Victoire place Poulin on long-term injured reserve
Unwanted news for one of the top teams in the PWHL.
On Tuesday, the Montreal Victoire announced that captain Marie-Philip Poulin has been placed on long-term injured reserve. In response, the team has signed Italian National Team captain Nadia Mattivi to a standard contract.
Poulin was hurt in a game against the Boston Fleet on March 15. The veteran center left during the first period of the contest. She opened the scoring with a little over five minutes to go in the frame, scoring her team-leading ninth goal of the season. She was seen walking down the tunnel back to the locker room at Place Bell, seemingly favoring her left knee, the same one she injured during the Winter Olympics last month. She didn’t come out for the second period, with the Victoire making it official that No. 29 wouldn’t return when the third period began.
The Quebec native’s health had been in question since taking a hard hit from Czechia’s Kristyna Kaltounkova during the second game of Canada’s group stage schedule in Milan last month. It caused Poulin to miss the team’s final two games of the preliminary round. However returned for the knockout stage, breaking the women’s hockey record for goals in an Olympic career and helping the Canadians reach the gold medal game, where they lost to the United States.
Poulin missed the Victoire’s first game back from the league-wide pause, but appeared in the next three before getting hurt again.
In 18 games, Poulin has scored nine goals and eight assists for 17 points. The Quebec native sits tied for sixth in the PWHL in goals and seventh in points.
Per the league’s LTIR rules, Poulin won’t be eligible to return to the lineup until April 7, when Montreal hosts the Seattle Torrent.
Mattivi is poised to make her PWHL debut on Wednesday night, when Montreal visits the Minnesota Frost. It comes a little over a month removed from when the former Boston University captain led Italy to a surprising run to the quarterfinals at the Winter Games, where Azzurre was ultimately eliminated by the U.S. The 25-year-old logged a lot of minutes against the opponent’s best players, finishing with two assists in five games.
Mattivi played the first part of this season with Luleå HF in the SDHL, where she was named the league’s best defender in 2024-25. This year, she posted five goals and 18 assists for 23 points in 22 games, notching six points in six postseason games before Luleå was knocked out in the semifinals by Brynas.
The Victoire (10-4-2-5) are third in the PWHL, two points back of the Fleet and Frost for first place.