The Montreal Victoire have announced that captain Marie-Philip Poulin will undergo right knee surgery in July to repair a torn ACL and meniscus.
General manager Daniele Sauvageau made the announcement as a press conference on Thursday and said Poulin would be back on the ice ‘in due time’ but there is no official timeline for her return.
Poulin first sustained a knee injury at the Milano Cortina Olympics in February that caused her to miss two games. She then aggravated the injury on March 15 in a game against the Boston Fleet, causing her to miss another 10 games. She played through the playoffs with a knee brace.
“I played as best I could with a torn ACL and meniscus because I wanted to be part of this journey that led us to hoist the Walter Cup... It has become clear that if I want to continue playing at a high level, surgery is necessary,” Poulin said on Thursday.
“In the short term, it’s a difficult choice, but if I take a step back and think about the years ahead, the decision is obvious. I’m going to focus all my energy on my recovery once the surgery is done so that I can return to the game in the best physical form possible.”
The 35-year-old has captained the Victoire for all of the franchise’s three seasons, amassing 38 goals and 67 points in 70 games. Poulin also had two goals and six assists over nine playoff games, tied with teammate Abby Roque for most in the PWHL playoffs, as she led the Victoire to their first Walter Cup. She was named the Ilana Kloss Playoff Most Valuable Player.
“There are definitely going to be some decisions to make in the coming weeks,” said Poulin, during the Victoire’s end-of-season availability. “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.
“Eventually there will be conversations, there will be decisions to make, but for now I haven’t necessarily thought about that word,” Pulin said of retirement. “But it’s definitely going to be important in the coming weeks.”
“(We) have to figure out our bodies in general as well after a pretty tough playoff series, both of us,” Poulin’s wife and teammate Laura 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.”
She was named the Billie Jean King PWHL Most Valuable Player in 2024-25 and earned the Northern Star award as Canada’s top athlete of the year in 2022.
Poulin, who earned the moniker “Captain Clutch” for her performance internationally for Canada, has won three Olympic gold medals and four World Championships with the Canadian national team. Poulin scored the game-winning goal in three of the five Olympic games she has competed in (2010, 2014, 2022) and has served as captain of the national team since 2015.
The Beauceville, Que. native has scored 59 goals and added 69 assists for 128 points in 98 senior international games.
In 2022, Poulin was also hired by the NHL’s Montreal Canadiens as a player development consultant.
