TORONTO — Bringing her offensive prowess back to town for a second go-around, the Toronto Six have signed forward Michela Cava to a Premier Hockey Federation contract for the 2022-23 season. Additional terms of the deal will not be disclosed. “I think the league is definitely headed in the right direction, and it was a pretty easy choice to decide to come back with all the steps that we’ve been taking,” said Cava.
“For me, I obviously had a little bit of unfinished business that I left last year, too. I feel like I wanted to come back and be able to help win a championship, so that was a big thing for me."
- Michela Cava, Toronto 6ix Forward
The 28-year-old signed her first PHF contract before Season 7, spending the first half of the 2021-22 campaign with the Six. An offensive powerhouse for much of that stint, the right-handed shooter finished with seven points to her name, putting up four goals and three assists through 11 contests. Those seven points saw her tie for seventh in team scoring, and ranked her as Toronto’s fifth-highest goal scorer. Her rise to stardom began on opening night when she scored the game-winning goal late in the third period against the host Buffalo Beauts, which gave the Six their first win on the road on November 7, 2021. Her performance earned her an invite to the PHF All-Star Showcase alongside the likes of six other Toronto teammates.
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Cava re-joins the Six following a successful playoff run in Russia’s WHL, where she skated the second half of the year with the KRS Vanke Rays and was named the 2022 WHL Finals MVP with 17 points in eight contests.
“We welcome back Michela Cava to the T6,” said Angela James, General Manager of the Toronto Six. “I’m really looking forward to having Cava as a player for the entire season. We had an opportunity to have her with us last year, and she has such tremendous skill and passion for the game on and off the ice, and we look forward to having Cava back for another season with the T6.”
Before starting her journey in the professional ranks, Cava, who stands at five-foot-four, played collegiately at the University of Connecticut and the University of Minnesota Duluth. Spending her first two seasons in Connecticut from 2012-14, the biological sciences major finished as the program’s second leading scorer as a freshman, compiling 17 points on a team-high 10 goals and seven assists in 34 contests. Seeing continued success as a sophomore, Cava tied for the team lead with 27 points, a total that tied her for the 10th most points in a single season all-time at the institution. This saw her earn Warrior WHEA Player of the Week honours before later being named to the Hockey East All-Academic Team. Transferring to Minnesota-Duluth for
her final two collegiate campaigns, the Canadian collected 44 points, registering 22 goals while adding 22 assists in 69 career games with the Bulldogs. In her senior season, the right-handed shooter capped off her collegiate tenure with career-high totals, recording a personal-best 38 points on 19 goals and 19 assists across 37 contests. Cava’s 38 points saw her finish the year as the program’s third leading scorer, bringing her collegiate totals to an impressive 88 points in 138 career games.
The Thunder Bay, ON native adds past experience from Sweden’s SDHL, where she spent four seasons from 2017-21 and finished as the league’s scoring leader in 2018-19. During that time, she also played with T6 forward and fellow Thunder Bay native Brooke Boquist. Cava also played professionally in North America during the 2016-17 season, where she competed with the Toronto Furies in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL).
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Cava becomes the team’s eighteenth signing, joining Alexis Woloschuk, Nadine Edney, Courtney Gardiner, Kati Tabin, Emma Greco, Carly Jackson, Brittany Howard, and Lexi Templeman as the team’s free agent acquisitions to date, alongside returnees Shiann Darkangelo, Emma Woods and Breanne Wilson-Bennett up front, Woods, Taylor Davison, Saroya Tinker and Lindsay Eastwood on defence, and Elaine Chuli between-the-pipes.
Thrilled to be back in Toronto and playing closer to home for a full season of competition, Cava is excited to reunite with her teammates and be a part of the team’s bid for their first Isobel Cup championship. “I’m super excited to get back with the girls and join this team again,” she remarked. "I’m looking forward to having a good run here and to get back to where we [T6] got in the Isobel Cup Playoffs.”
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