On a Friday afternoon in November, the North Shore Winter Club was buzzing with kids dragging hockey bags through the halls.
The members-only club in North Vancouver, which dates back to the 1950s, has four different ice surfaces where players of all ages can work on their skills. There’s also a gym and multiple courts for tennis and pickleball.
Behind the glass that peers into one ice sheet, there’s a wall of alumni.
That list includes three of the brightest stars in the game, all of whom could be wearing a Canadian jersey at the Olympics this February: University of Minnesota defender Chloe Primerano, and NHLers Macklin Celebrini and Connor Bedard.
Bedard and Celebrini were first overall picks in the NHL draft in back-to-back years and have become two of the best players in the league.
Primerano, an 18-year-old who’s in her second year of college, is one of the brightest prospects for Team Canada and someday, the PWHL. If she makes the Olympic team, she’ll be the youngest to do so since Marie-Philip Poulin in 2010.
In the summer, you’re likely to find all three of them taking advantage of the club’s ice or working in the fitness centre, training for the season ahead.
Bringing alumni back is something the club wants to foster as a way of building community, according to Kyle Turris, the retired NHLer who played at the club growing up, and is now its general manager.
“All three of them are very special talents,” Turris said. “It’s neat for all of the minor hockey kids to see that and learn from it.”
That all three come from North Vancouver is no accident. It’s a growing hockey hotbed, particularly for women’s hockey. With the Vancouver Goldeneyes beginning play in the PWHL this season, that will likely continue to grow.
NHLers Jansen Harkins and Kent Johnson also skate at the North Shore Winter Club in the summer, as does Vancouver Goldeneyes defender Nina Jobst-Smith, who is also from North Vancouver.
“It just speaks to the community we have here at the North Shore Winter Club and the open ice availability, and players wanting to come back and train here and skate here,” Turris said. “We’re proud of what we have and who’s come out of here.”
A growing women’s hockey landscape
Growing up, Primerano played boys’ hockey at the club, and was teammates with Celebrini in peewee hockey.
After switching to the women’s game, she racked up a ton of points for the RINK Hockey Academy in B.C., before moving to college hockey. She also captained Canada to under-18 gold last winter.
Primerano’s skating, shot and hockey IQ make her special, but that’s not all. Cole Todd, who first coached her in an under-11 program at the North Shore Winter Club, pointed to her internal drive to get better.
The player development coach at the North Shore Winter Club sees that up close every summer, when Primerano works with their pro group. She’s challenged her coach to think on his feet to find new ways to help her develop.
“She’s around all those guys and she is right in the thick of it and she competes,” said Todd, who also grew up playing at the club. “She’s not afraid to get in there. She’s hard on herself at times, but I think it’s in a healthy way. I think she holds herself accountable, but she wants to be the best player she can possibly be.”
Since Primerano started playing hockey, the options for talented female players have grown exponentially.
Nina Jobst-Smith, who was drafted 19th overall by the PWHL’s Vancouver Goldeneyes earlier this year, has watched it evolve too.
She grew up playing for the North Shore Avalanche, not far from the North Shore Winter Club. She competed against now-Goldeneyes teammate Jenn Gardiner, who’s from Surrey, B.C. Another PWHL teammate, Hannah Miller, played for the Avalanche, too.
Now that she’s come home to Vancouver, Jobst-Smith trains at the Winter Club in the off-season and helps coach girls’ teams in the community.
“The more each organization can bring people in and make hockey feel like a community, the more people we’re going to have playing hockey,” Jobst-Smith said. “I know the Winter Club does that, the Avalanche do that and all the organizations in the Lower Mainland do that.”
Driven to get better
When Todd met Celebrini several years ago, the player’s father, Rick, had just taken a job as the director of sports medicine and performance with the NBA’s Golden State Warriors.
With Rick away, and four kids in elite sport, Todd helped drive the Celebrini kids where they needed to be. He was coaching Macklin’s under-13 team at the time.
He also got to spend time picking Rick’s brain on development. He learned more from one conversation than he did over two years studying kinesiology at university.
In the years since, Todd has remained close with the Celebrinis, and sees Macklin as a younger brother. When he was drafted first overall by the San Jose Sharks in 2024, Todd flew to California to support him.
Now, he sees Celebrini and Bedard pushing for spots on the Olympic team.
Bedard, drafted first overall by Chicago in 2023, has the confidence, the skills and the brain to make an impact, Todd said.
“He’s a full package hockey player that plays the game at a fast pace, and it’s been exciting to watch him grow,” he said.
Meanwhile, Celebrini has come into his own as a player in his second season, after a standout performance at the world championship this past summer.
“They’re best friends off the ice,” Todd said about Bedard and Celebrini. “They’re best friends on the ice. All summer long, they work off each other, they skate with each other. So I know both of those boys are pulling for each other to have good seasons.”
A ‘contagious’ drive to get better
Watching the love Primerano, Bedard and Celebrini have for hockey has also pushed Todd as a coach. It lights a fire under him to become better every day.
“When you step back and you watch them and you see them go hour by hour, every day, working at their game and working at their crafts, it’s contagious,” the coach said.
Should all three make it to the Olympics, Todd will be tempted to buy a ticket to Italy to watch them play.
It would be a big moment for the club, especially for the next young superstar who might walk through its doors.
“Everybody at North Shore Winter Club is going to be pulling for them,” Todd said. “It’ll be super exciting.”
