One of the best players ever to wear the Bulldog sweater has been named one of the best players ever to play the game of hockey.
Caroline Ouellette, a stalwart of Canada's Olympic success for the past two decades, has been named to the International Ice Hockey Federation's Hall of Fame for the class of 2023. Ouellette, who was already an Olympic gold medalist for Canada when she joined the University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey program in the fall of 2002, was one of the most dominant players in the collegiate level, all the while proving herself internationally.
A four-time Olympic gold medalist and six-time IIHF Women's World gold medalist, Ouellette was a standout Bulldog, twice named a First Team All-American and after helping lead UMD in the 2003 NCAA double-overtime thriller, Ouellete was named the NCAA Frozen Four's Most Valuable Player. The program's third all-time leading scorer despite playing in just 97 games, Ouellete scored 92 goals and dished out 137 assists for 229 points in her three-year career -- an impressive 2.36 points per game average over the course of her time in Duluth.
If her success as a Bulldog wasn't enough on the ice, Ouellette came back in 2007-08 as an assistant coach, and helped UMD earn its fourth NCAA title. Two of those UMD freshmen, Hailey Irwin and Jocelyne Larocque, Ouellette would later win Olympic gold medals with -- Irwin in 2010 and 2014, and Larocque in 2014.
While Ouellette's individual accomplishments at UMD had her named to the Western Collegiate Hockey Association's 1999-2009 All-Decade Team, her accolades as a stalwart of the Canadian National Team and her career in the NWHL and CWHL are even more well known. She was twice named the most valuable player in the CWHL (2008-09 and 2010-11) and won one scoring title (2010-11). Three times in the World Championships she was named one of Canada's top three players, and scored at least a point-per-game at every level of competition over the course of her career. Ouellette also became the first player in CWHL history to eclipse the 300-point mark, a plateau she reached with a pair of assists on Dec. 11, 2016.
The team accomplishments are no less staggering for Ouellette. In fact, Ouellette is the only Canadian in any sport to enter four Olympic events and win gold in all four of them, the last one of which she captained Canada to the gold medal in 2014. Add to that six World Women's championship gold medals, five titles in the NWHL/CWHL, one NCAA title as a player at UMD and one as a coach, and five World Championship silver medals. Ouellette retired from playing hockey in the early fall of 2018.
Ouellete joins former Bulldog great Maria Rooth as the only other UMD player to land in the IIHF Hall of Fame (so far). Rooth was inducted in 2015.
