Before Haeden Ellis played on the 2026 Memorial Cup champion Kitchener Rangers, he was playing hockey with the Buffalo Junior Sabres. When the local native got his turn to celebrate with the Memorial Cup, he made sure to bring it to the rink where he grew up in the game.
Ellis played for numerous age-level teams within the Jr. Sabres program, including its Junior-A team in the Ontario Junior Hockey League. He later skated with the USA Hockey national program and in the United States Hockey League. But when he brought the Memorial Cup into LECOM Harborcenter Wednesday afternoon, he was taking the trophy back to his roots.
“I spent so many years here, met so many amazing people along the way,” he said. “Teammates, coaches, you know. And I attribute a lot of my success to everyone I've been around, growing up and being able to share my journey with. So, I felt it was only right to go bring it back to where it all started.”
The Memorial Cup is Canada’s junior hockey version of the Stanley Cup. Countless names of past champions are engraved on it, including many future National Hockey League players. Some went on to become enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, names including Jean Beliveau, Guy LaFleur, and Bernie Parent. Modern NHL stars including Matthew Tkachuk and Mitch Marner are also past winners.
Those are just a handful of the many more names of players who went on to the NHL. That his own name will be joining them on the Memorial Cup, that’s not lost on Ellis.
“You look at the names on there. You see a lot of household NHL names now, and you know it's pretty special that your name will be right there with them,” he said.
The Memorial Cup champion is crowned following a tournament involving the champions of the Ontario Hockey League, Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League, and Western Hockey League, the top tier junior leagues in Canada.
He has committed to playing college hockey in the future with Northeastern University in Boston. But first, he’ll return to Kitchener for one more season of junior hockey, as the Rangers defend their championship.
Ellis’ plans for his day with the Memorial Cup, after his visit to Harborcenter, was to include a party at home with family and friends, people who were there with him along his development.
His fondest memories of his years in Buffalo youth hockey?
“The long nights and days at the rink, to be honest,” he recalled. “You share those with your best friends growing up. You know everyone's looking forward to coming to the rink and sharing practices and workouts, and going and staying in hotels with your buddies, missing school, and you take those for granted, and you don't think they're that special until it's over.”
But for Ellis, it’s not over just yet.
