A mark once thought unbreakable, can Poulin eclipse Wickenheiser's Canadian points record?

When you think of Canadian women's hockey excellence through much of the 2000s, Hayley Wickenheiser comes to mind.

The hard-working star from Saskatchewan was the leading scorer and tournament MVP in 2002, when Canada won its first Olympic gold medal in women's hockey. She repeated those feats again four years later in 2006.

Over more than two decades wearing the maple leaf, Wickenheiser amassed a whopping 379 points for her country.

As Alex Ovechkin chases the Wayne Gretzky NHL goal-scoring record that many once thought was unsurpassable, there's no direct equivalent in women's hockey. 

Records are an important measure of greatness and a big part of preserving history. But women's hockey leagues have come and gone over the years, making it more difficult to capture, measure and compare how the best of the best stack up.

In Canada, Wickenheiser's points in a Canadian jersey might be the closest to an untouchable record. Her 379 points includes all games the Canadian team played at, including non-International Ice Hockey Federation games such as the Rivalry Series. (When you look at IIHF play only, American Hilary Knight owns the most points, 111, and goals, 65, according to the most recent IIHF record book.)

Next on the list for points in a Canadian jersey is Jayna Hefford (291) and Caroline Ouellette (242). Both have retired from playing.

But there's one active player who's been climbing the list: Marie-Philip Poulin. The Canadian captain sits at 220 points after surpassing Danielle Goyette in November.

It won't come as a surprise to anyone that Poulin hasn't been paying attention to her place in the record book.

"Hayley is another level," Poulin said when asked about the record.

Poulin has a steep hill to climb. To surpass Wickeheiser at No. 1, she needs 160 points.

But those who've played with and against her aren't counting her out.

"Just like it's difficult to compare an Ovechkin to a Gretzky, it's difficult to compare when there used to be one world championship every two years and then I got to play in one every year, and now there's more games," said Hefford, who is the executive vice president of hockey operations in the PWHL.

"So it is hard to do that. But at the same time, I certainly recognize Marie-Philip Poulin may be the best player that's ever played. She may or may not beat those records. I mean, I'd put my money on her to [do it]. But if she doesn't, you can see the impact players make in the game."

Wickenheiser wasn't available for an interview about her record.

A changing game

The women's game has grown leaps and bounds since Wickenheiser started her career with the national team in the early 1990s. There are more girls across Canada playing hockey, and players from outside North America are getting better each year.

Poulin's Montreal Victoire teammate, Erin Ambrose, isn't ready to count her captain out.

"That girl could probably play forever, and not just play forever but be a top-line centre forever," she said.

But the depth on the national team today, and the growth of talent across the globe, could make the pursuit more challenging, the defender said.

"It's no knock on Wick and what she did," Ambrose said. "It's also just where our game's gotten to. There's a lot [fewer] 12-0 games than there were before."

It was a Wickenheiser goal at Knight's first world championship that was a reminder of just how high the level of skill gets when you play for your country.

She remembers Wickenheiser walking over the blue line and the puck quickly finding its way under the crossbar.

Knight has also played with and against Poulin, who she describes as a generational player. 

"She is very deceptive with where she releases the puck and the amount of power she can put behind it and delicacy at the same time," Knight, who has one of the best shots in the game herself, said about Poulin during PWHL training camp.

It's that shot, along with Poulin's relentlessness, high-end hockey IQ and clutch ability, that has seen "Captain Clutch" score more goals in gold-medal games than any other player, male or female.

And while Poulin is still far off from Wickenheiser's points in a Canadian jersey, another record is in striking distance at the 2026 Olympics: Poulin owns 17 Olympic goals, just one behind Wickenheiser's record 18. Passing Wickenheiser would cement Poulin as the tournament's all-time leading goal scorer from any country.

The evolution of dynamic players

Carla MacLeod played with Wickenheiser for several years and saw how hard she worked for each goal and assist. As coach of the PWHL's Ottawa Charge, MacLeod also sees what Poulin can do every day.

"We're seeing the evolution of just dynamic players," MacLeod said. 

"In our era, there's certainly dynamic players, Hayley being the pinnacle of it. But I think what's really exciting and what's really been put on the stage in this league is it's not one. It's a long list in all honesty, and they're not all from Canada, they're not all from the U.S. It's around the world."

A brand-new league like the PWHL will take years to build the kind of records the NHL has compiled over more than a century.

But Hefford can see a day where national-team records aren't the only pinnacle. Sitting in the stands at a PWHL pre-season game in November, Hefford was already impressed with some of the European talent the league added in the last off-season.

That was one of the goals of creating the PWHL: to get the best talent from across the world under one umbrella and playing each other every day, not just at world championships and Olympics.

It's left Hefford excited for a day when people are talking about PWHL records, and to see who can show up consistently at the highest level of play against the best in the world.

"History is important, but I think there's so much more to write for us," she said.

Regardless of where Poulin lands in the record book, Ambrose believes her captain is the best to ever play the game.

There's no measurement, no number, that can accurately capture what Poulin has done for the hockey so far in her career.

"I think that there's nothing that is untouchable to her because she is that great," Ambrose said. "There can't even be a Mount Rushmore of women's hockey. It's just Pou."