Les Canadiennes de Montreal Player Profile: Noémie Marin

When I first started following the CWHL, Noémie Marin was the first player that surprised me. I had seen Caroline Ouellette play for Team Canada. I knew Charline Labonté from her time with Team Canada and McGill, and Cathy Chartrand and Ann-Sophie Bettez from watching them at McGill as well.

But if you watched the team last season, Marin was probably the most dynamic scorer on the team. She has the ability to score and score often, and she constantly finds herself in the proper position to do so.

Marin led Montreal in goals last year, scoring 13 times in only 18 games. And even that is misleading. Marin, once she was put on a line with Kim Deschênes and Mariève Provost, found a different level. That line was the so-called second line (Bettez, Ouellette, and Emmanuelle Blais made up the first), but it was dominant. Advanced statistics show that line — and Marin specifically — being one of the best in the entire CWHL.

During the team's six-game winning streak late in the year, when they moved from the playoff bubble towards the top of the standings, Marin hit her stride, scoring eight of her 13 goals and adding three assists.

She commented on the effects the affiliation with the Montreal Canadiens organization has had in the opening days of training camp.

"It feels different and it felt different right when we started training camp at the Complexe Bell in Brossard," Marin said. "We felt it. There were a lot of girls, a lot of energy, we knew that the partnership was coming up and we were going to announce the new name and the new logo and it’s a fresh start, fresh beginning and we’re looking forward to continuing the tradition of being the winningest team in the CWHL."

Off the ice, Marin is entering her first season as the women's hockey coach at John Abbott College.  She coached the Canadian under-18 team this past year as well. While she never made the Canadian Olympic hockey team, she did represent Canada in the 2008 Summer Olympics as a softball player. She was the only Quebecer on that roster.

Marin played university hockey at the University of Minnesota-Duluth and was a finalist for NCAA Player of the Year in both 2006 and 2007. She also has the school record for the fastest two goals in a game when she scored two shorthanded goals within 27 seconds. She was also part of the Canadian women's hockey team national program.

Despite being one of the top goal-scoring talents in the CWHL, she only started playing hockey at 15 years of age. She is from Acton-Vale, Quebec and teaches physical education and French.