Women’s hockey returns to the Olympic stage in just 15 days, with a deeper talent pool than ever. Canada is looking to repeat as gold medalists with seven first-time Olympians who have emerged as high-end talents in the Professional Women’s Hockey League. Team USA has won six straight games against their Canadian rivals, backed by contributions from at least five future first-round picks in the PWHL. Czechia, meanwhile, is looking to get on the podium with help from 2025 No. 1 pick Kristýna Kalt
Canada is looking to repeat as gold medalists with seven first-time Olympians who have emerged as high-end talents in the Professional Women’s Hockey League. Team USA has won six straight games against their Canadian rivals, backed by contributions from at least five future first-round picks in the PWHL. Czechia, meanwhile, is looking to get on the podium with help from 2025 No. 1 pick Kristýna Kaltounková.
So how do PWHL players think the Olympic podium will look in Milan? And how do they feel about the best of the best in their league?
To answer those questions, The Athletic’s anonymous player poll is back for the first time since the PWHL launched in January 2024. More than one quarter of the league’s players, from all eight franchises, took part in the poll, largely in the lead-up to the 2025-26 season.
Players were permitted to skip individual questions, and to vote for their team or teammates. Some players provided multiple answers, which were given equal weight. Each question shows the number of responses for full transparency.
Let’s get to the results.
Note: Some player quotes have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
If you were looking for another way to quantify Marie-Philip Poulin’s generational talent, consider this: At 34 years old, she has actually increased her distance from the rest of the field.
In April 2023, before the PWHL launched, we asked players who they would select first overall in a women’s hockey league draft; 68 percent of players picked Poulin. This time around, Poulin got 80 percent of the vote. Only seven of the 51 ballots did not include Montreal’s captain, who was named the PWHL’s MVP and Forward of the Year last season.
Most players pointed out Poulin's consistency over her 18-year career since making her world championship debut in 2009 and her complete toolkit.
“She’s the best all-around player,” said one defender. “Offensively, defensively, the way she reads the game. She has the best shot, she’s the best passer, she's just the best at everything.”
“Every year she has a new skill, a new play, a new something,” said another. “She just continues to add things to her toolbox, and she's not slowing down.”
Several Americans also selected Canada’s captain: "Everyone would kill me for that, but that's where I would go."
Hilary Knight, the Team USA captain who co-led the PWHL in scoring last season, got four votes from her American teammates, including two who also put Poulin on their ballot. Alex Carpenter, notably, got a few nods from outside the country.
“She has one hell of a shot," said one player.
Had more of the poll been conducted during the PWHL season, perhaps Minnesota captain Kendall Coyne Schofield would have gotten a few more votes. She currently leads the league in goals (9) and points (14) this season, and as one teammate said, “what she brings is almost impossible to replicate.”
Twenty-eight players got at least one vote, but none more than Emily Clark. She’s been a role player for the Canadian women’s national team since 2015, and the kind of reliable do-it-all player teammates and coaches rave about. But without the same flashy style of play as other national-team stars, Clark has typically flown under the radar — at least to (some) fans.
“She is very appreciated on her teams,” said one teammate.
Clark led the Ottawa Charge in scoring in the playoffs and was often the team’s best skater, which solidified her as a true franchise player in the PWHL. One Canadian player wondered if Clark was truly “underrated” given such a star turn, but ultimately picked her anyway.
“She’s just so good,” the player said. “And one of the hardest players to play against.”
Michela Cava and Shiann Darkangelo weren’t far behind in the conversation, either. Cava is a big-time playoff performer who won back-to-back championships in Minnesota — and was just traded from Vancouver to Ottawa in a six-player swap after a slow start to the season. Darkangelo was one of Ottawa’s top scorers last season and was a priority pick-up for the Montreal Victoire after back-to-back first-round losses in the postseason.
“She has all the skills,” said one former teammate. “And a really strong leadership presence.”
One player said Daryl Watts — who is second behind Poulin in all-time PWHL scoring – isn’t talked about as much as other superstar players, despite her ability to “create a lot of great offense.”
On paper, Emma Maltais dethroned Abby Roque as women’s hockey’s most elite trash talker. But if we allow negative points — or a write-in ballot that said "not Emma Maltais" — it’s a tie.
“Please put in the story that someone called Emma’s trash talk terrible,” one former teammate joked.
The difference between Roque and Maltais, according to players, is that Roque talks trash and Maltais just talks … a lot. Even Maltais, speaking on the record, would agree.
“I'm not trash-talking,” she said. “I’m just yapping.”
Still, the players who voted for Maltais said they did it for the quantity rather than the quality.
"I wouldn’t qualify it as best,” said one player. “But it's just the frequency (with) which she does it."
Most players would agree that there are very few people who actually talk trash. Rebecca Leslie, a soft-spoken forward for the Charge, is one of a handful.
“She thinks of things to say before the game,” said one Canadian player.
“Leslie is good because you don’t expect it,” said another.
If Poulin and Knight are the faces of the game now, many players agree that Sarah Fillier is next in line. Some players said Fillier is already one of the more recognizable players in the PWHL, having won rookie of the year in 2025 and gotten a Gatorade deal before even stepping foot in the league. But her reach will only grow when the PWHL's megawatt stars eventually retire.
“Fillier is probably already there,” said one player. “But she could be Ms. Canada after Pou is gone.”
Minnesota Frost forward and Team USA star Taylor Heise got some similar “already there” votes. Otherwise, many other ballots pointed to the star-studded 2026 PWHL draft class led by American defender Caroline “KK” Harvey.
Harvey is a smooth-skating, dynamic offensive defender for the University of Wisconsin and a soon-to-be two-time Olympian for Team USA. Her 41 points in 20 games leads the NCAA in scoring, and she could soon be one of the very best defenders — and possibly players, period — in the women’s game.
“People are going to love having KK in the league,” said an American player.
“She's so exciting to watch,” said another. “And people are already obsessed with her.”
Harvey’s Team USA teammate Abbey Murphy got a ton of love as well for her incredible skill — and extra-curriculars. And that was before her highlight reel went viral earlier this month.
Oh. My. MURPH. 😱 pic.twitter.com/9uDRLCLR3B
— Minnesota Women's Hockey (@GopherWHockey) January 11, 2026
“She's going to be in the box, fighting, scoring, she does it all,” said an American defender.
Laila Edwards — the first Black woman to play for Team USA at women’s worlds — and U.S. forward Joy Dunne also received votes.
“Anyone coming out of those Ohio State and Wisconsin teams over the next few years is going to just take over,” said a Canadian player.
If players had their way, the next wave of expansion would include Detroit, Denver, Chicago and Edmonton — which also happened to be the top four cities in The Athletic’s own ranking of the PWHL’s Takeover Tour stops this season.
Halifax, which hosted a sold-out Takeover Tour game, missed the cut with four fewer votes than Edmonton. A handful of players said they did not want the league to expand any further, while others picked warmer destinations like California, North Carolina, Florida, Nashville and Las Vegas.
“Might as well go somewhere fun,” said one player.
“I want a warm spot,” said another. “When you're on a long road trip in February and you get to go to Tampa for three days, it would significantly increase the vibes.”
Everyone — except one Canadian player who picked Czechia to win silver “to spice things up” — predicts another Canada-USA gold medal game in Milan. That’s the way it’s been for all but one Olympic gold medal game, when Sweden beat the U.S. in the semifinals in 2006, since women’s hockey became an Olympic sport in 1998.
For the most part, North American players picked their own country at the top of the podium. One Canadian player refused to answer the question: “I think that’s bad juju.” Another Canadian — not on Team Canada — was a bit on the fence due to the Americans’ dominant win at Rivalry Series, but believed Canada could win “because of Poulin,” who has scored in all four Olympic gold medal games she’s played in since 2010.
One American — not on the national team — surprisingly picked Canada to win, albeit before Team USA’s dominant 10-4 win in Game 3 of the Rivalry Series last month. Another couldn’t decide between the two rivals and just put them both in the championship game.
Overall, 21 Canadians and 20 Americans voted for their respective national teams to win gold in Milan. The four European players polled voted 3-1 in favor of USA gold.
What might have been a tight vote for bronze turned into a major win for Czechia, which got an overwhelming majority of the votes compared to Finland (34-7), which won bronze at the last two Olympics and at back-to-back women’s worlds. (Keep in mind, no Finnish players were polled for the story, though the gap is so wide it wouldn’t have meaningfully changed the result.)
Sweden also got a few votes to make a surprise leap onto the podium in Milan.
“Sweden has a lot of potential,” one Canadian said. “They have the most depth and they play the right way. They just need (goalie) Emma Söderberg to be good, and this year could help with her playing a ton in the SDHL.”
First-round picks and players taken in expansion largely dominated each ballot as players predicted big seasons for talented rookies and young players stepping into larger roles in new markets.
Bilka, the 2024 No. 4 pick who was taken by the Seattle Torrent in the expansion draft, led the way with nearly a quarter of the vote. We didn’t see much of Bilka last season after she missed half her rookie year due to injury and was left off the U.S. roster for world championships in Czechia.
“We didn’t hear about her as much as we probably should have last season,” said a Boston Fleet forward. “If she’s healthy, her playing style is electric. She’s very fast and can score a lot of goals.”
“She's such a good skater and brings a lot of buzz with her skill,” said an American defender.
With a top-line role in Seattle and an Olympic roster spot, Bilka’s sophomore season is already much improved.
Casey O’Brien got the next most votes. After a record-breaking career at Wisconsin and winning the 2025 Patty Kazmaier Award, many players agreed, O’Brien was a steal at third overall.
“I would have taken her No. 1,” said one Canadian player. “Statistically, she was the best player in college.”
What is your favorite comfort TV show?
This was a real mixed bag, and just a fun question to wrap up the poll. The responses were about what you’d expect from a group of millennial and Gen Z women: "Grey’s Anatomy," "Friends" and just about any CW Network show were among the most popular responses. But there were also some funny outliers.
One player laughed out loud at her admission of "Young Sheldon," a spinoff of the "Big Bang Theory." A lot of players watch trending shows — such as "The Summer I Turned Pretty" or "Hunting Wives" — or whatever Netflix crime documentaries that have recently dropped.
One player said they didn’t really watch television but they watch the movie "Dirty Dancing" “a lot.” Another said she loves the show "Friends," but always watches "Crazy Rich Asians" on long flights.
“I watched it in my living room recently,” she said. “And it felt unnatural.”
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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