The Vankleek Hill Cougars are all in for the upcoming 2025-2026 National Capital Junior Hockey League season. The Cougars are stocked up on local talent, with the team’s ownership group, and new coach Hamish Cunning, focused on bring home a league championship to the team’s loyal fan base.
“We were very fortunate last year to have a lot of local talent and it’s looking like the same thing for this season,” said Cunning in a group interview with ownership and the team’s coaches before practice last week. “Which is great, because it’s a great town to play in, with great fan support and great sponsorship.”
“The further you go (in the playoffs), the more excited (the fans) get. We’re looking to bring a championship to them this year.”
The team’s ownership group of Franky Dopelhamer, Greg McEachern, Carl Bougie, and Keean McEachern are 100 per cent on board, noting success on the ice will go a long way to building on last year’s crowds that filled the Vankleek Hill Community Centre.
“Winning and having success on the ice is the most important thing for fan support,” said Dopelhamer. “(The fans) want to see a winning team.”
“We have such support from our fans,” Dopelhamer added, noting the Cougars were ranked as one of the top drawing teams in Eastern Ontario junior hockey last season. “Our town, our crowd, deserves and needs a championship, and we have expectations of a championship.”
The local squad made a huge addition to that goal recently by signing 20-year old defenseman, and Vankleek Hill native, Bradley Horner, who spent the last three seasons playing Major Junior A in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) with the Ottawa 67s. Standing, 5’11” and 172 lbs, Horner played 57 games during the 2024-2025 season with the 67s, recording two goals and 11 assists in 57 games and a +1 rating.
Brad will be joining his younger brother Cody Horner, 18, a centre who scored 14 goals and added 42 assists for the Cougars in 33 games during the 2024-2025 NCJHL season.
“We were fortunate enough to be able to pick up Cody’s older brother Bradley,” enthused Hamish Cunning. “He’s going to be a big force for us on the point this year for sure.”
The younger Horner is just one of many local players returning from last season, including cousins Garrett Cunning and Reid Cunning, Callum Nystrom, Connor Cook, Zachary Sullivan, and Bruno Laframboise.
“We’ve got a lot of our core returning and good local talent from Vankleek Hill,” Cunning said.
Cougars coaching staff filled with experience
There have been a number of changes to the Cougars coaching staff this season, in addition to Hamish Cunning taking over as the team’s head coach.
Cunning, who served as assistant last year to Ryan Allen, moves into the head coaching position, while Allen, who lead the team to the NCJHL finals last season, will remain as an assistant coach, joining fellow assistant Keean McEachern. Bryce Luker is the goaltending coach, Alex Lalonde, trainer, and Mackenzie Hinton (that’s me!) returns as the team’s statistician.
New to the coaching staff this year is assistant coach Mike Henderson, who played many years of pro hockey and most notably starred in the the 2004 viral feature length film ‘Les Chiefs’, which documented the Laval Chiefs Senior Pro team in Québec. The Internet Movie Data Base describes the movie as “the true story of five brawling hockey players, who live in the back of a hockey arena and fight their way to heroic status in the most violent league in the world. Les Chiefs is a real-life account of men fighting to remain boys.”
“He’s played many years of pro hockey and has a lot of experience and is a great addition to the coaching staff,” Cunning said, withholding comments on his new assistant’s acting abilities. You can judge them for yourself by watching the film on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=1pIObLsbKZc
The team’s head coach said the 2025-2026 edition of the Vankleek Hill Cougars will be ready to play.
“We’re going to play some hard-nosed hockey this year and they’re going to be in good shape,” said Cunning, before turning to last year’s coach Allen, “I don’t know how much you had them skate last year, but they’re going to skate this year,” Cunning chuckled, as the team’s coaches and owners burst into laughter.
The Cougars will hold more practices this season Allen said, and those sessions will include a lot of skating.
“I’m of the old-school approach, where we’re going to skate them a bit in practice – whether we win or lose – just to make sure we’re in shape for the third (period).”
Cougars golf fundraiser sells out
The Cougars’ annual golf fundraising tournament, scheduled for Sunday, September 27, was completely sold out, with 192 golfers scheduled to participate.
The tournament is the largest fundraiser each year for the local Junior C squad.
Volant change leagues, Almonte Inferno become Kanata Kings
The Cougars goal of an NCJHL championship will be bolstered this year by the move of the two-time defending champion Gatineau-Hull Volant to the Laurentides-Lanaudiere Junior AA League. The Volant defeated Vankleek Hill in the NCJHL finals in each of the past two seasons.
In other league news, the Almonte Inferno franchise has moved to Kanata and become the Kings.
Cougars’ regular season begins October 4
The Vankleek Hill Cougars will kick off their 2025-2026 NCJHL regular season on Saturday, October 4, when the team takes on the Cumberland Castors at the Vankleek Hill Arena. Game time is 7:30 p.m.
On October 11, the Cougars will travel to face the Kanata Kings in a 5 p.m. start at the Cavanagh Sensplex in Kanata.
