UofA AthleticsIt’s hard to imagine University of Alberta women’s hockey without Howie Draper. But after 28 seasons of building the program since its inception, the legendary head coach is finally stepping away.
The university confirmed that the 2025–26 season has been Draper’s last season with the team. It’s a massive shift for the program, closing the book on the winningest coach in U Sports women’s hockey history.
From the ground up
In the summer of 1997, the Pandas team was brand new. They had a roster, a new league, and Draper was the guy tasked with making it work. Since then, he has done a lot more than just make it work. Over three decades, he racked up an insane 715 overall wins, bringing home 15 Canada West banners and eight U Sports national titles along the way.
The golden age was the legendary stretch from 2002 to 2007. Alberta was virtually unstoppable, grabbing five national championships and six consecutive Canada West titles. That specific roster was so dominant they got inducted into the U of A Sports Wall of Fame in 2020.
Draper is an eight-time Canada West Coach of the Year and took home the U Sports Coach of the Year honours four times. Last year, Hockey Canada gave him the Gordon Jukes Award for his work developing amateur hockey. He’s also sitting in both the Edmonton and Alberta Sports Halls of Fame.
Road to coaching
His ties to campus started long before his coaching career. Draper was a Golden Bear himself, holding down the blue line from 1985 to 1990 under coaching legends Clare Drake and Billy Moores. He helped the Bears bring home the 1986 University Cup and an 1989 Canada West banner. You can still see Drake’s tactical influence in how Draper runs his bench today.
He didn’t just stick to the university scene, either. Draper took Team Canada to a gold medal at the 2022 International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Women’s U18 World Championship, and head-coached the 2013 International University Sports Federation (FISU) team over in Italy.
The organization will begin a national search for a new head coach later this spring, and whoever takes the gig has some impossibly big shoes to fill.
Presently, an exciting new era approaches for the Pandas hockey club, but it’s important to remember how we got here.
Draper didn’t just lead this team, he built it from the ground up.
