The Future of Hockey: Sarah Fillier
Last summer I wrote an article about the young phenom Nela Lopušanová in an article titled “The Future of Hockey: Nela Lopušanová”. Today I am releasing the next installment of the series and this time it’s about Sarah Fillier, the newest generational talent to reach professional hockey. Just like in last year’s edition, it’ll be a quick overview of her life and how she got here. So, without further ado, here is the journey for Sarah Fillier, so far.
At age four Sarah knew she wanted to play hockey. Before she was even allowed to play it she would go to open skates and practice skating. As she told the CBC, "I just wanted to play hockey so bad. I remember my dad telling stories of us at public skates and I would just skate as fast as I could, as many laps as I could for the whole hour and I would just rip in between everyone". Hockey was her obsession. Her earliest memories are of watching the Toronto Maple Leafs with her family and playing mini sticks in the basement with her family. I’m not sure what age, but when she did start playing hockey, it was with the junior Timbits program.
Eventually, she would start playing with the North Halton Twisters (which is a girls team) and Halton Hurricanes Boys AA. I don’t know what years. But yes, she did play with boys early in her hockey career. That said, no one took notice of her during this time. It wouldn’t be until the next league that she would get noticed. She would first burst onto the scene with the Oakville Jr. Hornets of the Provincial Women’s Hockey League (PWHL). Her first season, 2015-16, wasn’t anything special, though. She only had 11 points in 22 games. It was the second season when she began to stand out. In the 2016-17 season, she had 24 goals and 26 assists for a total of 50 points in just 34 games. Then in the playoffs, she had 11 points in 12 games as her team won the PWHL Championship and Ontario Women’s Hockey Association (OWHL) provincials. In 2016 she would further make her mark upon the nation by competing for Ottawa Red in the National Women’s Under-18 Championship, winning a gold medal.
In 2017 she would make her international debut with Canada’s Under-18 team. At the 2017 IIHF U18 Women’s World Championship, she helped Canada get silver. She also returned to the National Women’s Under-18 Championship, once again with Ottawa Red, and won gold again along with being named tournament MVP. In club play, she was named captain of the Oakville Jr. Hornets and won silver in both the PWHL and OWHL tournaments. She was also named MVP of the OWHL tournament.
2018 was a year of change, but first, it started with something familiar: a trip to the IIHF U18 Women’s World Championship with Team Canada. This time, she was the captain and led her team to a bronze medal, scoring 5 points in 6 games. After this, it was time to move up a level, in two different ways. The first would come in 2018 and that was going to college. Princeton would be her new home for three years. It wouldn’t take three years to make an impact, though. Instead in her freshman year, she was so good she was a top-10 finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Award, which is awarded to the top female college player in America. Oh, and she also just happened to win national Rookie of the Year and Ivy League Player of the Year awards along with NCAA Second Team All-American honors. That wasn’t all, though. The U18 Women’s World Championship wasn’t the only international competition she played in that year. She also made her debut on the senior team with Team Canada at the 2018 Four Nations Cup. Her first linemates were Natalie Spooner and Sarah Nurse.
2019 was her sophomore campaign at Princeton and she was named team captain. This season she would once again end up as a top-10 finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Award and have NCAA Second Team All-American honors. Regarding the team, Princeton won the ECAC conference championship for the first time ever. Of course, she would be the one to score the series-clinching goal in double overtime for the Tigers. For her efforts, she was named Most Outstanding Player for the tournament. Unfortunately for her and the Tigers, that’s where the season would end. The NCAA championship tournament would be canceled due to COVID. She wouldn’t get the chance to fight for a national championship.
With that disappointing ending, Fillier would leave the NCAA for two seasons. 2020-21 was out of her hands because the Ivy League canceled all winter sports. 2021-22 was her choice, though, as she decided to focus on playing for Team Canada in international competition. Her goal was to play in the Olympics and so that became her focus. It was her parents who ultimately convinced her to do so. As she told the CBC: "I just remember my parents kind of coming into my room one day and saying, if the Olympics is your dream, take the year off and we'll support you". That choice paid off as she would score three goals and six points in seven games as Canada would win gold at the 2021 Women’s World Championships. Her next competition would be at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics where she finished second in scoring for the tournament and led Canada to a gold medal victory. Her final international performance of the year would be at the 2022 Women’s World Championship where again Canada would win the gold medal, having 11 points in 7 games. 2022 would also mark her return to college after missing two seasons. Her junior campaign was her worst statistically, with only 37 points in 31 games.
It’s now 2023 and Fillier has returned to the Women’s World Championship. This time Canada would win silver rather than gold. Despite this Fillier left with her biggest personal honor yet: being named “Most Valuable Player” by the IIHF for the tournament after once again putting up 11 points in 7 games. Seven of those points were goals. When she returned to college, while she wouldn’t get awarded any personal honors anywhere near that lofty, she set a personal high of 30 goals in a season. She only played in 29 games. This would be her final season in college and submitted her name for the PWHL draft. Before the draft, though, the 2024 Women’s World Championship had to be played. Canada would win gold, but she only had three points in seven games.
Now we’ve caught up to the present. She’s been drafted #1 overall to PWHL New York and is primed to be the league’s young generational talent that hopefully brings more attention. Watching her and Alex Carpenter play together will be a must-watch TV. Anyway, hope you learned something about her and have more understanding of why she’s such a special talent. I wish I could go more in-depth into her life, unfortunately, what you see in this article is everything I could find about her. Thank you all for reading.
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