Renata Fast is already one of, if not the best defender in women’s hockey.
That should be readily apparent to anyone who has watched her play. She glides effortlessly around the ice defending her own end and setting up teammates in the other. Pity the opposing forward who meets her along the boards or in the corner. Fast is both strong and determined and every battle is fought like it’s her last.
But what might not be so apparent to the average fan is that she’s is in the process of taking her game to yet even another level.
Going from good to great is hard, but what Fast is attempting to do – going from great to even greater, possibly greatest, is so much harder.
At 30 years of age, Fast is already a three-time World Champion and Olympic gold medallist. As one of Toronto’s three foundational signings when the PWHL began, Fast has been instrumental in helping the team claim their first ever regular season title.
In that first year, paired with familiar National team defensive partner Jocelyne Larocque, Fast logged more ice time than anyone in the league, though Larocque averaged more minutes playing one less game. Through 10 games this season, Fast is averaging a league high 24:50 minutes of ice a game.
So add tireless to the competitive, determined and, oh right, highly skilled descriptors.
She tied for the Toronto team lead in points in the playoffs with three in a disappointing – after being up 2-0 in the series — 3-2 loss in five games to eventual champs Minnesota in the league semi-finals.
But somehow at year’s end Fast did not even crack the three finalist list for PWHL defender of the year. That award was won by her National team teammate and Montreal defender Erin Ambrose with U.S. National team and PWHL Boston defender Megan Keller and New York rearguard Ella Shelton the other two finalists.
Asked if she was surprised Fast says she prefers to pay attention to what her teammates and she herself thinks of her play and on both counts Fast was happy with those results. There’s certainly no animosity towards those that were nominated.
“I try not to pay too much attention to that stuff, honestly,” Fast said. “Like I try not to get caught up in it. The three that were on there – (Megan) Keller, Ella (Shelton) and (Erin) Ambrose — they are three incredible players that I love to watch play, and love to model parts of my game off the way they play. I mean you really couldn’t go wrong with anyone (from that list). But I was really happy with my year last year and my coaches were happy and my teammates were happy so that’s all I can really focus on. But yeah, it’s always nice to get individual recognition, but that’s OK.”
Sceptres teammate Sarah Nurse knows better than most just how important Fast is not only to Toronto’s success but Canada’s success on the international stage. She suggests that maybe the media that voted on the award, got too caught up on the offensive and analytical side of things when Fast was left off that finalists list.
“The media looks at analytics and statistics and it’s easy when someone doesn’t have the numbers that you discount them,” Nurse said. “But if you ask any player around the league (or anyone playing) the last five or six years, who is the toughest defender to play against, it’s Renata Fast or Jocelyne Larocque. So, there’s a lot of respect there.”
But it was long before any votes were counted – right about the time Toronto was figuring out their early season struggles in Year 1, that Fast began to slightly alter her game which could wind up changing how her game is perceived from the outside going forward.
At the nudging and request of head coach Troy Ryan, Fast has slowly but surely started to put more focus on the offensive side of her game.
“I think that has been the way my career has progressed,” Fast said. “I’ve always been a pretty good skater which allowed me to be really solid defensively. I gained so much confidence with that and that is the base of my game, but now how do you add to it and that is the offensive component for me.
“The way the game is being played these days for defencemen is offensive defencemen are a key part to team success so Troy has been pushing me to explore that side of my game and I’ve wanted to explore it so it’s the next step for me.”
To make that decision to play more offensively sounds simple enough, but that’s not the case for Fast.
“It’s like re-programming your brain, totally,” she said. “I owned the role I played on the national team for years which was play against other team’s top lines and take pride in that role and shut them down. You are not always thinking of how can you produce offensively because you have a job and you want to execute for the team.
“Now I have a little bit of a bigger job kind of to do both,” she said. “I’m getting there for sure. I’m definitely taking more chances.”
Ryan says some of the onus is on him too. If Fast is going to be successful adding more offence to her game, he has to give her the space to do it.
“Ryan has found himself coaching the defence in a handful of games this month — he and his assistants take turns on offence and defence to keep everything fresh both for the coaches and the players — and Ryan who would normally have Fast out there against an opposing top line or killing a penalty or ending a period every chance he got has opted to tinker with that, at times letting some of the other defenders handle some of those minutes so Fast is a little fresher to go on the attack offensively.
“I want to do a little better job of setting her up for that type of success, not necessarily using her playing in all those tough moments,” he said. “Like if we’re playing New York and she is out every time in a d-zone face off against (Alex) Carpenter and (Sarah) Fillier, that’s not necessarily setting her up for a ton of success but she’s able to do it so she ends up getting a lot of those minutes.
“So, it’s more like just managing when we can set her up for some offensive success.”
There is no doubt in Ryan’s mind Fast can become the type of two-way threat they both envision.
“I believe right now Renata could lead the league in scoring,” Ryan said. “That’s the type of player and athlete she is. She’s so responsible defensively and so responsible physically. She just needs to be willing to branch off a little bit into the offensive side, even a little more than she is right now.
“She is 100% interested in doing that and dabbling in it,” he said. “She just needs to know where those lines are and if she ever finds them…”
Well, suffice to say she’ll not be wondering why she’s not up for top defender anymore.