The 10 greatest ladies’s gamers of the last decade

It’s been greater than 20 years since ladies’s hockey stepped onto the Olympic stage, however the previous decade has undoubtedly seen the ladies’s recreation take its best strides. From the emergence of the skilled circuits – sadly, two turned one with the shuttering of the CWHL – to the expertise growth within the non-North American nations, the previous 10 years has seen the ladies step into the highlight.
However who’re the gamers that led the last decade and stood head and shoulders above the remainder? There are some awfully acquainted faces topping the checklist, the who’s-who and veritable superstars of the ladies’s recreation, however some love was additionally proven to those that won’t be as heralded stateside and north of the 49th parallel.
10. Rebecca Johnston (CAN)The highs won’t be as excessive, however the lows are subsequent to nonexistent. Johnston is the epitome of consistency, and that’s what lands her on the all-decade checklist. She is the second-highest scoring Canadian on the foremost worldwide phases – 23 targets and 55 factors in 52 mixed World Championship and Olympic video games – and one of many highest scoring gamers in CWHL historical past earlier than the league was shuttered.
9. Florence Schelling (SUI)It’s one thing of a rarity to have three goaltenders within the top-10 of a listing that options the perfect gamers of a decade, however Schelling can’t be ignored, notably given her effort within the early-2010s. On the 2012 World Championships, she helped the Swiss stun the sector with a bronze medal victory and simply two years later, she once more led the Swiss to the rostrum, however this time on the Olympics. By her three.97 goals-against common and .913 save proportion aren’t gorgeous on paper, Schelling stood on her head to shutout Russia within the quarters and held the fort in opposition to Sweden within the bronze-medal recreation.
eight. Jenni Hiirikoski (FIN)She’ll seemingly by no means get the credit score she deserves, however Hiirikoski could make a case that she’s been probably the most criminally underrated participant of the last decade and perhaps in ladies’s hockey historical past. Twice she has been named the highest Olympic defender – the one different participant whose received the award twice is Corridor of Famer Angela Ruggiero – and Hiirikoski additionally has a World Championship MVP, six prime defender awards (this decade, as she has seven complete), 4 all-star staff nods, a silver medal and received three of her six bronze medals within the 2010s. Domestically, she’s captained JYP within the Finnish League and Lulea within the Swedish League.
7. Amanda Kessel (USA)OK, so it wasn’t on the Olympics or World Championships, however Kessel authored the single-greatest school marketing campaign of the last decade. Through the 2012-13 season at College of Minnesota, Kessel scored 46 targets and 101 factors in 46 video games, making her the one participant prior to now decade to exceed even the 90-point plateau, not to mention the 100-point mark. She now finds herself as one Staff USA’s best forwards, her per-game scoring charge commensurate with quite a lot of the last decade’s greatest scorers. She additionally made the Olympic all-star staff in 2013-14.
6. Noora Raty (FIN)It’d the single-greatest positional debate in ladies’s hockey historical past, as a result of if Raty was Canadian, the place would she rank on the all-time checklist? Some argue that she’s the superior keeper to Shannon Szabados, who seems afterward this checklist, however Raty merely isn’t as adorned. She does, nonetheless, have a World Championship MVP, a bundle of NCAA honors and he or she has backstopped Finland to some nice worldwide heights, together with a World Championship silver and two Olympic bronze. She additionally practically stole the Clarkson Cup for the growth Kunlun Purple Star in 2017-18.
5. Kendall Coyne Schofield (USA)Coyne Schofield turned a family title after her efficiency on the 2019 NHL All-Star Sport Abilities Competitors, the place the Staff USA standout put her wheels on show. However Coyne Schofield was already a star. An influence participant on the senior nationwide stage the second she made her debut, Coyne is the third-highest scoring American participant of the last decade on the World Championships, named prime ahead on the 2019 event and has 9 factors in 10 Olympic contests. Oh, and don’t neglect her NCAA manufacturing. For the reason that begin of the 2011-12 season, her freshman season, her 141 targets are probably the most within the NCAA and Coyne’s 249 factors are the third-most.
four. Shannon Szabados (CAN)The veteran Canadian keeper stepped into the highlight on the 2010 Olympics and he or she hasn’t actually left it since, successful two gold medals, two Prime Goaltender awards on the event and a handful of different worldwide accolades. She elements of 4 seasons within the SPHL, two as a split-time starter, and final performed for the NWHL’s Buffalo Beauts in 2018-19. That was her first foray into the ladies’s skilled circuit and her numbers have been exceptional. She received the league’s prime netminder award with a 1.49 goals-against common and .934 save proportion.
three. Hilary Knight (USA)No participant prior to now decade has carried out extra injury on the World Championship, and Knight’s numbers are really gaudy. In 37 video games, her 36 targets are 10 greater than another participant and her 64 factors put her one away from the second-highest event scorer. Knight can be the main American scorer on the Olympics this decade. The truth is, given her worldwide accomplishments, one would possibly count on her to be greater on this checklist. Nevertheless, the 2 gamers forward of Knight displayed a higher stage of dominance in membership play on the NWHL and CWHL ranges.
2. Marie-Philip Poulin (CAN)That Poulin is ending wherever aside from first place goes to attract the ire of some, and that goes double given ‘MPP’ scored the gold medal-winning targets on the 2010 and 2014 Olympics. She can be the last decade’s second-highest Olympic scorer – a complete six factors again of first-place Meghan Agosta, nonetheless – and Canada’s most prolific World Championship scorer of the previous 10 years. 3 times, Poulin led the CWHL in scoring. 3 times, she received the league’s MVP award. She was additionally an Olympic all-star, World Championship greatest ahead and World Championship MVP.
1. Brianna Decker (USA)Arguably probably the most underrated participant within the ladies’s recreation regardless of the actual fact she’s a celebrity. Decker’s manufacturing has been largely overshadowed by the star energy Knight possesses, but it surely’s virtually with out query that Decker has been each bit as productive and inarguable that she has the flexibility to be extra game-in, game-out dominant than virtually another participant. Decker has received Olympic gold, World Championship gold, an NCAA crown and league titles within the CWHL and NWHL throughout the previous decade, and within the 192 video games she’s performed in any respect ranges, she’s averaged 1.84 factors. At any time when she hangs up her skates, her effort all through the 2010s needs to be sufficient to get the Staff USA star into the Corridor of Fame.
Over the subsequent two weeks, The Hockey Information will likely be wrapping up the 2010s with a glance again at the perfect – and worst – of the last decade. Discover extra right here.
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Tags: ladies’s hockey, lists, 2010sConnect: Concerning the AuthorJared ClintonJared Clinton is a author and internet editor with The Hockey Information. He is been with the staff since 2014. He was born, raised and resides in Winnipeg, the place he will be discovered lacking the web on out of doors rinks throughout city.