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AHL Role is Latest Dream Job for Hayley Moore in Her Hockey Career

By Heather Rule, 03/23/21, 5:45PM MDT

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Moore joined the league as vice president, hockey operations in February

Hayley Moore has been a part of hockey at nearly every level, starting as a player on boys’ teams growing up. As a younger player, she watched her father volunteer his time with Massachusetts Hockey and USA Hockey. 

“I just always saw the work that he did behind the scenes, which I think is one reason I love working in operations, because I just had so much appreciating for what he did to help provide me with opportunity along the way,” Moore said. 

Moore joined the American Hockey League Feb. 8 in her new role as vice president, hockey operations. 

Moore was a two-year captain and two-time All-Ivy selection as a player at Brown University before she played professionally in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League and in Switzerland. She worked as an assistant coach at Harvard, and she’s a past director of girls hockey for the East Coast Wizards program in Massachusetts.

Up until her AHL job, she was president of the Boston Pride in the NWHL. She also served as deputy commissioner and director of player development for the NWHL from 2017-19.

With the AHL, she oversees the officiating program and supplemental discipline at the league level, along with a number of other hockey operations initiatives. 

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She’s experienced her new job as a learning process and a good collaboration with other hockey entities, which includes USA Hockey and overseeing the officiating program in general, Moore said. She attended USA Hockey camps as a player and recalls the meaningful and proud moments.

“Any time as a player you could go and put the USA Hockey jersey on was a really special moment,” Moore said. 

During her coaching days, she also became a development skills coach and on-ice director at USA Hockey’s Player Development Camps. Moore said she always wanted to make sure she gave back to USA Hockey. 

“The impact it had on me to be able to be a part of that camp experience for the players was really valuable and meaningful,” Moore said. “And also, to be able to just collaborate with all of the amazing coaches, scouts, directors that came to those camps, you always left having great conversations, building new relationships and learning new things.”

Shifting from the NWHL with six teams to 28 teams in the AHL this season is an obvious change for Moore in her work. She’s been surprised to see the amount of collaboration the AHL has with other organizations like the NHL, USHL and USA Hockey when it comes to officiating. 

Having already worked at different levels of hockey, Moore found out early on in her career that she enjoyed working on the operations side of sports. 

As she looked for a hockey ops role after coaching at Harvard, she found that it could be hit or miss as to whether college hockey programs even employed a director of hockey operations. Those that did might have only one person overseeing both the men’s and women’s hockey programs. 

Instead, Moore became the director of girls hockey at the East Coast Wizards. 

“For me, that was a step toward where I am now,” Moore said. “I was seeking an operations focus. I was able to get a great experience there and working in a completely different capacity. 

“But at that point, I don’t think that I saw many opportunities in hockey operations.” 

Enter the NWHL starting up, providing Moore with the chance to grow, learn and develop her skills working in hockey at the professional level. She managed all hockey and business operations for the Pride, and prior to that she was the team’s general manager.

“Really, that gave me the experience and the platform to feel confident in going after this hockey operations position,” Moore said. “Which I think is something that I’ve always known has been a focus and a passion of mine.

“So it was just a matter of being patient over the past six or seven years, gaining that experience and then doors opening up for me to get to where I am here in this position now.” 

When applying for the AHL job, Moore tapped into the confidence gained from her previous experiences working in hockey.

She hopes that as time goes on more women will feel some of that same confidence to go after these types of hockey-operations roles. Years ago, she never knew the opportunity was out there for her in hockey operations, so she hopes she can help open the eyes of young girls out there so they understand that there are careers in hockey beyond playing days.

“To them, I would just say continue to follow their passion,” Moore said. “And continue to enjoy the sport, have fun with it.” 

Moore also feels like she’s had her dream job in hockey at every step of the way for the past decade or so.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever had a job in hockey that I didn’t love,” Moore said. “I feel like the sense of family in the AHL has been something that’s shown through right from the start.”

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.

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