The Vancouver native came up through the local youth leagues where played with NHL stars Evander Kane and Martin Jones. He went on to play juniors in the BCHL after which he was drafted by the Nashville Predators in 2008. He followed up junior hockey with two years of college hockey at Ohio State before deciding to leave to play in the WHL for one season where he was teammates with current Brasov defenseman Cody Carlson. Interestingly Taylor went back to school but this time in Canada where he played in the USports at the University of Calgary where he played three seasons. After graduating he spent the next two seasons mostly in the ECHL with the Elmira Jackals where he played current MAC Újbuda forward Chris Langkow. During the 2015-16 season he left North America and signed with Strezing in Italy, in the next two seasons he would also have stops in France and Scotland before going back to the United States. This past offseason he decided to make another trip to Europe and signed with UTE in the offseason.
UTE picked up two important wins this past week at the end of the regular season, was there any added pressure on the team?
Heading into the end of the season you want to be winning. We had a rough patch a few weeks back where we lost a couple of games. These wins are good for our confidence and it solidified a spot in fourth place, we were going for third but we came up short.
What are some aspects that UTE has to pay attention to, to have a strong middle part of the season?
We need to pay attention to details and it is critical to play within our system. We need to stay disciplined especially since our games now are against the top teams in the league. Mistakes will really cost you against strong teams. We can not force things, we need to wait for things to happen.
You had played in Europe in the past but what made you decided to sign with UTE for this season?
For me it was a new experience, I have been fortunate enough to play in a number of different leagues throughout my career. I thought that the players that UTE had returning and after talking to Zoltán Szilassy I thought that this would be a good place to continue my career.
What is your opinion of the ERSTE Liga now that you have played a full regular season?
It is obviously a pretty good league, there are some weaker teams but those are made up of younger players but they have gotten a lot better as the season has progressed. These young teams have beaten some good teams down the stretch here. This is a promising league and it will get some more recognition in the years to come.
You are one of the few hockey players that played both in the NCAA and in the Canadian USports, what was the reason for the change?
It was a bit of a weird situation since we went through a lot of coaching changes during my time at Ohio State. Things were not working out the way I had thought they would go. After my second season we had another coaching change and they went in a different direction. I am grateful for my time in the NCAA and also in the USports, I don’t know of many guys that have played in both leagues, the USports is a pretty good league and lately there have been more and more players coming out of that league and having success.