Hockey star Marie-Philip Poulin has won the 2022 Northern Star Award, crowning her as Canada’s top athlete of the year.
The 31-year-old Beauceville, Que., forward led Canada’s women’s hockey team to both a world title and Olympic gold — scoring twice in a 3-2 win over the U.S. in the championship game in Beijing.
Poulin finished second in scoring at the Beijing Games with 17 points, one behind teammate Sarah Nurse. She is the only hockey player to have scored goals in four straight Olympic hockey finals.
Poulin leads the Professional Women’s Hockey Players’ Association’s Dream Gap Tour in scoring this year with eight goals and four assists in seven games.
She had 10 points in seven games at the world championship in Denmark, including an assist on Brianne Jenner’s opening goal in a 2-1 win over the U.S. in the gold-medal game.
In June, she signed on as a player development consultant with the Montreal Canadiens.
Poulin is the first female hockey player to win the award, and the ninth hockey player overall. Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price was the last to win in 2015.
Finalists for this year’s award included tennis player Félix Auger-Aliassime, golfer Brooke Henderson, swimmer Summer McIntosh, cross-country skier Brian McKeever and Colorado Avalanche defenceman Cale Makar.
The Northern Star Award has been handed out annually since 1936.
Until this year, the Northern Star Award was known as the Lou Marsh Award in honour of a former sports editor of the Toronto Star. The name was changed after concerns were raised about racist language used by Marsh, who died in 1936, during his years of sportswriting.
