Phélix Martineau

Phelix played with the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles of the Quebec Junior Hockey League for four seasons where he played with Olivier Leblanc for three seasons. Another player noted for his leadership qualities he took over the ‘C’ for the Screaming Eagles for season 2017/18 taking over from Leblanc when his junior career ended. He was first supposed to join the Concordia University Stingers in 2018 but had the chance to play in the East Coast Hockey League after his season with the Cape Breton ended. He played three regular-season games with the Fort Wayne Komets, who were the Montreal Canadiens’ ECHL affiliate at the time, and then went on a playoff run with them to the Conference final. His impressive play in Fort Wayne earned him a contract with the American Hockey League Laval Rocket for the 2018-19 campaign and with none of this being planned it was a challenging year for the up-and-comer. Having played professionally Phelix had to take a year off from hockey in 2019-20 before going to university and then the 2020-21 season was cancelled by USports because of the pandemic. After two years of no play Phelix finally got to wear the Stingers’ uniform in October 2021. Things however weren’t completely back to normal with a two-month shutdown starting in December and a few cancelled games at the end of the season. This made it harder for him to get his groove back. He commenced his studies in industrial engineering over the last three years with Concordia as the captain of the Stingers’ men’s hockey team something his head coach Marc-André Elément  commented on by saying “It was his first year in our league, but also his first year as captain and it’s probably the first time a guy joins like that. Just the way he approached everything, his work ethic on the ice, in the gym, everywhere. He’s a really good leader.” For Phelix his outlook over the last three years was simple “I came to university to play hockey, yes, but also to get a degree, so I made a decision based on my education. I wanted to finish school and then not have it on my mind and focus on hockey.” At the back of his mind however was the ambition to go back to playing hockey professionally after graduation and playing in Europe being one of his goals where he is also now older and wiser about the professional demands of the game.