Stanley Cup arrives by dog sled for Yukon Native Hockey Tournament | CBC News
Listen to this article
Estimated 4 minutes
The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.
Men’s hockey’s most coveted trophy arrived at the 46th annual Yukon Native Hockey Tournament this weekend in quintessential Yukon fashion: dog sled.
Tournament organizers, hockey players and community leaders celebrated the arrival of the Stanley Cup at a ceremony Saturday on Kwanlin Dün First Nation territory. The Yukon Native Hockey Tournament is one of the territory’s largest sporting events. This year’s tournament included 59 teams from across the Yukon, N.W.T., B.C. and Nunavut.
“For the tournament to be on their land for the last 46 years, and having it out here to see the wilderness and really signify the beauty of the Yukon … was truly special,” said Rick McLean, President of the Yukon First Nations Hockey Association and one of the tournament organizers.
The ceremony paid tribute to the Dawson City Nuggets, a team made up of mostly amateur hockey players from Dawson City that challenged the reigning champion Ottawa Hockey Club for the Stanley Cup in 1905. The team travelled nearly 6,400 kilometres by train, ship, bike and dog sled to Ottawa to play for the Cup, before ultimately falling to the Ottawa team.
Tayvin Calbery of Kwanlin Dün First Nation and a team of six dogs pulled the Stanley Cup to a ceremony at Sky High Wilderness Ranch. The 14-year-old was one of the players in the tournament’s youth division. He said it was an honour to be chosen as the musher to guide the Stanley Cup.
“It was great to see it in person, because I’ve always looked at pictures and watched every cup final since I was born,” Calbery said.
Calbery said the first Stanley Cup final he watched was in 2011, the same year former NHL player Andrew Ference won the trophy with the Boston Bruins. Ference, now NHL director of youth strategy, played in the tournament and rode alongside Calbery in the dog sled.
“We came around the corner and the sun was just rising perfectly,” Ference said. “I was on a dog sled with the Stanley Cup … it’s crazy. It really is.”
Ference put in a request to have the Stanley Cup come to the Yukon after he played in last year’s tournament.
“It’s a special tournament. So we just wanted to help support something that’s been pretty, pretty amazing for 46 years now.”
Ference played for the Selkirk Bears in the “A” division for the second year in a row this weekend. The team took home the “A” division championship in 2025.
“The opening ceremonies [Friday] were incredible, because you see what it means, what the culture of northern Indigenous communities means to the people up here and across all the generations. The fact that hockey is part of that culture … hockey is lucky.”
After the ceremony at Sky High, Yukoners had the opportunity to visit and take photos with the Stanley Cup Saturday at the Canada Games Centre, one of the tournament’s host arenas.
McLean hopes that young Indigenous hockey players will be inspired by seeing the Stanley Cup in person.
“One day, we hope that one of those kids can have a moment in time and say, ‘I was in Whitehorse, saw the tournament, played in the tournament, saw the Stanley Cup, and now I’m holding it here on the NHL ice.’ So that’s what we look for.”