”

MacLeod admits it would have been nice to have the PWHL back then and the pathway the new league affords to young women. She hopes the PWHL will ignite the next generation of women’s hockey superstars.

“If you can see something and you can see yourself doing it. That's where dreams start and are ignited”, says MacLeod. For her, it was the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, Japan, when women’s hockey became an Olympic sport."

“It's no different than mine with the national team, I saw in the Olympics in 1998. And I thought that's what I want to do. This league is going to do the same thing for a lot of young women.”

MacLeod decided to pursue her national hockey dream by playing college hockey for the University of Wisconsin from 2001 to 2005, serving as the captain in her last two seasons. MacLeod felt she was able to learn and grow.

“I think it was the most comfortable version of myself there as a player,” said MacLeod.

Her first Olympic games came in 2006, in Torino, Italy.

“It's 100 years ago now. So, it's hard to directly remember but really thrilling,” said MacLeod.

The normally talkative MacLeod is at a loss for words when she describes her Olympic experience.

"It’s hard to really articulate, how special that (Olympics) was.”

MacLeod retired from the national team after the 2010 Olympics and played pro for the Calgary Oval Xtreme in the now-defunct Western Women’s Hockey League from 2005 to 2009.

After her playing career ended, she knew what she wanted next.

“When I knew I was retiring at Vancouver, I knew I wanted to go into coaching. It's just a hard industry in the women's game to make a career out of it. It's hard as a female to make a career out of it.”

MacLeod made her own coaching opportunity. She went to Mount Royal University in Calgary and volunteered under coach Scott Rivett. At the same time, she was an assistant coach for the U-18 Canadian Women’s team in 2012. During that time she coached Emily Clark, where they won a gold medal together at the U-18 women’s World Championships, MacLeod is once again coaching Clark for PWHL Ottawa.

She says that gave her, “the opportunity to learn what it meant to coach.”

After Mount Royal, MacLeod went on to coach the Japanese women’s hockey team, leading them to the Olympics in 2014 for the first time since 1998. Then she coached a U-18 women’s team for the Edge Hockey School and then the University of Calgary Dinos team.

Eventually she landed the role as the head coach of Czechia's women’s national team. She led them to their first ever medal at the 2022 World Championships with a bronze medal, repeating that accomplishment again in 2023. MacLeod recently signed on to continue as Czechia's head coach through the 2026 Olympics.

“You think you know as a player, but you don't...Coaching is my passion. I actually enjoy it more than playing really...because it's about others," MacLeod explains. “You come into work every day it's not so much about what you know... but actually it's always about them.”

MacLeod smiles when asked how she uses her playing knowledge to connect with players.

“Well, I didn't make any mistakes as a player. So, I'm not sure how they're managing all the mistakes and stuff.”

MacLeod laughs, then turns to a thoughtful tone. 

“I always promised myself as a coach, I'd never forget what it was like to be the player. That's something I've guarded internally and at the end of the day, I just want them to do well.”

MacLeod was hired by PWHL Ottawa last September a few days before the league draft. Her team got off to a good start, collecting points in each of their first four games.

After their second loss of the season in overtime to PWHL Minnesota—she took questions with the energetic, positive, charming and funny attitude that has become her trademark.

“Okay, still look good. Okay, everyone, throw them at me.”

After two overtime losses MacLeod led a practice where the women drilled three-on-three.

"It wouldn't be a half bad thing to work on," she cracked. "I'm not sure if that's Coach of the Year material or just pretty obvious."