Alex Newhook: A heart of gold

MONTREAL - “Cole Caufield was my favorite player – still love him – but I think Alex has moved up a little bit after this,” Maddie Hemeon told her father.

The digital age has cast a shadow over the lost art of handwriting, but hockey has contributed to some sort of a revival. Gen Z hockey fans, in their “Trade you [insert snack] for a puck” era, hold up their handwritten signs, and for at least half an hour before the game their posters overrule their iPhones as the Canadiens skate onto the ice for warmups at the Bell Centre.

“Newfoundland and Labrador loves Alex Newhook,” read Hemeon’s sign behind the Canadiens’ bench at a game on October 17. The 15-year-old girl wasn’t asking for a stick – not even a puck – but Newhook made sure she got both.

“It always kind of hits home when you see those signs around the rink, and the support’s been pretty crazy from Newfoundland and Labrador,” Newhook admitted.

The Newfoundlanders first connected in warmups when he flipped Hemeon a puck. Then after the game, through Geoff Molson and another Canadiens employee, Newhook discovered that his mom, Paula – who was also in attendance that night – and the Hemeon family were on the same flight back to the East Coast. Less than 24 hours later, his game-used stick was in Hemeon’s hands at the airport.

“Him, Geoff, Paula and the Canadiens team, for them to get Maddie that stick, that meant everything to her,” said Hemeon’s father, Dwayne.

Giving back to the community is an unwritten rule in hockey, and one that Newhook lives by. The 22-year-old's generosity transcends the confines of the Bell Centre, and Newhook has already labeled his resume with an array of acts of kindness.

“It’s not just something I do because I feel like we should; it’s also something I enjoy doing,” he said. “For us as players, with the status we have, there are lots of opportunities to give back in different ways and I try to do my part.”

Naturally, perhaps even unknowingly, he does.

Six days after Newhook suffered a high ankle sprain on November 30, the Canadiens held their annual holiday hospital visits. Practically immobile, and with a hall pass staring him in the eyes, he looked far past it.

“I think those hospital visits are special. I think it’s one of those moments that, given our status as athletes in the city, we’re able to step back and realize how lucky we are,” voiced the St. John’s, NL native. “Seeing some of these kids and seeing how it changes their mood while we’re there and changes their spirits, it’s pretty cool to see and something I enjoy doing. It was a pretty special day.”

Rather than using the injury – one that required a medical scooter to get around – as an excuse for his absence from the team’s charitable tradition, Newhook transformed it into a relatable narrative for the patients at the Shriner’s Hospital for Children – Canada in Montreal.

“I think for some of them, seeing me with an injury made it kind of easier to relate to,” said the 2019 first-round pick.

And if still they couldn’t, Youppi! was there for backup.

As far as recognizable figures in the city go, few outdo Canadiens players, but the team’s famous mascot might have an edge in that regard.

“That made it a little extra fun for some of the kids who don’t fully understand who we are,” Newhook explained. “They could at least acknowledge the big mascot. They enjoyed that, I think a lot of them, so we had a lot of fun together and the kids added to it for sure.”

The no-weight-bearing injury Newhook was nursing that day helped relieve the weight of the world from some of those children, and later that month, back home in Newfoundland, he did it all over again. The Habs' No. 15 was home for the first time in four years for Christmas this year and, for good or for bad, the injury allowed him more time in Canada’s most easterly province.

“I said to him, ‘Alex, you’re getting a few extra days home at Christmas, what’s the one thing you want to do when you get there?’ He said, ‘The Janeway [Children’s Hospital].’ Even in saying that it brings a happy tear to my eye,” Newhook’s mom, Paula, told the Canadiens content crew.

The older Newhook, a social worker in Newfoundland, set her son up for a visit to the Janeway Children’s Hospital in St. John’s, NL, where on December 20, he surprised kids and spread holiday cheer.

“I figured with the extra break that I’m getting at home, it would be something good to do. I got set up with a few gifts for the kids there and figured it was the least I could do being at home for that long,” described the first-year Hab.

One 17-year-old boy, who was bed ridden in the hospital, asked the nurses to let him go downstairs in a wheelchair to see his hometown hero. The hospital staff granted his wish, and when he got there, Newhook’s presence alone was enough to lift his spirits – literally.

“He was the first one there and the last one to leave,” Newhook’s mom described. “At the end, he said to the nurses, ‘Can I stand? I just want to stand next to Alex.’ They granted it to him and with that, Alex kicked away his scooter and said, “Well, bud, if you’re standing, I’m standing too.”

As the final buzzer sounded on 2023, Newhook left behind a trail of goodwill, one that didn’t go unnoticed from Montreal to Newfoundland and everywhere in between.

“A number of nurses over at the hospital this morning told Alex and I, ‘You have no idea. You have made these children’s Christmas,’” said Paula Newhook.

For Newhook, himself, it’s simple: “If someone needs a helping hand, there’s always someone ready to assist […] If we can help or support a fellow NLer, then we are going to do that. It’s just what we do.”

And for the Hemeon family, that’s exactly what he did in gifting their daughter a puck and stick.

“She’ll never forget it,” said Maddie’s father, Dwayne.