Varsity Blues women’s hockey forward Kaitlyn McKnight has been a centrepiece to a spell of dominance for the women’s hockey program.
She was named a U-SPORTS all-rookie after she won the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) McCaw Cup, bringing home the 19th provincial championship in program history. In her second year, McKnight and the Blues fell one game shy of a U SPORTS National Championship, grabbing silver in both the national and provincial tournaments. The medal rush continued into her third season, where the Blues won a historic 20th OUA title on top of a bronze medal at nationals.
Now, in her fourth year, and with 30 goals and 34 assists in 115 games under her belt, McKnight is a Varsity Blues veteran. In October, the forward was named captain of the Blues for the 2025–2026 season. In September, she was selected to join the Creating Coaches program, a Hockey Canada and U SPORTS joint venture which aims to increase women coaches within hockey. In an interview with The Varsity, McKnight discussed her journey to the Blues, the influence of Head Coach Vicky Sunohara and the importance of women in coaching, and her future in the sport.
Beginnings in hockey and joining the Blues
Hailing from Barrie, Ontario, McKnight always had her eyes set on hockey. Starting her sport at just three years old, she reflects that “I was never the most naturally skilled player, [but] I fell in love with it the minute I started.”
She continued to play in Barrie, eventually going on to join the Central York Jr. Panthers for her junior career. During a gap year, which she took due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she received an offer to join the Blues. She explained that “getting the chance to play at a school like U of T was something that I could never turn down […] Now I’m here and living my dream every day.”
McKnight has seen continued success with the Blues. The nutritional science and psychology double-major registered the third most points on the team with 16 points in the regular season last year, and added another three assists in the postseason.
Despite the numerous accolades in her trophy cabinet, McKnight’s most memorable moment with the team remains the Blues’ loss to the Waterloo Warriors on home ice in the McCaw Cup Final in her second year. “The feeling [of losing] was so hard because [that was] a lot of seniors’ last game at Varsity…When we came back for my third year, the mentality was that we need to [finish] what we started… It took a lot, but being able to lift McCaw again in third year after feeling the devastation of [losing both the OUA and U SPORT championships] was really tough, and being able to come together as a team [and win again meant] a lot.”
McKnight’s attitude of celebrating the highs and feeling the lows demonstrates the mentality that has taken the team to such great successes.
Being selected for the Creating Coaches program
This year, McKnight was named as one of twelve student-athletes selected to the Creating Coaches program’s fifth cohort. Launched in 2021, the initiative was designed as a collaboration between Hockey Canada and U SPORTS to increase women hockey coaches.
“Vicky [Sunohara] approached me about [the program] last spring. She asked if I was interested in getting into coaching […] and of course I said yes,” said McKnight. “I had done a lot of [coaching for] camps with U of T in the past and helped minor hockey teams… and she knows that I enjoy it.”
“Until I got to U of T, I never really had a female head coach since novice, which is when I was eight years old… so I went the majority of my career without [having one],” explained McKnight. While last season set a record for the most women coaching hockey in Canadian history, as of 2023, the majority of U SPORTS women’s hockey head coaches were men. In the PWHL, just two of eight head coaches are women.
“You see how it affects you because you don’t have that perspective of the game. Women’s hockey and men’s hockey are very similar, but there are so many little things you wouldn’t know unless you knew someone who went through them as well.”
Luckily, U of T has one of the most experienced women’s hockey coaches around. Entering her 15th season behind the Blues’ bench, Sunohara — a former Team Canada and U of T legend — has won two OUA titles, along with three national and three provincial Coach of the Year awards. In 2020, Sunohara earned OUA Female Coach of the Year honours as the best coach across all sports.
McKnight was quick to praise her mentor: “Vicky’s been a really great role model for me to learn about the game… She’s done so much for women’s hockey, and her experience coaching and also as a player is invaluable… If I can even be half of that for someone else, it would be a dream come true.”
The Creating Coaches program provides student-athletes with training, mentorship, education and an honorarium, as well as a placement as an assistant coach with a U13, U15 or U18 hockey team in their local communities over two years.
“[We] have a Zoom call once or twice a month [with a] Hockey Canada trainer or coach. We’ve [also had meetings with] the coach of Czechia’s national team, goalie coaches, skill coaches, [and even] life skills coaches,” explained McKnight.
Academic and professional aspirations
As a veteran on the Blues roster, coaching is something that remains on McKnight’s radar for the future. “Hockey has been such a big part of my life, and coaching is kind of a natural progression to what I want to do for the rest of my life.”
She plans to use all of the resources afforded to her through her involvement to expand her knowledge not only in coaching, but as a player as well. “I still have a couple years left in U SPORTS,” declared the Varsity Blue.
Following her time at U of T, McKnight said that she would “love to play some sort of professional hockey, whether that’s in the PWHL or abroad in Europe.”
In addition to coaching and playing, McKnight has considered other career paths that would provide opportunities to utilize her academic background and expertise. “With my nutrition major, I would love to go into sports nutrition and also go into coaching and coach at the next level. Now with PWHL, there are so many more opportunities for women to get into coaching. I think it would have been a wasted opportunity to not start now.”
McKnight’s best is surely yet to come, with an exciting season as both captain and coach awaiting. “I think the more you know about the game, the better you’re off going to be… I’m really excited to see the parts of coaching and parts of hockey that you don’t get exposed to as much.”
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