Rogers brings pieces of Oilers’ hometowns to Edmonton for Stanley Cup Final

Jason Bright can still remember Connor McDavid before he was Connor McDavid, before the generational phenom was galloping down big-league sheets, clad in Edmonton Oilers colours, upending NHL history.

Before the records and the trophies and the back-to-back Stanley Cup Final runs, McDavid was just another young hopeful in Newmarket, Ont., trying to hone his game.

“He grew up on the street that we live on,” says Bright, a Newmarket hockey dad whose four kids all grew up immersed in the game, too. “We would often see him as a young kid training in his driveway, shooting pucks in his garage, and running at the park, trying to do his off-ice training. My kids are quite a bit younger than he is — they’re about eight-to-10 years behind him — but seeing the house that he grew up in, knowing that he lived there, seeing their family every now and then, it gave my kids an appreciation that I think they’re only starting to understand now. 

“That as good a player as he is, he still started off in a small town.”

The bond between McDavid and his hometown runs deep. Last year, during the Oilers’ 2024 march to the Cup Final, Bright and his family took in a few playoff games at the renamed ‘Connor McDavid Square’ at Newmarket’s Riverwalk Commons. On Friday, the city announced that the renamed square would return, as would the Cup Final viewing parties.

“Obviously, we’re extremely proud of Connor and what he’s become,” says Bright. “The whole town really rallies behind him and really has that sense of hometown pride when they see him on the ice.”

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When McDavid steps on the ice for the Final this time around, there will be a new wave of pride rippling back in his hometown, too. 

In honour of the Oilers’ quest to bring the Stanley Cup back north of the border, Rogers announced Tuesday that sections of ice had been collected from six community rinks across the country — rinks where members of these Oilers first began their hockey careers and big-league dreams. The ice was brought to Edmonton and combined with the sheet at Rogers Place, where the Oilers will play Game 1 on Wednesday.

Newmarket’s Magna Centre — where McDavid first developed his ability to fly past defenders at breakneck speed — is among the rinks whose ice will be part of the Cup Final. No. 97’s bond with the arena remains strong. In the summers, Bright says, the Oilers captain often returns to skate there with his high-school friends, sometimes bringing big-league teammates like Leon Draisaitl, giving local kids a chance to take in his all-world ability for free.

Bright knows the arena well, too. All four of his kids grew up playing under its roof. He still plays a few times a week himself, as does his wife — their family a crew of Magna Centre regulars through-and-through. Now, a piece of their beloved barn will live on hockey’s biggest stage.

“It’s going to be a big honour for everybody,” Bright says. “I liken it back to the Salt Lake City Olympics, when they buried a loonie at centre ice. It’s a real piece of Newmarket that’s going out to Edmonton, that’s going to be there with Connor McDavid and the rest of the Oilers. I think that’s a real special thing to have out there for him.”

Also melded with the Rogers Place sheet as part of Rogers’ This Is Our Ice project are parts of the surface from five other hometown rinks: the Burnaby Winter Club in Ryan Nugent-Hopkins’ hometown of Burnaby, B.C.; the Harry Howell Twin-Pad Arena in Darnell Nurse’s hometown of Hamilton, Ont.; the North Shore Winter Club in Evander Kane’s hometown of Vancouver, B.C., The Rink in Calvin Pickard’s hometown of Winnipeg, Man.; and Confederation Arena in Edmonton, hometown of local star Stuart Skinner.

“Hockey’s biggest stage should reflect where the game truly begins — in hometown hockey rinks across Canada,” said Terrie Tweddle, Rogers’ chief brand and communications officer, of the initiative. “This Is Our Ice is about rallying communities across the country to celebrate our collective pride in Canada’s game as the Oilers play to bring home the Stanley Cup.”

Bright and his family will be watching from back home as McDavid takes his first steps on that hometown mosaic Wednesday. They’ll be pulling for No. 97 and Co. to overcome last year’s heartbreak and climb the Stanley Cup summit this time around; hopeful not only for a euphoric moment in Edmonton, but for a summer of Stanley Cup visits that might include Newmarket.

“It would be an awesome honour,” Bright says of the possibility of McDavid returning home with the hallowed trophy. “For us, we would just be very happy for Connor. … You see how much passion and how much dedication and how much work he’s put in. I would just be so happy for him, and obviously his parents. As a hockey parent, that’s the ultimate prize, to have your kid win a Stanley Cup. For them, it would be, I’m sure, a dream come true. “Being able to celebrate the Cup with him in Newmarket would be amazing for the whole town. Especially my family. We really enjoy watching him play. We have a little shrine downstairs, in our hockey cave in the basement, where we watch our games. It would mean a lot.”