Quebec Pee-Wee Tournament 'unbelievable' experience for international players

Editor's note: The Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament has been the premier youth hockey event in Canada since 1960, a steppingstone for many future NHL players, including Wayne Gretzky and Connor Bedard. NHL.com senior director of editorial Shawn P. Roarke went to Quebec earlier this month to check out the tournament and all that goes with it.

In the final part of a four-part series, Roarke highlights teams from outside North America who travel to the tournament. (Part 1 | Part 2 I Part 3).

QUEBEC -- Jacek Mincer didn't know what to do, so he relied on his training.

The forward had the puck on his stick in overtime during the first game his team, Festiwal Hokeja Poland, played at the Quebec International Pee-Wee Tournament.

There had yet to be a goal in the game against the Valley Jets and time for heroics was running short.

Mincer was ready to make his mark. He went to the left, went to the right and he shot. He scored 93 seconds into the extra period, winning the AA-Elite game against an opponent from Nova Scotia in sudden death.

"I had stress," Mincer said just minutes after the biggest moment of his young hockey life. "I don't know what was going on when I scored the goal. I don't know, it was like you get one million dollars."

There was no money, but there were smiles all around, on the ice at the Videotron Centre and in a jubilant dressing room in the aftermath.

It was hard to find a bigger smile than the one sported by Maciek Fabianczyk, the 23-year-old coach and owner of the Festiwal Hokeja Poland academy.

"This is the first time we are participating in this tournament and we are really happy we can join this magic time," he said. "And we won. We are really happy, it's unbelievable."

It's a scene that is played out each February here at the biggest peewee tournament in the world. Teams from Europe, at every level, are invited to compete against the best Canada and the United States have to offer in a 12-day, 120-team tournament.

This season, the field boasted 21 non-North American teams, including several from Asia, across the five flights: AAA, Elite-AA, AA, BB and Feminin.

Each player for each of those teams comes here with a dream of making a mark for his or her country, making a name and, perhaps, one day, joining the legion of international players who have turned this tournament into a jumping off point for a professional hockey career in North America.

It's been that way for more than 50 years now, with current NHL stars such as Anze Kopitar (Los Angeles Kings), Nico Hischier (New Jersey Devils) and Miro Heiskanen (Dallas Stars) coming to Quebec as youngsters.

The first European-based teams arrived in 1970, from Germany and France, to play in the 10th anniversary edition of this tournament. Since, the international presence has grown exponentially throughout the past 54 years.

And, so too have the impact of players who have visited.

Timo Blomqvist was the first European to make it to the NHL from this tournament, playing for Espoo, Finland in 1973. The defenseman went on to play 243 NHL regular-season games with the Washington Capitals and New Jersey Devils from 1981-87.

In 1989, a team from Moscow was the first non-North American team to claim a championship at Quebec, hoisting the Alex Legare Trophy, defeating a Quebec team for the Coupe Internationale title.

In 1992, a team from Bratislava, Czechoslovakia won the AA title. Marian Cisar, a forward on that team, went on to play 73 NHL games with the Nashville Predators from 1999-2002.

"I had never been in such a big tournament," Cisar said. "I grew up in a completely different environment. Here it was everything else, you know? Modern. And it was cold, a cold winter, I think it was minus-25 [degrees] or something.

"It was very special and so many nice memories. We kept winning somehow by one goal, and we made it all the way to the end. I don't know how we did it, but I remember that."

Cisar was back this year, coaching Slovakia Elite Hockey in the AAA Division. His son, Tomas, was on the team.

"I had an unbelievable experience here when I played that motivated me for the rest of the next 10 years," Cisar said. "So, I said, 'Let's do this.'"

Today, names of players from across the ocean jump out in bold when scanning the participants of more recent tournaments.

Slovakian forward Marian Hossa played in 1993. German defenseman Dennis Seidenberg made the first of two appearances in 1994. Russian forward Ilya Kovalchuk starred in 1997.

Kopitar appeared in the 2000 edition with Slovenia, and Czech forward Pavel Zacha played in 2009 and 2010. Hischier, the No. 1 pick in the 2017 NHL Draft, was involved in 2011 and 2012 for Switzerland, the same years Heiskanen played defense for Finland. Slovakian forward Juraj Slafkovsky, the No. 1 pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, played in 2017, joined by Slovakian defenseman Simon Nemec, who went No. 2 in 2022.

"I have such great memories," Hischier said. "I remember it was a lot of fun going there to such a far-away place and playing in a big rink like that with that many people watching. It was pretty special for sure. It was a lot of fun.

"I knew it was a big deal and I just have good memories. I have a lot of things at home from that tournament, pictures and memories. It was just a good time."

Mincer wants to be the next Hischier or Slafkovsky.

He plays club hockey for HC Olelari Trinec in Czechia, an apprentice for a senior club team that has won the Czech Extraliga each of the past four years the tournament has taken place; it was cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. "I work at hockey because I will play for the Boston Bruins, my favorite team," he said, smiling confidently. "My dad is watching the NHL and he taught me about the team, and I started to watch their games and I like Pasta (David Pastrnak), (Brad) Marchand, 'Bergy' (Patrice Bergeron), these players. I will play with them."

Though there is pressure living up to the professional surroundings provided by the Quebec peewee tournament, there is also fun.

For most of the European teams, the tournament is a two-week excursion to see a North American-style game and visit places they might not otherwise see.

Many international players spend their time here living with billet families, absorbing Quebecoise culture. They take part in Winter Carnaval, the city-wide celebration that runs concurrently with the tournament.

The kids see what the best competition from around the world looks like and the coaches pick up new techniques to stress in practices back home. In that way, the hockey pool gets stronger and stronger and extends further and further.

"For us, everything is different than at home," said Alfred Kedves, the coach for Hungary Talent, a AAA team from Hungary. "This rink is amazing because our biggest rink in our country is around 1,500 (people). Even when we played our exhibition game at a school here, they had an indoor rink and outside rink. It was amazing."

If they are lucky, they get to see an NHL game, like members of the Romanian team did, traveling almost three hours to Bell Centre to see the Montreal Canadiens host the Stars.

In the end, the results don't matter for most of the teams, except for the Austria Stars, who won the AA bracket.

For the rest, it was an opportunity to learn, to compete, to laugh and to make memories that will travel with them back to their home countries.

And, as usual, in 2024 it was a resounding success.