The general director of the Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament doesn't bury his head in the sand: the 63rde The edition of the event, marked last year by the presence of the Ukrainian team, will be difficult to beat, but still promises some highlights, starting with the presence of NHL team mascots and the passage of the famous podcast Spitting Chiclets.
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A team from Ukraine will also be there again, this time in the AA elite class. After capturing media attention for two weeks in 2023, it's safe to assume the buzz will be different this year.
“It’ll be hard to beat,” Dom admitted. Last year's edition was one of my best in 33 years. I had goosebumps when they arrived here on Saturday, even though it's sad that a war made us successful. I don’t think we’ll be able to do it, but as an organization we have to try to pull out all the stops every year.”
Wanting to “pull out all the stops,” Dom and his organization managed to convince Spittin' Chiclets, the podcast run by former players Ryan Whitney and Paul Bissonnette, to spend four days in Quebec and record episodes from the old capital.
The mascots of the New Jersey Devils, St. Louis Blues, Seattle Kraken, Tampa Bay Lightning, Edmonton Oilers and Laval Rocket will spend a weekend in Quebec during the tournament and will be at the Center Videotron on February 10th.
Unfortunately no, the popular “Gritty”, the Philadelphia Flyers mascot, will not be there as the team is playing at home during this time.
We are so proud, boys
As usual, the organization will also receive visits from former players who will attend autograph sessions and take photos with fans at the Videotron Center. So far, Bob Gainey, Vincent Lecavalier, Jeremy Roenick and Doug Gilmour, as well as the actors from the film Les Boys, have confirmed their place.
Patrick Dom is still working on a few more names, but he didn't want to confirm any of them so as not to raise false hopes.
The small city walls to look out for
The tournament will now welcome 120 teams from 18 different countries onto the ice again – almost 200 others had to reject it. Estonia is sending a team, HK Tornaado, in Class AA for the first time in its history.
And when he assures that the Mid Fairfield Rangers in Class AAA, who rank first among pee-wee teams in the United States with a record of 47-2-2, would be kept in mind, Patrick Dom warns the Folks from Quebec: the little Remparts should put on a good show this year.
Represented by the Quebec Aces, they have only lost two of their 17 games this season.
“We have seen some good teams from the Quebec region, but it is one of the very, very good teams that have represented the small Remparts in the last 10, 15 or 20 years,” assured the general manager.
The Pee Wee Tournament runs February 7-18.