Ashley Messier builds hockey legacy with sights on PWHL, Olympics

Ashley Messier’s dream of one day playing in the Olympics began like plenty of others for kids in Saskatchewan – inside a classroom watching Team Canada on a television instead of answering math questions on a whiteboard.

She was in “Grade 4 or Grade 5,” when her teacher in the tiny three-classroom schoolhouse in Wilcox, Sask. turned on the projector to watch the 2014 Olympic gold medal clash between Canada and the United States.

“I remembered Canada coming back and scoring those two goals and ended up winning. It’s a kind of a core memory that stuck out to me,” she recalled, adding that the entire school was swept up in the moment.

“You could hear the other classrooms kind of going crazy … I think their feed was a couple, maybe 30 seconds ahead of us, and we could hear them cheering down the hallway, and everyone ran over there to see what was going on.”

This week, Messier, 22, plays at the Women’s Euro Hockey Tour in Tampere, Finland as a part of the Canada National Women’s Development Team.

Ashley Messier grew up dreaming of playing international hockey. (Hockey Canada Images/Heather Pollock)

“I think back to my minor hockey and the kid that loved playing and watched those (Canada) games, and it’s really exciting to be a part of it and to hopefully be that group that other people look up to,” she said.

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Navigating two nations

Messier has dual citizenship in Canada and the United States because her mother grew up in Flint, Mich.

So with no invite from Hockey Canada and an opportunity to possibly play for the U.S. women’s team, Messier went down south to play.

“We were under the impression that I was eligible for both programs,” Messier said.

She had made the U.S. Under-18 team and was set to play in the 2018 World Championships.

But that wasn’t the case. Messier had her travel plans ready and plane ticket in hand when the international ice hockey federation called to say she was ineligible.

“You have to play a season of minor hockey under the age of 18 but over the age of 12 in the states to qualify for their national program. So I was unable to go.”

The next year, she was invited to Canada’s camp and has donned the maple leaf ever since.

“Once you play a sanctioned tournament, you’re set with that team. I had a blessing in disguise that it worked out the way it did, because I’m obviously very, very, quite happy to be playing for the Canadian team. I feel like I resonate a little more with that. I’ve never really lived in the U.S., other than for school now and visiting family,” Messier said.

Plus, when she remembers watching that Olympic gold medal game back in 2014, she was pulling for the Canadian team.

A family tree of hockey

Due to her last name, one of the first questions Messier often gets is if she is related to NHL hall of famer Mark Messier.

“They always are so let down when I’m like, ‘Oh, he’s a cousin. Don’t see him very often,’” Messier said. “The expectation is they’re like, ‘He’s your uncle,’ or, ‘He’s your dad.’ And I’m like, ‘No, no, he’s a second-cousin to me.’ Great guy, great family. But yeah, no, you’re not going meet him through me.”

Her dad, Joby Messier, played 25 NHL games for the New York Ranger and also played in the AHL as a part of the Binghamton Rangers.

He eventually accepted a job at Notre Dame with the Hounds – the school he played SJHL hockey with –which brought the family to Wilcox.

Messier grew up playing hockey in small town Saskatchewan which means there were plenty of road trips.

“It was a lot of driving,” she said. “There weren’t really any of the more competitive teams and programs for the younger groups. Atom and pee-wee and bantam were kind of far away if you wanted to do the tier one stuff.”

Messier played for the Prairie Storm and then the Saskatoon Stars for four seasons. She won silver with the Stars at the 2018 Esso Cup, Canada’s National Female Midget Championship, and then had a fourth-place finish in 2019. She was named the top defenceman of both those tournaments.

Ashley Messier helped the Saskatoon Stars reach back-to-back national championship tournaments. (Ashley Messier/Submitted)

She also won a silver medal with Saskatchewan at the 2019 National Women’s Under-18 Championship in Morden and Winkler, Man., and was named Most Valuable Player.

Now she plays hockey in Ithaca N.Y. in her final year of eligibility with the Cornell Big Red.

“It has been, hands down, one of the best experiences of my life. I could not be more happy with the school I chose,” Messier said.

And with Ithaca so close to Binghamton, people remember seeing her dad play hockey as well.

“There have been some Ithaca locals that have brought that up to me over my time. I didn’t even really realize that he had spent so much time in Binghamton,” Messier said. “They’re like, ‘Oh, I watched your dad when he was playing down the road here,’ which I thought was pretty funny.”

Messier is also eligible for the upcoming draft for the PWHL.

“It’s a really important opportunity and not just for me, but for a lot of people. I have a lot of empathy for the girls in the past, let’s say five to 10 years (ago), that had a lot of talent and were very good and the NCAA was it,” Messier said.

“We have the talent now in this day and age of women’s hockey players and the professionalism and the work ethic and all the right resources. It’s like we’re getting there with the right resources to really be a sustainable professional league that has a lot of growth yet to come.”

Ashley Messier is one of the team captains for Cornell for the 2024-25 season. (Ashley Messier/Submitted)

So, as she continues to check goals off of her list — perhaps one day finally getting a chance to play in an Olympic Games — Messier is thankful for all the opportunities the sport has provided.

“It’s pretty incredible. The education I’m able to get is really cool and it’s all kind of a catalyst from hockey. That love and that work you put in, it kind of translates to other parts of your life as well. It’s been pretty special to just get to soak it all in and meet people and travel to the places I have.”