Trailblazing hockey player makes appearance at Little NHL tournament
By Sam Laskaris
UNIONVILLE – A trailblazing First Nation hockey player continues to inspire younger generations.
Brigette Lacquette made history back in 2018 when she became the first First Nation player to compete on the Canadian women’s Olympic hockey team.
Lacquette and her Canadian teammates captured the silver medal at the PyeongChang Olympics in South Korea.
Lacquette, who is 33, was also a featured guest at the Little Native Hockey League tournament, which was held last week, primarily in Markham.
She attended a kickoff ceremony for the tournament, often simply called the Little NHL, on March 15. And she made appearances at rinks staging games at the tourney the following day.
A record 271 clubs from across the province participated in this year’s Little NHL, which concluded on March 19.
Lacquette was especially pleased to be told that a record 55 girls’ teams competed at the 2026 event.
“That’s so awesome,” she said of the number of female participants. “It’s so cool to see.”
Lacquette is a member of Cote First Nation in Saskatchewan through her mother, but she grew up in the Métis settlement of Mallard in Manitoba.
Her sister Tara and her brother Taran also played hockey.
“Growing up, I was almost always the only girl on the team,” Lacquette said. “And then my sister and I were the only girls on the team. And now to see how much hockey has grown in the last 20 years, and female hockey at that, is awesome. It’s so inspiring and it’s very exciting for the future of female hockey.”
Though she got her start in the sport playing on boys’ teams, Lacquette relished the opportunities when she played on girls’ clubs as well.
“My sister and I both played boys’ and girls’ hockey from when I was like 13 to 17,” she said. “So, I think I was around like 12 or 13 when we started to play girls’ and boys’ hockey on two separate teams…For me, I always wanted to play boys’ hockey because I liked the physicality and the quickness of it. And the female hockey, it’s more skill. There’s more skill and finesse at that age and it’s a lot of fun.”
For the past four years, Lacquette also enjoyed moments of working for a National Hockey League franchise. She was a scout for the Chicago Blackhawks, primarily observing the talent in the Western Hockey League, one of the three Major Junior circuits with clubs in Canada and the United States.
Lacquette said her scouting gig was an exciting venture, but she was not keen to continue in that position.
“That was enough for me,” she said of her four-year stint. “It was too much travelling for my liking. But honestly, it was just such a cool experience to kind of see that side of the game and be that on that part of the ice surface and to watch.”
For now, Lacquette is content doing various promotional appearances. Plus, she’s coaching an under-13 boys’ AA hockey team based south of Winnipeg.
Lacquette is also hoping to go back to school. She had played in the NCAA ranks, graduating from the University of Minnesota-Duluth in 2015.
She’s applied to take an online social work program through Nova Scotia’s Dalhousie University. If accepted, she’ll begin coursework in September.
“I knew I always wanted to get into working with kids,” she said. “So right now, I’m kind of in the process of building a program that services northern Indigenous communities.”
That way, she can continue to be a role model.
“Growing up, my family was very poor,” she said. “My parents were very young when they had us. My sister, my brother and I, we had to find a way to make something of ourselves…I grew to love hockey. I grew to love the sport and it was my way out. It became my vehicle throughout my entire life to bring me to places where I never thought that I’d be.”