In 2003, Wickenheiser became the first woman to score a goal in a men's professional hockey league, playing for Salamat in Finland, not as a stunt but because she had gone there to get better. It was the same logic that drove everything she did: find the highest level available and compete at it. She finished as Canada's all-time career points leader with 168 goals and 211 assists in 276 games, won four Olympic gold medals and seven world championships, and was twice named Olympic tournament MVP and Best Forward. Between Winter Games she represented Canada in softball at the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics, making her one of the rare athletes in history to compete at both, a competitor whose abilities simply exceeded the boundaries of any single sport.

When the Hockey Hall of Fame called to tell her she'd been inducted in her first year of eligibility in 2019, they couldn't reach her. She was in a code blue simulation, practicing resuscitating someone in cardiopulmonary arrest. She had earned a Bachelor of Kinesiology and a Master of Science from the University of Calgary, completed her MD there, and went on to train in both family and emergency medicine. "Every patient encounter is different," she said. "You have to think quickly, work in a team and be very good under pressure. It feels very much like a team sport." She is now the Toronto Maple Leafs' assistant general manager of player development. She played hockey at the highest level for twenty-three years, practiced medicine, and ran an NHL front office. The range of it is almost beside the point. She simply did what she set out to do.