Marie-Philip Poulin and her Montréal Victoire teammates were still floating on a cloud a week after winning the Walter Cup.
The Victoire’s captain, however, will navigate the coming weeks under a cloud of uncertainty that, for now, casts doubt on her immediate future in the Professional Women’s Hockey League.
“There are definitely going to be some decisions to make in the coming weeks,” said Poulin, who the last player to address reporters during the Victoire’s end-of-season availability Wednesday at the Verdun Auditorium in Montreal.
“I’m just thinking about coming back and rehabilitating the right way. I don’t know exactly how it’s going to play out, but I think I’ll take it one day at a time,” she added. “I haven’t yet gotten all the results about what’s going on.”
The last three months of the season, including the playoffs, were anything but easy for Poulin. Her troubles began at the Milano-Cortina Olympics in February, when she suffered a right knee injury. Then she aggravated that injury in a March 15 game against the Boston Fleet, which Poulin confirmed to reporters Wednesday.
Poulin missed the next 10 games and returned for the very last game of the regular season April 25 in Seattle. She then played in all nine of the Victoire’s playoff games.
She did so with a knee brace that limited her mobility, especially during the semifinal series against the Minnesota Frost. Poulin said she was a bit more comfortable in the final against the Ottawa Charge.
“It’s hard when you put a brace on before every game,” she said. “It’s heavy, it feels like you’ve got a piano on your back. But in the end, you put that aside, you skate with your heart, with your head, and everything will be fine.”
Abby Roque scored twice as the Montreal Victoire shut out the Ottawa Charge 4-0, to win the PWHL Walter Cup final best-of-5 series in four games.
Poulin skated with so much heart and determination that she was named the most valuable player of the playoffs after collecting eight points in nine games.
But her right knee remains a question mark to the point where she may need surgery.
“I’m still waiting for the results. So, we’ll see this summer if there are decisions to be made,” she said. When asked when she expected to have an answer, she replied that it would be in the coming weeks.
It didn’t take long for the word “retirement” to enter the conversation.
“Well, here we are!” Poulin said with a laugh.
But at 35, Poulin knows she has fewer years left in hockey than she has already given to the women’s game.
“It’s something to think about, for sure. I don’t know yet, we’ll see in the coming weeks, like I said, the results and everything that happens. I’m trying to stay in the present. Just enjoying being in the moment is really important,” she said.
“Eventually there will be conversations, there will be decisions to make, but for now I haven’t necessarily thought about that word. But it’s definitely going to be important in the coming weeks.”
Time to start family?
Poulin’s life and career are closely tied to her wife and teammate, Laura Stacey, who has publicly expressed a desire to start a family with Poulin. For now, Stacey is savouring every moment of celebration after winning the championship May 20.
“No, we still haven’t quite had a serious conversation yet,” Stacey said. “For us right now, let’s enjoy every single moment of this celebration of this team, of this group, because it is potentially a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
And what about the 2026–27 season? Hard to say at this point.
“[We] have to figure out our bodies in general as well after a pretty tough playoff series, both of us,” Stacey said. “I think that’s the first step is to figure out what those results, what the next steps are physically, and then obviously our life and our mental aspect and what we want to do as a family too. So, we really haven’t kind of nailed down any of those thoughts yet.”
Stacey wasn’t spared from injury. In the final moments of Game 1 of the final, she was in visible pain, clutching her left knee in the offensive zone as the Victoire trailed 2-1.
“It was definitely one of the worst pains I’ve ever felt,” she said. “It was scary. I’m sure you guys all felt it too. I know my teammates did. I was screaming. I can’t say I’ve felt that before.”
That moment happened in front of Poulin, who by her own admission panicked and suggested calling an ambulance. The answer she received was firm: “No!”
After Nicole Gosling’s equalizer with 2.1 seconds left, Stacey returned for overtime and even picked up an assist on Abby Roque’s winning goal.
“Honestly, I have no idea how that happened,” Stacey said. “But the medical staff in this organization is second to none, and there’s no way I would have been back out on that ice if it wasn’t for that group behind the scenes. And they don’t get a lot of credit, they don’t get seen very often, but they had a huge impact on this team and honestly on winning the Walter Cup.”
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