Four Olympic gold medals.
Seven World Championship gold medals. Three-time World Championship All-Star. Two-time Best Forward. Two time leading goal scorer.
Five-time Team Canada alternate captain.
All-time points leader in the original NWHL.
CWHL champion. 2007-08 MVP. Winner of the Angela James Bowl as leading CWHL scorer in 2008-09. Captain of the Brampton Thunder.
She even has a trophy named for her, the Jayna Hefford Trophy for MVP as voted by the CWHL players.
And now, a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Congratulations to the Class of 2018! #HHOF #HHOF2018 pic.twitter.com/KSwDIUKHQM
— Hockey Hall of Fame (@HockeyHallFame) June 26, 2018
Related
WHW: Expanding horizons
Jamie Lee Rattray wins Jayna Hefford Trophy
Jayna Hefford retired from competition in 2014, following the Sochi Olympics, so this is only her second year of eligibility for induction. That makes her the Canadian woman’s hockey player with the shortest time between eligbility and induction (American Angela Ruggiero remains, for now, the only woman to be inducted as soon as she was eligible). Still, for a player of her calibre it’s appropriate to say “about time!”
She completely dominated the NWHL, her all-time points total of 400 in 199 games played more than 200 points ahead of the next best player Caroline Ouellette. In the CWHL it was Ouellette who became the first to beat Hefford’s goal total of 130 just this season, a feat Hefford accomplished in 128 regular season games — it took Ouellette 175. She still sits among the all-time CWHL leaders in points, goals and assists.
Following her nearly two decades as a player, Hefford became an assistant coach for the University of Toronto Varsity Blues, of whom she’s also an alumna. She was on the Blues staff for five years.
Jayna Hefford will stand as one of women’s hockey’s greatest players for a very long time. It is more than appropriate that she take her place in the Hockey Hall of Fame this year. Congratulations, Jayna!
