'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