At his 11th Memorial Cup, McLean continues to give back to CHL fans
If you follow the Canadian Hockey League, chances are you’ve heard the name Steve McLean.
And with good reason – his contributions to junior hockey are recognizable.
Raised in Brampton but now a native of Hamilton, ON., McLean recently became the fourth CHL fan to visit all 60 rinks across the league, a feat he finalized Feb. 5 in Victoria. He is as big of a Guelph Storm fan as you will find. But every year, McLean attends the Memorial Cup and volunteers his time to set-up the annual CHL fan breakfast.
“My first full tournament was Saskatoon in 2013 and it got me hooked ever since with that McKinnon versus Jones Memorial Cup,” McLean said.
He did attend a singular game at the 2011 tournament – held in Mississauga – but has fully attended the previous 11 editions that includes this year’s event in Rimouski.
Beginning with that Memorial Cup in Saskatchewan, 2013 turned out to be a big year for McLean when it comes to his CHL livelihood.
A season ticket holder with the Brampton Battalion, McLean was in search of a new team to root for after the franchise’s relocation to North Bay. Enter, the Guelph Storm.
“I loved [Brampton] so much and we had some great memories there,” McLean said. “But the team left in 2013 so I wanted to pick a new team because I wasn’t going to give up on the OHL specifically. Guelph was not too far away. They were kind of our closest non-rival team. Guelph and Brampton had made a lot of trades over the years so I saw players that played for both teams.
“It felt like a natural fit to start cheering for Guelph. It didn’t take long for me to be all in on the Guelph Storm. That first year I had season tickets they won the OHL title and I’ve seen another one since then and it’s been fantastic. It feels so weird that I’ve been a Guelph fan now longer than I was a Battalion fan.”
Fast forward to that 2014 Memorial Cup and McLean’s love of the tournament continued to grow. Yes, the Storm fell 6-3 in the final to Edmonton but it was that year he began to immerse himself with CHL fan breakfast and the sea of die-hard fans that attend the tournament year-in and year-out, regardless of its location.
“We didn’t know too many people outside of our Brampton circle at the time,” he recalled. “Of course, that was right when we were losing the team. We heard about the CHL fan breakfast and that’s when we met a bunch of people and I found a bunch of people who were going from Guelph every year so I became friends with them as I became a Storm fan.”
Now, McLean is part of the volunteer group that helps set up the CHL fan breakfast ever year. Over the past five years, the breakfast has raised more than $33,000 that has been donated back to local organizations in Halifax, Saint John, Kamloops, Saginaw and Rimouski.
“it’s pretty amazing every year,” he said. “This year’s was absolutely fantastic … we were overwhelmed with the amount of prizes that we got and usually all the prizes are donated by fans coming to the breakfast [while] some teams step up here and there and help us out. But, just to bid on a bunch of prizes, it’s almost like a CHL fan garage sale in a way.
“Everyone’s bringing their stuff and everyone sees something that they want so it’s pretty cool.”
But one of the neatest parts of the Memorial Cup every year is the opportunity to re-connect with friends from all corners of the CHL globe and watch every game of the tournament together. This year, the vast majority of the so-called ‘CHL junkies’ are located in sections 3-5 at the Colisée Financière Sun Life.
“It’s fantastic to see those people that you only see once a year,” McLean said. “You catch-up on your year and what not, see how they’ve been doing, how you’ve been doing, talk about our teams and what else is going on in life.”
When McLean achieved his feat of attending a game in all 60 CHL rinks, he was blown away by the attention it received. But he shouldn’t have been. Widely appreciated for his friendly, outgoing personality alongside a willingness to help and be there for others, McLean is the epitome of what the CHL stands for.
“This sport and this league has given me a lot of great memories,” McLean said. “It’s given me a lot of great friends. If I could help out in any way possible to make that same experience for someone else, then it makes me happy.”
