A couple of weeks before his 17th birthday, Grier Pahtayken celebrated one of the most memorable experiences of his young hockey career.
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As part of host Team Saskatchewan at the National Aboriginal Hockey Championships in Regina, he brought a bronze medal back home to Lloydminster and Onion Lake Cree Nation.
“It was a great week, meeting new people and playing against really skilled hockey players out there,” Pahtayken said. “It was a fun week. It was a great feeling, coming home with a bronze medal.”
On a personal level, he ranked the achievement as comparable to winning his team’s top-defenceman award last season with the U17 AAA Lloydminster Lancers, with whom he’s played for two years in the Alberta Elite Hockey League.
In the bronze-medal match at the U18 boys’ national championship tournament, Pahtayken was chosen as Team Saskatchewan’s player of the game in its 9-5 victory over Nova Scotia.
It was his second player-of-the-game selection in the seven-team tournament. The other was in round-robin play against Manitoba, which went on to defeat Alberta 5-3 in the gold-medal contest.
“I started off a bit slow, but after a couple of more games, I was playing on second power play and getting some more ice time,” said Pahtayken, a Grade 11 student at Lloydminster Comprehensive High School.
“This is the first time I’ve played with that (Sask provincial) team. This is the first time I’ve played with all these guys.
“It was the toughest tournament I’ve played in so far. Definitely the speed and the physicality, pretty much, stood out.”
Pahtayken was a Saskatchewan standout on both sides of the puck. On offence, he contributed six points in as many games, as Saskatchewan posted a 3-3 record overall.
“Honestly, I was surprised at his offence,” said Sask teammate Dawson Gamble, a 16-year-old forward.
“He’s not shy to rush the puck or even take a shot, too. His defensive game (is effective) just as well. He can box out guys and lay the body when needed.”
Pahtayken and Gamble were somewhat familiar with each other from minor hockey and Indigenous tournaments over the years, but they became buddies this month as Saskatchewan roommates during the national Aboriginal championships.
“We played against each other since minor hockey,” said Gamble, who is from Beardy’s Cree Nation and now resides in Warman, where he played with the Wildcats this past season in the Saskatchewan U18 AAA league.
“I didn’t really know him well, but I really got close to Grier through the recent tournament we had. We’ve played native tournaments together, and that’s where I’ve really seen his game. I hadn’t really talked to him a lot. But he seems like just as good a person off ice as he is on the ice. He’s a great guy to have around.”
Pahtayken concurred as he talked about hanging out with both of his roommates on the University of Regina campus, Gamble and Maclain Ethier, a 2010-born forward from Warman who plays with the U18 AAA Moose Jaw Warriors.
“They’re both great guys,” Pahtayken said.
“It was different, just having one game a day and having plenty of time to do stuff, hanging out with a lot of guys. We were on campus most of the time, pretty much all day. It was a good spot — with lots of room and food close to us. A really great experience to be there.”
Gamble, a prospect of the Saskatchewan junior A league’s Kindersley Klippers, echoed those sentiments.
“It was awesome getting a medal with everyone you grew up playing around,” he said. “Same with Grier. He really deserves those two player-of-the-game (selections) that he had.
“I would probably say his vision on the ice, and his edgework, are like crazy. He can find guys wherever and he can walk the blue-line kind of like a Cale Makar or a Quinn Hughes.”
Next season, Pahtayken hopes to step up to U18 AAA Lancers in Lloydminster. Before his next skate with prospective Lancers this spring, he’s in Las Vegas this week for another tournament. This time around, he’s with a team that includes his hockey friends from Red Pheasant Cree Nation.
Gamble and other members of Team Saskatchewan represented their respective home reserves last weekend in another culturally significant Indigenous hockey tournament, the prestigious Fred Sasakamoose national championships, at Saskatoon.
The team from Beardy’s included Gamble and Waylon Gardipy, who captained Sask at the latest National Aboriginal Hockey Championships.
Gamble and Gardipy were teammates in the 2024-25 season with the U18 AAA Battlefords Stars, before Gamble moved to Warman this year and Gardipy stepped up to the SJHL’s La Ronge Ice Wolves as a 17-year-old forward.
“He brought a lot of leadership,” Gamble said about Gardipy’s presence as Team Sask’s captain at the NAHC. “Vocal on and off the ice. A great leader, and he shows it on the ice, too. He came into the SJ as an underager.”
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