A 16-year-old named Taya was selected in the OHL draft, and she can make ‘little girls dream’

They were wrong.

“I would say, ‘Hey, I’m here to develop, and boy or girl I’m here to develop everybody, and if she wins her spot, earns her spot, it doesn’t matter if she’s male or female,’ ” said Jason Clark, who coached Currie for three years with the Chiefs. “Even as a coach I had pressure to not keep her.”

Currie finished her minor league career playing for the Chiefs AAA boys’ under-16 team four years later. This month, she became the first girl selected in the Ontario Hockey League priority selection draft. The goaltender from Parkhill, Ontario, was chosen in the 14th round — at No. 267 overall — by the Sarnia Sting.

Currie, 16, will have the option to pursue college hockey or try to play in the OHL. But for now, her draft selection is a sign of progress in the male-dominated sport.

“You watch a game, and those boys really respect her. There is a real bond there,” said Karen daSilva, the Elgin-Middlesex president. “They are always skating up and tapping her on the pads, and she is just their teammate, and that is what I really enjoy watching is the respect level from everyone on that team. They don’t treat her any different. She is just a valued member.”

Clark coached Currie from 2016 to 2019. They won the league championship in 2017, and Currie was the starting netminder. She was part of the goalie rotation the following year, when the team won the championship again.

“Nobody really ever chirped her about her being a goalie mainly because they were shooting on her and they weren’t scoring,” Clark recalled. “Probably thought they could or they should.”

News of Currie’s selection in the OHL draft comes at a time when women’s hockey at the professional level is in flux.

The Canadian Women’s Hockey League folded at the end of April 2019, leaving the National Women’s Hockey League as the lone professional organization in North America. Many players boycotted that league while awaiting a more sustainable model and instead organized the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association. The association recently ran a showcase event, for both the United States and Canada.

“That to me, [Currie] being drafted in the OHL, it is just telling people this is why we need a real pro women’s league,” said Manon Rhéaume, the first and only woman to dress in the NHL.

Rhéaume, who reached out to Currie to congratulate her and offer advice, signed a contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 1992 and played in exhibition games in 1992 and 1993.

The former goaltender sees similarities between herself and Currie, in their mannerisms and their approach to breaking the glass ceiling in the sport. Rhéaume met Currie at a youth tournament about seven years ago in Michigan, when Rhéaume was coaching her son’s team. Now Rhéaume is equally proud and hopeful about progress in the sport while acknowledging there is still a long way to go.

“When I played the exhibition game, a lot of people were just saying the fact that I was the first female to play the game and no one really talked about that I had to perform at camp and finish as a top three goalie in the mini-tournament to earn that start,” Rhéaume said. “Today, I think we are getting to a point where the people are acknowledging that those women are great at what they are doing and they deserve to be there.”

Canadian national team goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens also sees the development of the sport but thinks there needs to be a better structure for young women in addition to more resources.

“Sometimes you are told, ‘Oh, you are not as good as them,’ so there are always excuses,” Desbiens said. “So to see women like her, girls like her, succeed at this level with boys is very encouraging. It makes the media talk about it and opens doors and makes little girls dream.”

Those who have watched Currie are confident she is ready for the spotlight and impressed with her on-ice abilities. Being a goaltender — a position with minimal physical contact — also has its advantages when trying to pursue a junior league route.

“As a goalie, you will have players in front of your net trying to screen you, trying to push you, but the size definitely might not be as big of an impact [as] if you are a forward or a [defenseman],” Desbiens said. “So it’s definitely easier for us to play a little longer with the boys.”

Clark said Currie, tall for her age and able to move well in the crease, had the skills needed to compete as she continued to jump up in age groups. Her speed and ability to track the puck are her strengths.

Currie, who could not be reached for comment for this story, told Ron MacLean on “Hockey Night in Canada” that she originally wanted to be a goalie because she “didn’t like sitting on the bench” and wanted to be the “last defense” for her team.

“It’s just awesome,” Currie told OHL TV after being drafted. “I can be a role model for so many young girls to follow their dreams. … I just want to be a normal teammate to all the boys. I want to be a family with them.”

Clark, her coach with the Chiefs, called Currie “a great character kid,” someone who gets along with everybody.

“The boys have all welcomed her all the way up,” he said. “They protect her, and she’s been a piece of the pie, as they say.”

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