After a successful and decorated junior and college career, Emma Maltais is making a name for herself with PWHL Toronto.
After a successful and decorated junior and college career, Emma Maltais is making a name for herself with PWHL Toronto.
By Mathieu Sheridan
Through the Professional Women’s Hockey League’s first month, there has been no shortage of storylines. From bone-crunching hits to crowd-thrilling plays to chill-inducing moments, it has been nothing short of an astounding success.
Although PWHL Toronto might not have gotten off to the start they’d hoped for, the team certainly hasn’t come up short in displaying its talent. While one could point to well-established stars such as Sarah Nurse and Natalie Spooner, another exciting player to watch has been Emma Maltais, a 24-year-old forward from Burlington, Ont.
Since the beginning of her career, success has followed Maltais. Having played her junior hockey for the Oakville Hornets of the Provincial Women’s League, she averaged well over a point per game in both the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons, catching the eye of Hockey Canada and suiting up for her country at the 2016 IIHF Under-18 Women’s World Championship in a silver medal-winning effort. After tying for the team scoring lead with six points in five games, Maltais established herself as one of the best women’s hockey players in her age group in the country.
As she entered her final year of junior hockey, fresh off a commitment to play for Ohio State, she would go on to captain the Hornets and lead the team in scoring with 56 points in 34 games.
Her play quickly translated to the collegiate level, where she collected 40 points in 37 games during her freshman year. In her five seasons with the Buckeyes from 2017-18 through 2022-23, she put up a dominant 66 goals and 206 points in 169 games while twice being named a finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Award (in 2019-20 and 2020-21), which is awarded to the top NCAA women’s hockey player.
Her accolades don’t stop there, though. Throughout her collegiate career, Maltais suited up for Canada on numerous occasions at the World Championship, where she captured gold twice (in 2021 and 2022) as well as a silver (in 2023). The crown jewel, though, was being part of the 2022 Olympics squad and collecting two points in seven games en route to the gold medal in Beijing.
With the end of her collegiate career coinciding with the PWHL’s creation, teams converged on the inaugural draft in Toronto with Maltais’ name being one that many had pegged going near the top of the board. That came true when PWHL Toronto nabbed her with the 11th overall pick, and thus her professional career commenced.
Through PWHL Toronto’s first stretch of games, Maltais has quickly established herself as one of the most exciting young players in the league thanks to her playing style and relentless energy.
Maltais is a reliable, two-way player who can make an impact in all three zones. She’s able to cover a lot of ice thanks to her quick, strong skating stride that allows her to accelerate with ease. She consistently scans in the defensive zone, regularly using her active stick to disrupt passing lanes while also being a threat in transition as she can beat defenders into open space for a scoring chance.
One of the most exciting games of Maltais’ short professional career came against PWHL New York, when she scored the first “jailbreak” goal in PWHL history, which allowed her penalized teammate to come out of the box after she scored shorthanded.
As seen in this clip, she supports her defenders down low, making sure to cover her defensive assignment and once the puck transitions the other way, she is able to use her speed to beat the defender on the way to the net – where she jumped on the loose rebound for the goal.
As Maltais continues to develop, her trajectory in the league is promising. As someone who is just entering the prime of her career, she has the opportunity to be a solid player for a long time. While PWHL Toronto’s struggles may not be what they had hoped for, they have talent surrounding Maltais that will allow her to continue to develop into a potential star.