The WCHA announced Thursday that Minnesota senior forward Taylor Heise is the 2021-22 WCHA Player of the Year.
Heise, who was named WCHA Offensive Player of the Year on Tuesday, was chosen for the overall honor by league head coaches and assistant coaches from among the All-WCHA First Team selections.
“Congratulations to Taylor Heise on her selection as our 2021-22 WCHA Player of the Year,” WCHA commissioner Jennifer Flowers said in a statement. “This award is well-deserved as Taylor has had an outstanding season leading the NCAA in scoring. The WCHA is home to many of the nation’s best collegiate women’s hockey players, which makes this award all the more impressive as Taylor continues to elevate her team and the WCHA.”
On her way to collecting three WCHA Forward of the Month honors, Heise registered 60 points in the regular season on 26 goals and 34 assists. She tallied a nation-leading four short-handed goals on the year and was recognized nationally as the Hockey Commissioners Association named her national player of the month for both November and February.
A native of Lake City, Minn., Heise became the first Gopher to score 60-plus points in a season since 2016-17 off of an impressive 194 shots on goal. While skating to a plus-38 rating on the ice, Heise scored a team-topping six game-winning goals and helped Minnesota find the twine first in 25 of the regular season’s 32 games by scoring seven opening goals this year. Two of Heise’s opening goals even came in the first 40 seconds after dropping the puck.
Recently surpassing 150 career points, Heise has also found success in the circle, winning 333 faceoffs in the regular season.
Heise is the seventh different Gopher to be honored as WCHA Player of the Year, earning the ninth title in school history, joining two-time winners Krissy Wendell (2004, 2005) and Hannah Brandt (2014, 2015), Courtney Kennedy (2001), Ronda Curtin (2002), Amanda Kessel (2013), and Sydney Baldwin (2018).
