Burlington native Emma Maltais is trying to make a name for herself on the international hockey stage and has already put together an impressive resume.
The 22-year-old has been skating since she was two and started playing hockey not long after that.
She used to play for her hometown Burlington Barracudas of the Ontario Women’s Hockey Association, where she would go on to win a bronze medal at the Novice A level in 2008.
Later on, she joined the Oakville Hornets of the Provincial Women’s Hockey League (PWHL), and went on to take a bronze medal at the 2015 PWHL championships. She would also go on to win both silver and gold medals for the Hornets at the Ontario Women’s Hockey Association (OWHA) provincials in 2016 and 2017, respectively.
Maltais got her first taste of playing for her country at the IIHF U18 Women’s World Championship in 2016 and 2017, winning a silver medal both years and leading the team with six points in five games.
Jump to this year, and Maltais made her world championship debut for the senior team at the IIHF Women’s World Championships held in Calgary in August.
She was held pointless in five games but the team would go on to win gold against the United States, the first time since 2012 that Canada won the tournament and ending the Americans’ run of five in a row. Maltais said it was really cool to experience that win with the older girls on the team who hadn’t won in a while.
“For a lot of us, it was our first time competing at worlds, it was our first time competing for the senior team in general. So to be on that winning side was truly really special,” Maltais said. “And it just gave us a little taste of what it’s like to be on the winning side and how much we want that moving forward.”
Earlier in the year, she was named to the Olympic centralization roster for the Beijing Olympic Games, which start in February. She survived the latest round of cuts on December 3 and in less than a week, could be named to the final roster.
Even if that doesn’t happen, she said she has been able to form relationships with and take in so much from vets on the team like Natalie Spooner and Marie-Philip Poulin.
“Even though they’re still my role models, I’ve been able to be more myself and actually create a bond and a friendship with them. So it’s been really awesome. I’ve learned so much over these last few months.”
Outside of playing for her country, Maltais has been playing for the Ohio State University women’s hockey team since 2017 and has dominated, leading her team in scoring every year since her freshman year.
She won the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) Rookie of the Year award and has been named to two WCHA First-Team All-Star teams and the WCHA All-Academic team.
Maltais had already committed to OSU and head coach Nate Handrahan when she was in grade nine, but he resigned due to a sexual harassment scandal and was replaced by former Olympic champion Jenny Schmidgall-Potter. Schmidgall-Potter was then replaced by current coach Nadine Muzerall, but Maltais was still determined to play for the school, despite the many coaching changes.
“I wanted to choose a school based off of opportunity, not only with hockey but outside of hockey. And Ohio State gave me that and I wanted a school where I would get the college experience. It’s a beautiful campus, it’s so much fun, there’s so much atmosphere around sports and athletics. And that’s exactly what I wanted. I wanted atmosphere,” she said.
“So it’s helped me develop a lot as a hockey player and more than I could have ever imagined through success of the program.”
Maltais’ head coach at OSU, Nadine Muzerall, could see her talents on the ice the first time she saw her while trying out for the U18 national team.
“I think what I liked about Emma was she was unique in the sense of being a 200-foot hockey player. She could play wing, she could play centre, which is not very common, and be very elite in both,” said Muzerall. “So I thought that she was very unique in her style of play. She’s a little more blue-collar.”
Muzerall became head coach of the Buckeyes in 2016 after spending five seasons as an assistant coach at the University of Minnesota. Of all the players she has coached, she says what separates Maltais from the rest is that she doesn’t play for herself.
She uses her love for her family, teammates, and others that have helped get her to this point as her drive and motivation.
“She just isn’t always thinking about her. She really is truly a team player and a team-first mentality,” Muzerall said.
Her commitment to the school and the team helps her stand out above the rest and Muzerall believes that when all is said and done, Maltais could go down as one of the best players in OSU women’s hockey history.
“She’s not only leaving her personal mark on OSU but she’s gotten OSU to be on the national level as one of the top teams in the whole entire country through her four years,” said Muzerall.
Through all the success, Maltais hasn’t forgotten where she grew up and describes Burlington as a place that has always supported her, even having fans from her hometown show up to a friendly tournament with the national team in Pittsburgh in 2019.
“I’m really lucky to have a home, not only where my family is, not only where my house is, but also a city where I have a community that’s always been so supportive, and really, people that are willing to speak out for me or to support me at all different points of my athletic career,” Maltais said. “I find Burlington very genuine.”
