Sarah Nurse (born January 4, 1995) is a Canadian professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

player for

PWHL Vancouver PWHL Vancouver is an upcoming professional ice hockey team based in Vancouver, British Columbia, that will compete in the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL). They are the league's first announced expansion franchise, part of the league's ...

of the

Professional Women's Hockey League The Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL; , LPHF) is a women's professional ice hockey league in North America. The league comprises eight teams, four each from the United States and Canada. The teams play a Season (sports), regular season ...

(PWHL) and

Canada women's national ice hockey team The Canadian women's national ice hockey team is the ice hockey team representing Canada in women's hockey. The team is overseen by Hockey Canada, a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation and participates in international competitions ...

. She made her debut with the national team at the 2015 4 Nations Cup. Nurse represented

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

at the

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

and

2022 Winter Olympics The 2022 Winter Olympics, officially called the XXIV Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Beijing 2022 (2022), were an international winter multi-sport event held from 4 to 20 February 2022 in Beijing, China, and surrounding areas wit ...

. After a college career with the

Wisconsin Badgers The Wisconsin Badgers are the College athletics in the United States, athletic teams representing the University of Wisconsin–Madison. They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I ...

, Nurse played one season for the

Toronto Furies The Toronto Furies were a professional women's ice hockey team that played in Toronto, Ontario, as members of the Canadian Women's Hockey League. The Toronto Furies played their home games at the Mastercard Centre in Toronto. The team was establish ...

of the

Canadian Women's Hockey League The Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL; ) was a women's ice hockey league. Established in 2007 as a Canadian women's Senior ice hockey, senior league in the Greater Toronto Area, Montreal, and Ottawa, the league expanded into Alberta (2011) and ...

(CWHL) before the league folded in 2019. She then helped found the

Professional Women's Hockey Players Association The Professional Women's Hockey Players Association (PWHPA) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to advocating for the promotion of professional women's ice hockey. It was founded in May 2019 following the dissolution of the Canadian Women's Ho ...

(PWHPA) and served on its board of directors. When the PWHPA helped found the PWHL in 2023, Nurse joined the executive committee for the league's labour union, the

PWHL Players Association The Professional Women's Hockey League Players Association (PWHLPA) is the labor union for the group of professional hockey players under contract with member teams of the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL). The Association serves as PWH ...

(PWHLPLA).

Playing career

Amateur

Nurse won a silver medal with Stoney Creek at the Ontario Women's Hockey Association (OWHA) provincials. She also won a bronze medal in high school at the 2010

OFSAA The Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) is an organization of student-athletes, teacher-coaches, student-coaches, teachers, principals, and sport administrators in Ontario, Canada. OFSAA is the second largest high school ath ...

championships and a silver at OFSAA 2011. In 2010, she played with Team Heaney and reached the quarter-finals of the 2010 Ontario Winter Games. During the 2010–11

Provincial Women's Hockey League The Ontario Women's Hockey League U22 Elite (OWHL), formerly the Provincial Women's Hockey League, is a women's junior ice hockey league in Ontario, Canada. Founded in 2004, it is considered to be the highest level of amateur women's ice hockey ...

(PWHL) season, she led the Stoney Creek Jr. Sabres in scoring. She was named to the OWHA All-Star Team for a game vs. Team Ontario Under-18. For the 2011–12 PWHL season, she was named an alternate captain with Stoney Creek. She helped the club win a bronze medal at the PWHL championships. She ranked second on the club in Stoney Creek scoring. With the Stoney Creek Jr. Sabres of the PWHL, she broke the league record shared by Kelly Sabatine and Thea Imbrogno for most goals in a season. Breaking the mark in the 2012–13 season, Nurse scored 35 goals, highlighted by a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three Wick ...

in the season's final game.

Collegiate (2013–2017)

Nurse played

NCAA Division The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and 1 in Canada. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges and helps ...

hockey with the

of the

Western Collegiate Hockey Association The Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) is a college ice hockey conference which operates in the Midwestern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a women's-only conference. From 1951 to 1999, it operated as a me ...

(WCHA). In the 2015 WCHA Final Faceoff championship game, Nurse scored twice, including the game-winning goal against Bemidji State. An 8–2 win on December 4, 2016, against the Badgers’ archrivals the

Minnesota Golden Gophers The Minnesota Golden Gophers (commonly shortened to Gophers) are the college athletics, college sports teams of the University of Minnesota. The university fields a total of 21 (9 men's, 12 women's) teams in both men's and women's sports and com ...

, provided Nurse with a career milestone. Playing in front of a sellout crowd at

LaBahn Arena LaBahn Arena is the home ice of the Wisconsin Badgers women's ice hockey team. It was the second arena to be purpose-built for a women's collegiate hockey team; the first was Minnesota Golden Gophers women's ice hockey, Minnesota's Ridder Arena. ...

, Nurse scored three goals, becoming the first player in program history to score a hat-trick against Minnesota.

Professional

CWHL (2018–2019)

After competing at the

2018 Winter Olympics The 2018 Winter Olympics (), officially the XXIII Olympic Winter Games (; ) and also known as PyeongChang 2018 (), were an international winter multi-sport event held between 9 and 25 February 2018 in Pyeongchang County, South Ko ...

, Nurse was drafted second overall by the Toronto Furies in the 2018 CWHL Draft. On October 17, 2018, Nurse scored her first CWHL goal in a Furies match at MasterCard Centre versus the visiting

Shenzhen KRS Vanke Rays HC Shenzhen Kunlun Red Star (), abbreviated Shenzhen KRS, is an ice hockey team in the Chinese Women's Ice Hockey League (WCIHL). They play in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China at Shenzhen Dayun Arena. The Shenzhen Kunlun Red Star were founded in 201 ...

. Breaking a 1–1 tie on the power play at the 8:54 mark of the third, the goal stood as the game-winning tally in a 3–1 final.

PWHPA (2019–2023)

Skating for Team Sonnet (Toronto), Nurse participated in the 2021 Secret Cup, which was the Canadian leg of the 2020–21 PWHPA Dream Gap Tour. She logged a goal and an assist in a 4-2 championship game loss versus Team Bauer (Montreal).

PWHL (2023–present)

Following the launch of the new

(PWHL), Nurse was one of three players, alongside fellow Canadian Olympians

Blayre Turnbull Blayre Turnbull (born July 15, 1993) is a Canadian professional ice hockey forward and captain for the Toronto Sceptres of the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL). She made her debut with the Canada women's national ice hockey team at the ...

and Renata Fast, signed within a pre-draft period by

PWHL Toronto The Toronto Sceptres are a professional ice hockey team based in Toronto that competes in the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL). They are one of the six charter franchises of the league. The team plays its home games at Coca-Cola Coliseu ...

. During the 2023–24 season, in her rookie season, she recorded 11 goals and 12 assists in 24 regular season games. During the 2024–25 season, she recorded six goals and eight assists in 21 regular season games. During the league's expansion to eight teams ahead of the 2025–26 season, Nurse was left unprotected by the Sceptres and signed a one-year contract with

on June 5, 2025.

International play

Nurse was a member of Team Ontario blue that competed at the 2011 and 2012 National Women's Under-18 Championship, winning gold in 2011 and a bronze in 2012. She was a member of the Canadian team that captured gold at the

2013 IIHF World Women's U18 Championship The 2013 IIHF U18 Women's World Championships was the sixth IIHF U18 Women's World Championship and was hosted in Finland. It began on 29 December 2012, with the gold medal game played on 5 January 2013. Top Division Preliminary round ''All ...

. At the 2015 4 Nations Cup, Nurse was a member of Canada's U22/Development Team, winning a gold medal. She contributed two assists in a 4–1 win over

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

on January 3, 2015. Nurse participated for Team Canada in the Elite Women's 3-on-3 game at the Skills Competition of the

2020 National Hockey League All-Star Game The 2020 National Hockey League All-Star Game was held on January 25, 2020, at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis, Missouri, the home of the St. Louis Blues. The city previously hosted the NHL All-Star Game in 1970 and 1988 at the former S ...

. Nurse was selected to compete for Team Canada in the

PyeongChang, South Korea Pyeongchang ( , ; in full, ''Pyeongchang-gun'' ) is a county in the province of Gangwon-do, South Korea, located in the Taebaek Mountains region. It is home to several Buddhist temples, including Woljeongsa. It is about east southeast of Seou ...

. She scored her first Olympic goal in a 2–1 victory over the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

on February 14. She helped Team Canada take home a silver medal in a shootout against the

. On January 11, 2022, Nurse was named to Canada's 2022 Olympic team. In Beijing, she set two new Olympic records for most points (18) and most assists (13) in a single women's tournament.

Personal life

Nurse began skating when she was three years old. She started playing hockey when she was five. Her cousins are professional hockey player Darnell Nurse of the

Edmonton Oilers The Edmonton Oilers are a professional ice hockey team based in Edmonton. The Oilers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division (NHL), Pacific Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Conference. Th ...

in the NHL and basketball player

Kia Nurse Kia Nurse (born February 22, 1996) is a Canadian profesional basketball player for the Chicago Sky of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She is also a basketball analyst featured on TSN. Nurse has played for the Canada Women' ...

of the

Chicago Sky The Chicago Sky are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Sky compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member of the Eastern Conference. The franchise was founded prior to the 2006 season. Th ...

in the WNBA. Her uncles were also involved in athletics; her uncle

Donovan McNabb Donovan Jamal McNabb (born November 25, 1976) is an American former professional American football, football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 13 seasons, primarily with the Philadelphia Eagles. He played college ...

played pro football in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL) as a

quarterback The quarterback (QB) is a position in gridiron football who are members of the offensive side of the ball and mostly line up directly behind the Lineman (football), offensive line. In modern American football, the quarterback is usually consider ...

and her other uncle, Richard Nurse, was a wide receiver for the

Hamilton Tiger-Cats The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are a professional Canadian football team based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. They are currently members of the East Division (CFL), East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The Tiger-Cats play their home game ...

of the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; , LCF) is a Professional gridiron football, professional Canadian football league in Canada. It comprises nine teams divided into two divisions, with four teams in the East Division (CFL), East Division and f ...

(CFL). Nurse, the biracial daughter of a black Trinidadian father and a white mother, has spoken at length about racism in ice hockey. When a student wore a costume depicting

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

being

lynched Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged or convicted transgressor or to intimidate others. It can also be an extreme form of in ...

to a Badgers football game in 2016, Nurse posted a statement condemning not just the student, but a culture of racism in student athletics at the University of Wisconsin. In the wake of the

George Floyd protests The George Floyd protests were a series of protests, riots, and demonstrations against police brutality that began in Minneapolis in the United States on May 26, 2020. The protests and civil unrest began in Minneapolis as Reactions to the mu ...

in the summer of 2020, Nurse spoke with Caroline Cameron of

Sportsnet Sportsnet is a Television in Canada, Canadian English-language Discretionary service, discretionary sports broadcasting, sports specialty channel owned by Rogers Sports & Media. It was established in 1998 as CTV Sportsnet, a joint venture betw ...

, urging Canadians not to separate themselves from the racism of the United States, citing the discrimination against

Viola Desmond Viola Irene Desmond (July 6, 1914 – February 7, 1965) was a Canadian civil and women's rights activist and businesswoman of Black Nova Scotian descent. In 1946, she challenged racial segregation at a cinema in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, by r ...

. Nurse told

The Canadian Press The Canadian Press (CP; , ) is a Canadian national news agency headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. Established in 1917 as a vehicle for Canadian newspapers to exchange news and information, The Canadian Press has been a privately-held company, pr ...

in November that her social media commentary on racial equality left her "flooded with interview requests". In September 2020, Liz Knox resigned her position on the PWHPA board to allow Nurse to take her place, citing the association's "blind spot" with regards to race issues in ice hockey. After the foundation of the PWHL in 2023, Nurse was named to the executive committee for the PWHLPA, the league's labour union. In November 2020,

Mattel Mattel, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company headquartered in El Segundo, California. Founded in Los Angeles by Harold Matson and the husband-and-wife duo of Ruth Handler, ...

and

Tim Hortons Tim Hortons Inc., known colloquially as Tim's, Timmies, or Timmy's, is a Canadian multinational coffeehouse and restaurant chain with headquarters in Toronto; it serves coffee, Doughnut, donuts, sandwiches, Breakfast sandwich, breakfast egg mu ...

collaborated on two limited-edition

Barbie Barbie is a fashion doll created by American businesswoman Ruth Handler, manufactured by American toy and entertainment company Mattel and introduced on March 9, 1959. The toy was based on the German Bild Lilli doll, Bild Lilli doll which Hand ...

dolls based on Nurse and fellow hockey player

Marie-Philip Poulin Marie-Philip Poulin (born March 28, 1991) is a Canadian professional ice hockey centre (ice hockey), centre and Captain (ice hockey), captain for the Montreal Victoire of the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL). She is also the captain o ...

. The dolls were created as part of Barbie's ''You Can Be Anything'' program, which aims to inspire "girls to reach their limitless potential through imaginative play and engaging with meaningful role models." Nurse was featured on the June 2021 cover of ''

Elle Canada ''Elle'' (stylized in all caps) is a worldwide magazine of French origin that offers a mix of fashion and beauty content, and society and lifestyle. The title ''Elle'' means ''She'' in French. ''Elle'' is considered "one of the world's largest ...

'' along with Hanna Bunton and

Brigette Lacquette Brigette Lacquette (born November 10, 1992) is a Canadian ice hockey player, currently playing defence for the Calgary section of the PWHPA and the Canadian national team. She participated at the 2015 IIHF Women's World Championship. In the aut ...

. Nurse appeared as a guest judge in an episode of the third season of ''

Canada's Drag Race ''Canada's Drag Race'' is a Canadian reality competition television series based on the American series ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' and is the Canadian edition of the ''Drag Race'' franchise, produced by Blue Ant Studios. In a similar format to t ...

'', which aired in summer 2022. Also in 2022, Nurse became the first woman to appear on the cover of an EA Sports ''NHL'' title with ''

NHL 23 ''NHL 23'' is an ice hockey simulation video game developed by EA Vancouver and published by EA Sports. It is the 32nd installment in the ''NHL'' video game series and was released for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X ...

'', appearing alongside

Trevor Zegras Trevor John Zegras ( ; born March 20, 2001) is an American professional ice hockey Centre (ice hockey), center for the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was selected by the Anaheim Ducks ninth overall in the 2019 NHL ent ...

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

Awards and honours

* EA Sports NHL cover athlete (

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

)

NCAA

*All-WCHA Rookie Team (2013–14) *2015 WCHA Frozen Face-Off Most Outstanding Player *WCHA All-Tournament Team (2015) *All-WCHA Third Team (2015–16) *Second-Team All-American (2016–17) *WCHA 20th Anniversary Team

PWHL

*PWHL All-Second team (2023–24)

IIHF and Olympics

* IIHF Women's World Hockey Championship gold medalist (2021–2022, 2024), silver 2023, and bronze medalist (2019) * Olympic gold medalist (2022) and silver medalist (2018)

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nurse, Sarah 1995 births Living people Black Canadian ice hockey players Black Canadian sportswomen Canadian women's ice hockey forwards Canadian sportspeople of Trinidad and Tobago descent Ice hockey people from Hamilton, Ontario Ice hockey players at the 2018 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 2022 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 2018 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 2022 Winter Olympics

Sarah Sarah (born Sarai) is a biblical matriarch, prophet, and major figure in Abrahamic religions. While different Abrahamic faiths portray her differently, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all depict her character similarly, as that of a pious woma ...

Olympic ice hockey players for Canada Olympic medalists in ice hockey Olympic gold medalists for Canada Olympic silver medalists for Canada Professional Women's Hockey Players Association players Toronto Sceptres players Toronto Furies players Wisconsin Badgers women's ice hockey players Canadian expatriate ice hockey players in the United States Stoney Creek Jr. Sabres players 21st-century Canadian sportswomen