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Toronto Furies
City	Toronto, Ontario
League	Canadian Women's Hockey League
Founded	2011
Folded	2019
Home arena	Mastercard Centre
Colours	Blue and white
Owner(s)	CWHL
General manager	Sami Jo Small
Head coach	Courtney Kessel
Captain	Natalie Spooner
Website	toronto.thecwhl.com
Franchise history
2010–2011	Toronto CWHL
2011–2019	Toronto Furies
Championships
Playoff championships	1 (2013–14)

The Toronto Furies were a professional women's ice hockey team that played in Toronto, Ontario, as members of the Canadian Women's Hockey League. The Toronto Furies played their home games at the Mastercard Centre in Toronto. The team was established in 2010 as an expansion team called Toronto CWHL during a league-wide restructuring. The team adopted the name "Furies" after the 2011 Clarkson Cup.

The club won the 2014 Clarkson Cup championship in 1–0 overtime victory over the Boston Blades.

In 2019, the CWHL ceased operations, as well as all teams that it directly owned including the Furies.

History

Prior to the 2010–11 season, the Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL) underwent a structural reorganization. The CWHL considered the restructure a relaunch of the league. Among the changes included the Mississauga Chiefs, Ottawa Senators and Vaughan Flames teams ceasing operations, adding a new team in Toronto. The relaunch also branded the five teams after their respective locations, simply calling the new teams by their locations such as "Toronto CWHL". However, the CWHL teams that were playing in previous markets were commonly referred to as their former names, and the new Toronto team was sometimes called the Toronto Aeros after a former NWHL team that ceased operations in 2007 or Toronto HC. The league held its first player draft on August 12, 2010, although it was only for the three Greater Toronto Area teams as the league decided that since they do not pay a salary, it would be unfair to force players to be based outside their hometown. The new Toronto team protected former Mississauga Chiefs' Jennifer Botterill and Sami Jo Small and acquired many of the former Chiefs' players in the draft.

The Toronto CWHL team finished the 2010–11 regular season in fourth place and qualified for the 2011 Clarkson Cup by defeating fellow CHWL expansion team and third place finisher, the Boston Blades two games to none in playoff. The team then defeated the Brampton Thunder 3–2 and the Minnesota Whitecaps 6–0 during the Clarkson Cup round-robin to advance to the championship game. Toronto then lost 5–0 to the Montreal Stars. The team adopted the Toronto Furies name after the season ended. The decision behind naming the franchise Furies was featured on an episode of History Television's program What's In a Name? aired on September 12, 2011. Players voted on one of five names suggested by fans. The five names that fans suggested included: the Toronto Force, Toronto Tornadoes, Toronto Snipes, Toronto Furies and the Toronto Vamps.

Two Furies players became the fourth and fifth women to play 150 career games in 2013–14. On November 16, 2013, Kristy Zamora reached the milestone. On November 23, 2013, a 4–2 victory over Brampton provided Meagan Aarts with her 150th game.

During the 2013–14 CWHL season, there were a handful of milestones which the Furies reached. On February 9, 2014, a victory against the defending Clarkson Cup champion Boston Blades provided Furies goaltender Sami Jo Small with the 60th victory of her career. With the win, she became the first CWHL goaltender to reach the 60 wins plateau. A March 8 game against the Brampton Thunder resulted in Meagan Aarts earning the 100 point in her CWHL career.

The Furies defeated the Boston Blades by a 1–0 tally in overtime to claim their first Clarkson Cup title in 2014. The tournament was played at Markham Centennial Centre. With the victory, Natalie Spooner became the first woman in hockey history to claim the gold medal in the Olympic Winter Games and the Clarkson Cup in the same year.

During the summer of 2016, Kori Cheverie retired from the Furies with three franchise records: points (82), games played (152) and power play goals (14). In addition, she holds the league record for most consecutive games played with 152.

On June 11, 2018, inaugural member Sami Jo Small was named general manager of the Furies. Among her first moves was signing Courtney Birchard as their new head coach. In addition, Ken Dufton was named as an advisor to the team. On the free agent market, Small signed goaltender Elaine Chuli and forward Shiann Darkangelo to contracts in August 2018.

On March 31, 2019, the CWHL announced that the league was folding on May 1, 2019. The Furies' organization released a statement saying that it would continue to try and have a team despite the folding of the league. The competing National Women's Hockey League then announced it was in negotiations for placing a team in Toronto but ultimately was not able to launch for the 2019–20 season. The NWHL later awarded Toronto an expansion team for the 2020–21 season with the Toronto Six.

Season-by-season records

Coaches

• Sommer West, 2012–2017
• Jeff Flanagan, 2017–2018
• Courtney Kessel, 2018–2019

Scoring leaders

Year-by-year

Draft picks

• These are the first selections for every respective draft that Toronto participated in.

Awards and honours

• Sommer West, 2014 CWHL Coach of the Year
• Mallory Deluce, 2015 Isobel Gathorne-Hardy Award
• Christina Kessler, 2014 Clarkson Cup Most Valuable Player
• Britni Smith, First Star of the Game, 2014 Clarkson Cup finals
• Christina Kessler, Second Star of the Game, 2014 Clarkson Cup finals

See also

• Toronto Aeros
• Mississauga Chiefs
• Scarborough Sting

References

1. "Final Public Communication" (PDF). CWHL. 2 July 2019.
2. "Elite Women's Hockey Action Starts". CWHL.ca. October 21, 2010. Archived from the original on November 21, 2010.
3. "NEWS - The "NEW" Canadian Women's Hockey League" (Press release). Ottawa Senators. June 7, 2010. Archived from the original on July 18, 2018. Retrieved August 9, 2010.
4. "Aeros History". TorontoAeros.com. Retrieved September 28, 2018.
5. "What it's all about..." CWHL.com. February 25, 2011. Archived from the original on October 2, 2011.
6. "Women's Elite Hockey "First Ever" Draft". CWHL.ca. August 12, 2010. Archived from the original on November 21, 2010.
7. "Toronto 2010–11 draft". Archived from the original on April 5, 2011.
8. "Canadian TV Guide - Your guide to Canadian TV News, TV Reviews, TV Listings and so much more". Canadian TV Guide. Retrieved 30 October 2018.
9. "Canadian Women's Hockey League | Toronto's Sami Jo Small becomes first CWHL goaltender to reach 60 career wins | Pointstreak Sites". Archived from the original on 2014-05-06. Retrieved 2014-05-07.
10. "Canadian Women's Hockey League | Toronto Furies sniper Meagan Aarts reaches milestone century mark against rival s Brampton Thunder | Pointstreak Sites". Archived from the original on 2014-05-06. Retrieved 2014-05-07.
11. "Canadian Women's Hockey League | Britni Smith's overtime winner gives Toronto Furies first Clarkson Cup title | Pointstreak Sites". Archived from the original on 2014-03-25. Retrieved 2016-06-22.
12. Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press (11 June 2018). "Sami Jo Small named GM of CWHL's Toronto Furies". The Toronto Star. Retrieved 3 August 2018.
13. Press Release (31 July 2018). "Kessel New Head Coach, Dufton New Advisor". Toronto Furies. Retrieved 3 August 2018.
14. Press Release (1 August 2018). "Toronto Adds Free Agent Goaltender Elaine Chuli". Toronto Furies. Retrieved 3 August 2018.
15. Furies, Toronto (2019-03-31). "The Toronto Furies are proud of our ongoing contributions to advancing women's hockey on every level here in Toronto. Thank you to everyone who contributed to our successes and the growth we experienced over the years. Let's all #StickTogether as we look to move forward togetherpic.twitter.com/g6iWm5T8Bf". @TorontoCWHL. Retrieved 2019-04-01.
16. ""We'll Always Do What's Best for the Game" - A Message from the NWHL". OurSports Central. May 30, 2019.
17. "CWHL: Boston Blades | Pointstreak Stats". Cwhlboston_hockey.stats.pointstreak.com. Retrieved 2017-07-06.
18. "CWHL: Boston Blades | Pointstreak Stats". Cwhlboston_hockey.stats.pointstreak.com. Retrieved 2017-07-06.
19. "Canadian Women's Hockey League | Home Page". cwhl_site.stats.pointstreak.com. Archived from the original on 26 October 2012. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
20. "Canadian Women's Hockey League | Home Page | Pointstreak Sites". cwhl_site.stats.pointstreak.com. Archived from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
21. "Toronto Furies". toronto.thecwhl.com. Retrieved 2019-02-20.
22. "Toronto Furies". toronto.thecwhl.com. Retrieved 2019-02-20.
23. "Toronto Furies". toronto.thecwhl.com. Retrieved 2019-02-20.
24. "Toronto Furies". toronto.thecwhl.com. Retrieved 2019-02-20.
25. "CWHL - Canada Women's Hockey: Leagues, Statistics, Awards, Schedules". Archived from the original on 2011-08-26.
26. "Sudbury Lady Wolves and Red Deer Chiefs to meet for gold medal at 2015 Esso Cup; award winners announced : NR.052.15". hockeycanadawest.ca. 2015-04-25. Retrieved 2016-06-22.
27. "Canadian Women's Hockey League | Home Page | Pointstreak Sites". cwhl_site.stats.pointstreak.com. Archived from the original on 25 March 2014. Retrieved 17 January 2022.

External links

• Toronto Furies on CWHL Website

• Toronto Furies
• Defunct ice hockey teams in Toronto
• Defunct women's ice hockey teams in Canada
• Canadian Women's Hockey League teams
• Ice hockey clubs established in 2011
• Ice hockey clubs disestablished in 2019
• 2011 establishments in Ontario
• 2019 disestablishments in Ontario
• Women's ice hockey teams in Toronto