GOING PRO: Cara Gardner Morey instructs a player during her tenure as the head coach of the Princeton University women’s hockey team. After spending the last 14 seasons as a member of Princeton’s coaching staff, including the last eight as head coach, Gardner Morey recently resigned that position to accept a new role as the general manager of the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) Vancouver team, an expansion franchise set to begin play in the 2025-26 season. The second-winningest head coach in program history with a 120-82-24 record in her tenure at the helm, Gardner Morey guided the Tigers to the 2020 ECAC Hockey Championship. (Photo provided courtesy of Princeton Athletics)
By Bill Alden
In her role as the head coach of the Princeton University women’s ice hockey team, Cara Gardner Morey has often urged her players to be daring in their play.
Taking a page out of her book, Gardner Morey is making a bold move in her hockey life as she has stepped down from her Princeton job to become the general manager of the Vancouver expansion franchise in the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL).
As she gave her Princeton players the news, Gardner Morey invoked that philosophy.
“I told my players through a ton of tears,” said Gardner Morey. “I constantly tell them that they have to get out of their comfort zone. They have to take risks and push themselves. I said it is time that I listen to my own advice.”
Taking her advice, though, was not easy for Gardner Morey.
“It was the hardest decision ever,” said Gardner Morey. “I was never looking to leave, I never anticipated leaving. I don’t even want to leave. It is just such a cool opportunity. I just felt that life is about taking chances, taking risks and pushing yourself.”
After spending her first six years at Princeton as an assistant coach before getting promoted to the top job in 2017, Gardner Morey took advantage of the opportunity to guide the program.
“The biggest challenge is that you go from kind of being the players’ liaison and the person that they go to with the close relationship and then you are the head coach,” said Gardner Morey, who leaves Princeton as the the second-winningest head coach in program history with a 120-82-24 record in her eight seasons at the helm. “You are controlling their ice time a little bit more so there is that part. You actually go into more of a general manager role than a coach. You have to delegate the actual coaching to the assistants. I would say 80 percent of my job was other stuff, not coaching. It was a lot of managing.”
Along the way, Gardner Morey learned to be flexible in her management approach.
“Every year was so different, you learn something new every year,” said Gardner Morey. “Every team feels a little bit different. The biggest thing that I learned is that there is no recipe, there is no cookie cutter. You can have it great and think you know how it works and then it is a different group of people and it changes completely. It is just constantly being able to adapt and change.”
One of the greatest groups Gardner Morey coached was the 2019-20 squad that went 26-6-1 and won the program’s first-ever ECAC Hockey Tournament title.
“The 2020 season before COVID-19 was definitely a highlight, the culture of that team was amazing,” said Gardner Morey. “Obviously we were talented and we won the ECAC. That was certainly a highlight.”
But for Gardner Morey, many of the highlights came off the ice through interaction with her players.
“The big highlight was watching them graduate,” said Gardner Morey. “I got to coach some of the best athletes in the sport. I would always talk about pregame meals and how interesting their conversations were. Another highlight is just when you are on a road trip and you are sitting around with them, listening to them talk about things they are studying or things going on in the world. They are so impressive as athletes but even more impressive as people and students and intellectuals.”
Gardner Morey pointed to former star defender Claire Thompson ’20, an NYU medical student and Olympic gold medalist for the Canadian women’s national team, as epitomizing the quality of the student athletes she guided.
“Claire is the cream of the crop and a great human being,” said Gardner Morey, who is being reunited with Thompson after signing her this week to join the Vancouver squad.
Coaching Sarah Fillier ’24, the fourth all-time scorer (194 points on 101 goals and 93 assists) in program history and one of the top players in the world was another great learning experience for Gardner Morey.
“It is almost sometimes too challenging,” said Gardner Morey of Fillier, an Olympic gold medalist and world champion for the Canadian women’s national team. “With some of the great players because you don’t want to over coach so you are trying to understand them because they are going to see the game differently. It is finding that balance when to coach them and when to let them be.”
After having a great time at Princeton over the last 14 years, Gardner Morey is sad to be leaving.
“I am going to miss everything,” said Gardner Morey. “I love the town. I love the people. I love the culture. I love the campus. If I was in a different place at a different school, it would have been a no-brainer to take this step but it was really difficult to make this decision because I love Princeton so much.”
When Vancouver initially contacted her, Gardner Morey was skeptical about making the move to the front office.
“They reached out to me, they said they were going to be expanding and they asked me to consider the general manger role and truthfully,” said Gardner Morey, “at first I was a little bit insulted because it was why don’t you want me as a coach. What I didn’t understand is that the GM is the one running the whole team. I talked to some of my connections in the NHL with the Flyers. I talked to Danny Briere and Brent Flahr and I started exploring what this position was.”
Gardner Morey came to realize that she was well-suited for the GM role.
“I really love coaching but I also really love leadership,” said Gardner Morey. “It was just a bigger leadership role. I just felt like it is an opportunity to grow our sport. I am really invested in making sure that the league succeeds. At first I was like what are you talking about. The more that they had conversations with me and I explored it, I thought well I am really passionate about leadership and this is a larger leadership opportunity within a new professional league. The momentum is there in pro sports for women. It is a really exciting time to be involved.”
It is an exciting time for Gardner Morey as the franchise chose seven players in the expansion draft earlier this week and signed four others in addition to Thompson. Now, she is turning her focus to putting together the rest of the organization.
“It is hiring a head coach,” said Gardner Morey. “Assembling a team is the beginning. I have got to hire 30 more staff members.”
As a proud Canadian who hails from Hensall, Ontario, Gardner Morey is happy to be returning to her native land.
“In some ways it feels like I am going home but I am going a lot farther,” said Gardner Morey. “It is an exciting city. The fan base is really excited for the team to come. There is going to be tons of support so that part is exciting.”
Looking ahead, Gardner Morey believes that the PWHL is going to succeed in a big way.
“It is in really good shape,” said Gardner Morey of the league’s prospects. “I have been watching pro women’s hockey try and I think a lot of us who have been in it were a little hesitant at the beginning. We wanted to make sure that it was going to be done properly. They have the business model and the leadership structure in place. I think this league is going to last. That is why I was OK, it is the right time and I want to help make sure that we have a great product out there.”
And with Gardner Morey bringing her Princeton hockey experience and leadership skill to Vancouver, the franchise is good shape as it gets up and running.