Shannon MacAuley was Clarkson's captain, played in the CWHL, and was part of Hockey Canada's national program. Then she spent three seasons with Rowing Canada and worked with Hockey Canada as a strength and conditioning coach. Now she's attempting a comeback as a player though the 2024 PWHL Draft.
Shannon MacAuley was Clarkson's captain, played in the CWHL, and was part of Hockey Canada's national program. Then she spent three seasons with Rowing Canada and worked with Hockey Canada as a strength and conditioning coach. Now she's attempting a comeback as a player though the 2024 PWHL Draft.
Shannon MacAuley was a power forward. The 5-foot-11 forward won gold with Canada's U-18 national team, spent four seasons at Clarkson finishing her NCAA career as captain, and then turned pro with the CWHL's Brampton Thunder.
Then, at 22-years-old, she walked away from the game, but not from elite competition. Now, seven years later at age 29, MacAuley is aiming to come back to professional hockey declaring herself eligible for the 2024 PWHL Draft.
Where did MacAuley go following her hockey career?
She returned home to Prince Edward Island and at the prompting of family took part in the RBC Training Ground event being held in Charlottetown. Her athleticism showed, and at the Atlantic Canada finals a few months later, MacAuley was the top woman in tests on the assault arm leg bike and six second bike sprint.
It was enough to catch the attention of another national sporting body, Rowing Canada, who recruited MacAuley to compete.
MacAuley was only months removed from participating with Hockey Canada at the 2015 Nations Cup, and had been a member of Canada's development team, but as centralization for the 2018 Olympics begin, she was released from the roster. It was a move that would define the next several years of her athletic life.
MacAuley went from being on the frozen water, to being on the water, training to become a rower.
"Being on the water, it's almost just relaxing and just opens your eyes to a whole different perspective of different sports," she told CBC at the time.
Soon after sitting in a boat for the first time, MacAuley won two events at the Red Island Regatta. She also won the Pelham Championship Race. It was enough to qualify MacAuley for the Canadian National Rowing Championships in British Columbia in 2018 in the Women’s Open single scull category.
Looking at the current roster of PWHL players, MacAuley is familiar with many, not only from her days with Hockey Canada, but the league is loaded with former Clarkson teammates including Renata Fast, Erin Ambrose, Jamie Lee Rattray, Loren Gabel, Erica Howe, and Savannah Harmon. In her season with the Brampton Thunder, that group grew to include Laura Stacey, Jess Jones, and Jocelyne Larocque.
She spent three seasons training with Rowing Canada, including attending national camps with Rowing Canada's Next Gen development program, before jumping into the other side of sports as a strength and conditioning coach.
In 2022-2023, MacAuley was hired as the head strength and conditioning coach for Hockey Canada's national women's development team.