This year's winner of the Lou Marsh Award for Canada's top athlete wasn't a multimillionaire NHL player, but a 16-year-old high school student from Toronto. Penny Oleksiak stole the swimming pool show at the Rio 2016 Olympics.
Her performance at the Olympics was a sporting highlight of this past year, bookended by historic seasons from Toronto’s Blue Jays and Raptors. The Toronto FC and the Montreal Impact had good years too.
In fact, it was a good year for Canadian sports, as long as you weren't concerned about your local NHL team.
For the first time in 47 years, not a single Canadian team featured in the NHL postseason. The Stanley Cup was awarded to an American team for the 22nd consecutive time.
But Canadian Olympic athletes picked up the slack, dominating headlines during the Rio 2016 Olympics.
Oleksiak helped the women's relay team win Canada's first Olympic medal in the women's 4x100 metre freestyle relay in 40 years. She followed it up with a silver medal in the 100-metre relay. Her defining moment came with a gold medal performance in the 100-metre freestyle, setting an Olympic record and tying American Simone Manuel, making her Canada's most accomplished Summer Olympian.
"I definitely knew the pressure was on to try and I guess make history and get four medals,'' Oleksiak said after her gold medal win. "But it wasn't something I was trying to think about before my race, I was just trying to think about swimming as fast as I could and to be happy with whatever outcome.''
While Oleksiak was making waves in the pool, women's teams on the field also caught the world's attention.
Canada's women's rugby sevens team won the competition's inaugural bronze medal, beating Great Britain 33-10 on August 8.
Led by captain Jen Kish, the team came back from a poor performance against Britain earlier in the competition and a nervy semifinal against Australia, to put in a medal-worthy performance.
Amazing moment as @MandyMarchak, long-time member of the #CAN #rugby7s team who recently retired, celebrates #bronze pic.twitter.com/fwHP4tEEe5
— Rugby Canada (@RugbyCanada) August 8, 2016
Canada's year in sports: From gold medal-winning teens to historic seasons
Budding bro-mance
Andre DeGrasse and Usain Bolt debuted their budding bromance during relays and races in Rio.
DeGrasse, 21, finished second to Bolt in the 200-metre final and helped propel Canada to a third place finish in the 4x100 metre relay after the American team was disqualified.
But De Grasse and Bolt's shared smiles, and a finger wag from Bolt, while running side-by-side in the 200-metre semi-finals caught the world's attention.
"We were just joking around: 'Why are we running this fast? We shouldn't do it, it's the semifinals," De Grasse told reporters afterwards.
Bolt, the greatest sprinter of all time, heaped praise on De Grasse, calling him the future of sprinting and comparing De Grasse's prospective career to his own-record breaking one.
For me, De Grasse has shown he is ready," Bolt told a press conference. "He’s done it back to back from last year. So we know the future of the sport is in good hands."
Matthews fever
The announcement was greeted like a Stanley Cup victory in Toronto: the struggling Leafs had found redemption with winning the first overall pick in the 2016 NHL draft.
Their target was a phenom teen who had plied his short trade in the Swiss League and had wowed scouts and general managers around the league: Auston Matthews.
The California teen was dubbed a "generational" player, and one the franchise could build a team around.
He showed his skill in a stunning debut against the Ottawa Senators, scoring four goals in the overtime loss.
Matthews was the fifth player in NHL history to score a hat trick in his regular-season debut and the first in Maple Leafs history.
"It was pretty surreal, I couldn't believe it," said Matthews, who had no idea he had made history with his performance.
Raptors set records
The Toronto Raptors set records in the 2015-2016 season, following a disappointing 2014-2015 season which ended in a first round playoff exit to the Washington Wizards.
The Raptors clinched their third straight Atlantic Division title, going 56-26, finishing second in the Eastern Conference and fourth overall in the league.
The team was able to banish their playoff demons, winning their first playoff series in 15 years – and only their second playoff series win ever -- with a 4-3 series win over the Indiana Pacers.
Despite the post-season highs, the season ended on a disappointing series loss to eventual champions Cleveland Cavaliers.
Jays beat expectations for playoff run
Faced with a depleted pitching staff, and the loss of star pitcher David Price, the outlook for the Toronto Blue Jays 2015-2016 season wasn't bright.
The Jays refused to quit, and battled to an 89-73 record and face off against the Baltimore Orioles in a Wild Card Game tilt.
The game was marred by a beer can being thrown from a fan, nearly hitting Orioles left fielder Hyun-soo Kim.
But on the field, Orioles star closer Zach Britton never got in the game, paving the way for a comeback. Edwin Encarnacion hit a walk-off three-run homerun in extra innings to seal a 5-2 win.
The Jays swept the Texas Rangers, their playoff nemesis from the previous season, in three games to set up an American League Championship series against the Cleveland Indians.
With injuries mounting up, and the offence slowing down, the Jays lost to the Indians but still finished the season on a historic high.
"The key is we want to take that next step one of these days, hopefully it's next year," said Blue Jays manager John Gibbons after the final loss to Cleveland. "But these guys, they did a hell of a job."
Historic MLS season
It was a historic MLS season for two of Canada's three clubs, with Toronto FC coming closer than any other Canadian team to win the MLS Cup.
Led by Italian playmaker Sebastian Giovinco who was named to the MLS team of the year, TFC ultimately fell at the final hurdle.
The Toronto club lost 5-4 on penalties to the Seattle Sounders on Dec. 10, ensuring that the MLS Cup stayed in the hands of an American club.
Despite the disappointing loss, the season was promising for Canada's two eastern clubs.
Montreal Impact finished fifth in the Eastern Conference, setting up a playoff semi-final appearance against the Toronto team.
Led by Canadian Patrice Bernier, the Impact lost 7-5 on aggregate but still arguably had their best season ever.
With files from the Canadian and Associated Press
