Concordia alum Emmy Fecteau looks to make mark as 1st U Sports draftee to play in PWHL

If there was one thing Emmy Fecteau did in her time at Concordia, it was win.

Fecteau's Stingers reached the U Sports women's hockey championship game in each of her final three seasons at the school and took home two titles.

In June, Fecteau became the second PWHL player ever drafted straight out of U Sports when the New York Sirens selected her with the first pick of the sixth round. The Sirens announced Friday the deal is for three years.

The first player drafted directly out of U Sports was Audrey-Anne Veillette in 2023 by the Ottawa Charge, but she's never played a game in the PWHL.

The Sirens finished last in the PWHL's inaugural season last year, but the hope is that Fecteau helps change that.

"I love to win games, so why not bring it here?" she said.

Fecteau, the 25-year-old from Saint-Odilon-de-Cranbourne, Que., compiled 89 points (34 goals, 55 assists) in 83 career U Sports contests. And she took her game up another level come playoff time, with 26 points in 18 career post-season tilts.

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Last season, as Fecteau captained a Stingers squad looking to avenge a championship-game loss from a year prior, she racked up four goals and nine assists in just six RSEQ playoff games.

She says her playoff-friendly game should adapt well to the PWHL.

"I like to play physical. And I can't wait to try to be more physical because in university hockey, sometimes we're not allowed to do hits or things like that. So I can't wait to try that," Fecteau said.

Sirens GM Pascal Daoust said Fecteau, the ex-Stingers captain, "embodies" leadership.

"With her compete level, dedication, and respect for the game, she elevates her teammates and the entire team with her presence," Daoust said.

For Fecteau, the PWHL — a stable professional women's hockey league — was not even an option when she began her university career in 2019.

She graduated with a bachelor's degree in teaching english as a second language, and said education was her top priority when choosing a school.

"I chose to play for U Sports because I think it was important for me that what I studied would be recognized when I would have to work and things like that," she said.

Now, she could stand as a shining example that prospective hockey pros don't need to go south of the border to get recognized.

And, for Fecteau's money, the level of play is just as good up here, too.

"We played many exhibition games against NCAA teams and we won. So I think it's a good idea if you're from Canada to keep hockey in Canada and represent Canada as well. And I think that's why I stayed in U Sports," Fecteau said.

It also didn't hurt that Fecteau was surrounded by hockey royalty at Concordia, where American legend Julie Chu is head coach while her wife and Canadian Olympian Caroline Ouellette is an assistant.

Fecteau credited the coaching duo for moulding her into the player she is today.

"[Chu and Ouellette are] two of the most amazing people on earth. I think I improved so much. And for them, it was really important that we grew also as a person, not only as players. So I think that's what made the difference in my hockey career," Fecteau said.

"They had a big impact on how we played for our team. It was really the team-first mentality. And I think I'm going to keep those values for the rest of my life, which is really special."

As a member of the Concordia Stingers, Emmy Fecteau recorded 89 points (34 goals, 55 assists) in 83 games. (Reuben Polansky-Shapiro/Concordia Athletics)

After the 2024 RSEQ championship, Ouellette credited Fecteau as a leader.

"Of all the girls I've played with, played against, and coached, she's the girl with the most guts I know. She's a leader who leads with so much passion, with so much love for others. She's a real warrior, she's going to block shots, she can play both defensively and offensively, she's as much a scorer as she is a passer. She always puts the team first," Ouellette said.

"She's a player who is impossible to replace, who is going to be one of the greatest players that I'm going to have the chance to coach and she's really going to remain someone super special to me."

Fecteau said Chu and Ouellette always hammered the team to "trust the process"— that work in each practice, each skate and each shift would pay off at some point, in some way.

Those three words are sticking with her as she opens her rookie season with the Sirens.

Through training camp, Fecteau said the biggest difference in the PWHL vs. U Sports is the talent level.

"Everyone is thinking differently, we have to place the puck, we have to do our plays really quickly. So I think that's different than university, but I think it's going well. I am trying to adjust, but I think it's going well," she said.

If she can parlay that into strong play — beginning with the Sirens' season opener on Sunday against reigning champion Minnesota — then she may even put herself on the radar for Team Canada ahead of the 2026 Olympics.

But Fecteau is just taking things one a time for now.

"I want to grow as a person," she said. "I think I will learn a lot from my teammates, from my coaches, from everyone with New York. So I think I just want to be a better person and be known as a good person.