Marie-Philip Poulin announces engagement to Team Canada teammate Laura Stacey

Now this is a royal wedding announcement.

Canadian women’s hockey stars Marie-Philip Poulin and Laura Stacey announced their engagement via Instagram on Friday morning. Poulin and Stacey showed off their engagement rings in separate Instagram posts with the proposal appearing to take place during their recent vacation to Hawaii.

Poulin and Stacey have been long-time teammates on the Canadian women’s national hockey team and won gold medals at the 2022 Olympics, along with consecutive gold medals at the world championships in 2021 and 2022. Poulin is currently the captain of the national team and is widely considered among the greatest players of all-time, becoming the only player to score in four Olympic gold medal games, with game-winning goals in the 2010, 2014 and 2022 Olympics. The 32-year-old Beauceveille, Quebec, native was named the Canadian athlete of the year in 2022.

Stacey, 29, is a member of the Montreal chapter of the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association (PHWPA). She was terrific during the 2022 Olympics, posting four goals and six points in seven games.

If the social media reaction to the announcement is any indication of the guest list, it should be a star-studded wedding. Mitch Marner, Sarah Nurse, Natalie Spooner, Ann-Renee Desbiens, Emma Maltais were among those who commented ecstatically about Poulin and Stacey’s engagement.

It’s unclear when the upcoming wedding will take place. If there are any parallels, Wayne Gretzky’s wedding to Janet Jones in 1988 was considered a national holiday in Canada. Poulin, who very well may be the greatest women’s player of all-time, should receive the same stature when marrying one of the premier defencemen in the sport.