Feb 11, 2026 | Web Admin | 63 views
U13 AAA Hamilton Steel Off to Quebec International Peewee Tournament
This Hamilton team is bound for the biggest hockey tournament on the planet.
By Scott Radley, Columnist. Scott Radley is a columnist with the Hamilton Spectator.
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Triple-A pee-wees are heading to Quebec to take on teams from around the world.
Quebec Peewee Tournament Home Page.
The Hamilton Steel U13 AAA team will play in the Quebec pee-wee tournament starting Friday.
Mike Spadafora photo
All the players were pulled into a dressing room at the rink the other day for a meeting. They had no idea what it was about. These things aren’t always fun conversations.
Once they were seated and quiet, head coach Mike Spadafora started talking. He realized he could drag this one out. Build the suspense and all. Create some drama. Instead, he got right to it.
His Hamilton Steel triple-A team was going to play in the Quebec International Pee-wee Hockey Tournament. Just the biggest and most-prestigious minor hockey event in the world. With teams coming from all over the planet to compete.
“Everybody went, like, crazy,” says winger Brody Huneault.
“As soon as we heard the news, we were all jacked up,” says defenceman Jackson Cryer.
Most hockey fans will be familiar with this tournament. So many of the greats of the game have played in it as boys. Wayne Gretzky did. Mario Lemieux did. Guy Lafleur did. Same with Patrick Roy, Eric Lindros, Auston Matthews and Macklin Celebrini.
Hamilton triple-A teams have competed in the past. The last time was 2017 when the Huskies made the trip, led by future NHLer Florian Xhekaj.
It’s absolutely huge. Hockey’s closest equivalent to the Little League World Series in baseball. You don’t sign up. You’re invited. If you’re good enough.
Standing off to the side listening to the announcement was assistant coach Jeff Toole. He was as surprised as anyone because Spadafora — as in, the city councillor — hadn’t told anyone. When he heard it ...
“I had a bit of a numbing feeling,” he says.
Sure, this is an event for the 12-year-old players. They’re the stars. But this is going to be incredibly special for a guy who’s been coaching for more than twice as long as the boys have been alive.
For nine years, the retired teacher has been battling neuroendocrine cancer. He doesn’t talk about it much because he doesn’t consider himself a victim. But it’s tough.
Not only is it incurable but keeping going takes effort. He’s had six surgeries in the past nine years. He’s been through radiation, targeted chemotherapy and other treatments.
He works out every day and eats right to do what he can. It’s his reality.
The truth is, he hadn’t expected he’d be coaching in 2026. He’d coached older kids for a long time but a while back, thought he was done. Then the opportunity to join this team came up.
“God brought me here,” he says. “It’s been wonderful.”
Being on the ice and behind the bench is good for him, he says. It’s a healthy outlet. The team is good and the kids are terrific, he says. And now he’s going to get to live a dream he’s had for many, many years.
Make no mistake, this has been hanging around in the back of his mind for a long time. One of those gee-I-wish-I-had-that-chance-but-I-probably-never-will kind of things.
Why is it so exciting? Just the scale of the event is wild.
Every team that goes to Quebec City gets at least one game at the Videotron Centre. It’s unlike any other experience in youth hockey. It’ll certainly be new for this group.
What’s the biggest crowd the guys on the Steel have played in front of in their lives?
“I’d say a couple hundred,” Cryer says.
At that game there will be 10,000 or more.
“That’s a lot of people,” he says.
It’s nerve-racking and even a little scary, Huneault admits. Though he says he hasn’t really thought much about it because it never dawned on him he’d ever get to play in front of a crowd like that.
Either way, it’ll be a memory nobody involved will ever forget. Not him. Not Cryer. Not their teammates.
And not Toole.
That big moment will come in their first game on Friday afternoon when they take on the New York Rangers. After that, they could find themselves playing teams from Cleveland, Boston, Pittsburgh or far-more-exotic spots like Hungary, Slovakia or Czechia.
Toole doesn’t much care who ends up on the docket. He’s just excited for the kids. And, yeah, himself, too.
“This is a pinch-myself moment because I never thought I’d ever get the chance,” he says. “So this is a real blessing.”
By Scott Radley, Columnist. Scott Radley is a columnist with the Hamilton Spectator.
[email protected]