'The best defender in the world': Inside the rise of women's hockey superstar Renata Fast

Five games into last season, the Toronto Sceptres had racked up a four-game losing streak.

With the team not playing well, and time of the essence in a 30-game PWHL season, three Sceptres leaders had a closed-door meeting with head coach, Troy Ryan, to talk about how to get things back on track.

Captain Blayre Turnbull and assistant captains Renata Fast and Jocelyne Larcoque, the latter of whom would be traded to Ottawa at the end of December, left that meeting feeling like the turnaround needed to start with them.

"I feel like I took that to heart, knowing that I could be one of those players," Fast recalled in a sit-down interview with CBC Sports ahead of the league's entry draft and awards ceremony earlier this summer.

The defender did that and more en route to a second-place regular season finish for Toronto.

Fast finished the season tied for first in scoring among defenders, recording 22 points in 30 games. She led the league with 63 hits, led all PWHL skaters in time on ice with an average of 24 minutes and 39 seconds per game, and finished top-three in shots blocked, according to the PWHL's records. She was also the key distributor in a Sceptres power play that seemed invincible at times.

It earned her the PWHL's defender of the year award and a nomination for MVP alongside Hilary Knight and Marie-Philip Poulin.

For those who've helped Fast's game evolve over the last decade, her rise has been no surprise. They credit her consistent work ethic and a constant desire to get better, in addition to her world-class skating.

Going into an Olympic season, few players will be more important to Canada's quest to earn back-to-back gold medals as Fast on the blue line. She can do it all on the ice, and will be called upon to do that when the stakes are highest for the Canadians.

"I think there's very few people that can argue that she is the best defender in the world," Toronto Sceptres and Team Canada GM Gina Kingsbury said. "She's got more even to gain here as she moves forward."

That growth has come at a position she didn't start playing until her Grade 11 year, and one she didn't initially want to play.

Hockey wasn't a big part of Fast's family growing up. She didn't start playing until new neighbours moved in down the street. Fast started joining in on their road hockey games.

Fast's family was supportive of her trying the sport, but it was never with the end goal of making hockey a career or getting a scholarship to an American university.

"My parents were pretty committed that I go to a Canadian university and get a good education," Fast said. "They didn't know much about NCAA."

Unlike most players who go on to represent their country at the Olympics, Fast wasn't chosen to play on the Canadian Under-18 team. She never bothered even trying out for the provincial team, since the tryouts conflicted with soccer in the summer.

But that athleticism, regardless of what sport she was playing, is what popped to Clarkson University head coach Matt Desrosiers, who ultimately recruited Fast to play hockey at the school.

"When you watch her play, her skating is what separates her from everyone else that's out there," Desrosiers told CBC Sports. "She just looks so effortless."

WATCH | Fast on her Billie Jean King MVP Award nomination:

Toronto Sceptre Renata Fast talks about her nomination for defender of the year and Professional Women's Hockey League's MVP. The 30-year-old from Burlington, Ont., led the league in ice-time this season and was a top-scoring defender.

Two years before she started college, Fast switched from forward to defender. She wanted to make the junior team in her hometown of Burlington, but there wasn't a spot for her at forward.

There was an open spot on defence, a position Fast was often called to help with growing up, thanks to her strong skating. Fast agreed to make the switch so she could make the team.

"One season back there and I just started to love it: how you can see the whole ice, how everything unfolds in front of you," Fast said. "I've always been a pretty good skater and I think that's what scouts look for in defenders is if they can skate, you can kind of work with them from there. That was definitely me. I needed a lot of work."

Fast won a national championship at Clarkson and during her time in college, drew more attention from the national team.

Along the way, her coach at Clarkson, Desrosiers, worked on her confidence. He wanted her to realize how good she could be, and that she could thrive on the power play and in offensive situations.

Fast made her senior national team world championship debut in 2017. In the years since, she has become a big part of a core of players who have taken the program to new heights. She's a three-time world champion and won Olympic gold in 2022 in Beijing.

Kingsbury, who won two Olympic gold medals during her own playing career, sees Fast as one of the best athletes to ever play for Team Canada.

But it's more than just her natural athleticism that has helped Fast become one of the best. It's that she is never satisfied.

To keep growing, Fast has tried to soak up everything she can from the people around her, whether it was watching Clarkson teammate and fellow defender Erin Ambrose in college, skating with former Canadian team defender Laura Fortino and skills coach Mike Ellis in the off-seasons or the mentorship from Larocque, her long-time defence partner.

Over the last few years, Fast has also developed a bond and trust with Ryan, who coaches both the national team and the Sceptres.

"She's so open to being coached," Ryan said. "Like in anything, some people when they reach such a high level, that tends to slowly disappear. They're less open to suggestions. Renata is just a sponge for challenges you throw her way or feedback you provide her."

One of those challenges has been thinking about being an offensive player. Ryan said Fast always thought of herself as a strong skater and a physical presence on the ice. Now, she sees that those attributes can also help her create offence.

"I think she's in the conversation for best all-around player," Ryan said. "There are few people that can completely take over a game, and I think she can."

Last spring, Fast was sitting alone in a hotel meal room in Minnesota when she got an email from PWHL executive vice president of hockey operations, Jayna Hefford, telling her she'd been nominated for MVP. The tears came immediately. It wasn't something Fast expected.

Fast will be back with the Sceptres this upcoming season, this time with a potential new defensive partner in Ella Shelton, another Clarkson graduate and two-way force. The team will be looking for its first Walter Cup, and Shelton should be able to take some of the load off Fast in an important year.

She'll also have the chance to win a gold medal with her family by her side, something she missed during the COVID-impacted Games in 2022.

"With the group that's been around for a long time and the transformation that's happened over the last eight years, it would mean nothing more than to get back up on top, and have all of our families and the people who have supported us there in the stands in a pretty cool location like Milan," Fast said.