17th Annual Acadia Axemen Celebrity Dinner Recap

Great on the Ice, Great off the Ice – Paul Coffey

A great night, great support, and great featured guests. The seventeenth annual Acadia Axemen Celebrity Hockey dinner took place on Thursday, June 19th with headline guest and four time Stanley Cup winner Paul Coffey.

The night opened up with the master of ceremony, TSN correspondent and studio anchor, Paul Hollingsworth welcoming a crowd of nearly 500 Acadia Axemen supporters, including many Axemen alumni, as well as coaches and players from other Acadia varsity teams.

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The silent auctions continued throughout the night with many great items including autographed jerseys from NHL greats and Cole Harbour natives Nathan MacKinnon & Sidney Crosby, along with jerseys & autographed photos from the featured guest himself, Paul Coffey.

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Coach Darren Burns took to the stage and thanked the community for the tremendous support throughout the year, and let the crowd know how much he appreciates being a part of the valley community.

 

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Next up was Q & A with event chairperson Len Hawley and the oldest living Acadia hockey alumnus Rev Neil Price. The 96 year old, Price, recounted games from the 1939-40 Maritime Intercollegiate championship season, and teammates from the team like it was last year. Truly amazing to have such a great man with us.

 

 

NHL pro scout for the Florida Panthers Paul Gallagher was on stage next, fielding questions about life as a pro scout from MC Paul Hollingsworth. Gallagher talked about what he looks for in a prospect, and about Axemen Liam Heelis’ rookie camp tryout last year with the Florida Panthers.

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Hollingsworth then welcomed to the stage, reigning CIS hockey player of the year, BLG Award nominee for CIS Athlete of the year, and of course, captain of the Axemen, Liam Heelis. Heelis answered hot-stove questions, recapping the past year, and thanked much of his success to the opportunities he received and the help of his teammates and coaching staff.

 

The final guest of the night was Hall of Famer Paul Coffey. Paul took to the podium thanking the crowd for having him before sitting down for a final Q & A Coffey1session with Hollingsworth. Coffey answered questions about his run and gun days with the upstart Edmonton Oilers, led by none other than the Great One, Wayne Gretzky; his days of international play with Team Canada; the twilight of his career and changing of teams. Hollingsworth asked if there was any regret about not returning to play in a Canadian City, and if there was one he would have liked to play in… Coffey answered, β€œMontreal would have been pretty cool”…

With that came the conclusion of the 17th annual Acadia Axemen hockey celebrity dinner. On behalf of the Acadia Axemen staff and players, thank you to all of the attendees of the dinner, as well as to all the fans who support the team throughout the year.