EDMONTON – Regina Pats forwards Maddox Schultz and Liam Pue are the youngest members of Canada’s under-18 Hlinka Gretzky Cup roster, but that doesn’t mean they’re simply being brought along for the ride.
No, the outlook for the two 16-year-olds – the only two 2010-born players on Team Canada’s roster – is much, much greater.
“Both these guys are expected to play key roles,” Hockey Canada’s Program of Excellence general manager Alan Millar said in a phone interview with SportsCage.com. “They’re going to play together in our top six. They’ll be key guys on the power play.
“They’re two guys that we expect to help us win.”
It’s clear Schultz and Pue are being counted on immensely for Canada, which played its first exhibition contest of the event Thursday night in Edmonton. Pue opened the scoring on a goal assisted by Schultz in a 3-1 win over Sweden. The real games get going on Monday.
If those expectations on Schultz and Pue sound unrealistic or burdensome, well, it must be remembered they’re no ordinary hockey players.
“It’s cool to go through it with someone (like him),” Schultz said after a practice at Northern Alberta Institute of Technology’s campus rink this week. “Obviously, we’re both under-agers at this tournament, but we both view ourselves as leaders.”
And for good reason. Schultz and Pue already have a half season of WHL action under their belts and finished fifth and sixth in scoring at the world under-17 tourney last November.
“It was very impressive for two 15-year-olds,” Millar said.
Millar should know Schultz’s and Pue’s track record and potential better than just about anyone.
He was responsible for drafting them first and third in May 2025 when he was the Pats general manager, a few weeks before he left for his Hockey Canada post.
The Pats bucked the odds and won the draft lottery. Schultz was the no-brainer No. 1 pick, a star in the making and a Regina-raised kid to put a cherry on top of the sundae.
Millar sees similarities to Sidney Crosby and Macklin Celebrini in terms of edgework, determination to get to the net, and tendency to drive play. He throws in a little bit of Jonathan Toews for good measure for well-roundedness and someone a coach can trust. That’s quite the spectrum of Canadian centres. Schultz is destined to be a future 1C in the NHL.
It sure didn’t hurt Schultz’s progression that his parents, Dave and Vicki, are figure-skating instructors. They moved the family to Regina from Medicine Hat, Alta., when he was 5. Schultz got his start as a figure skater before abandoning it at age 8 to make hockey his sole ice sport.
“It helped my edges a ton,” he said. “I was always on the ice, always wanted to be on the ice. (Hockey) was just something I always wanted to do.”
Pue was someone the Pats scouting staff did a ton of work on because he was expected to be drafted in the range they’d likely be selecting based on their second-last placing in the WHL standings.
Millar found a perfect match for a trade partner in the Kelowna Rockets, who were hosting the next Memorial Cup and wanted more assets they could peddle for immediate help. Millar sent a 2025 second-round pick, and firsts in 2026 and 2027 for the 2025 third choice.
The deal was contingent on Pue being available because that’s who Millar coveted. He felt Pue was the second-best player in the draft behind Schultz. He compares Pue to Steven Stamkos, a player he drafted with the OHL’s Sarnia Sting, for his goal-scoring threat and game-breaking abilities.
(Schultz even looks like a hockey player thanks to a boomerang-shaped scar on his left cheek, courtesy of a run-in with his scooter handlebar six or seven years ago that resulted in 31 stitches.)
It was a high-price to pay, but Millar believed the combination of Schultz and Pue could eventually catapult the Pats out of the abyss they’ve largely been in – even with some excellent Connor Bedard performances – since hosting the 2018 Memorial Cup.
Part of the appeal of Schultz and Pue was they’d get to play up to 34 games in the WHL because they met the new criteria of the modified Western Canadian Development Model of being exceptional players in their early teenage years of minor hockey.
That allowed them to split the season between the Pats and the AAA Regina Pat Canadians. Millar said playing in two leagues “enhanced their development,” making them better prepared to produce like someone a year or two older this upcoming season with the Pats.
“For me and Maddox, it was the right thing,” Pue said.
“There’s a lot of pressure that comes with getting exceptional status (and being a full-time CHL player at 15). That’s one of the things our family looked at when we were going through the process,” Schultz added. “We were taking the safe route.”
Still, was a weird campaign, they said. Sometimes one would be with one team and the other would be with the other. Sometimes they’d be together in the WHL or together in minor hockey. Sometimes they’d centre their own lines and sometimes Pue would ride shotgun on Schultz’s wing.
There was a lot to keep track off, and there were plenty of visits and texts designed to catch up when they were apart.
“We’re very supportive of each other,” Schultz said.
“We’ve built a pretty good friendship,” Pue said.
The adjustment was even more stark for Pue, who moved away from home in Langley, B.C., for the first time.
Pue had to get used to Saskatchewan winters – Schultz joked that he arrived in Regina lacking the proper cold-weather attire – and living with a billet family. Pue is the younger brother at home but got to be the older sibling to twins Jet and Summer in the Saskatchewan capital.
“They always want to do something with you, whether that’s playing mini-sticks, drawing pictures, whatever it is,” Pue said. “It’s fun. They keep you entertained. But I’m definitely not an artist.”
Maybe not with a brush, but on the ice is a different story.
Schultz and Pue starred last season, despite the odd logistics.
They were outstanding at the U17s. They were dominant for the Pats Canadians; Schultz ranked up 60 points in 21 games, whereas Pue recorded 48 points. They led the team to a bronze medal at the Telus Cup, the under-18 AAA national championship. They were also solid as half-time WHL rookies as 15-year-olds; Schultz was nearly a point-per-game player, putting up 29 points in 34 games, whereas Pue had 16 points.
They got better down the stretch and helped the Pats reached the postseason before a first-round loss to Medicine Hat. Schultz skated between veterans Keets Fawcett and Zach Lansard as the top-line centre late in the season.
“It was difficult at the start,” Schultz said. “Playing on two teams isn’t normal. But me and Puey both got the hang of it after Christmas and excelled from there.”
Add that all up and it’s not surprising that Team Canada assistant coach Ryan McDonald is doing some scouting in Edmonton for his day job with the rival Prince Albert Raiders.
“I’ve got all the games against Regina circled in my calendar,” McDonald said with laugh.
That can wait. The good news for McDonald is Schultz and Pue are on his side at the Hlinka Gretzky. The coaching and management staffs have no plans of easing these two into the tournament.
Schultz said he feels as though he fits in well with this age group. Both he and Pue certainly proved that at the U17s last year.
“These two guys, they don’t look a year younger than anybody else,” Millar said. “They established themselves within that age group as two of the top forwards in the group, so there’s no concerns that they’re a year younger on playing as under-ages in terms of what we feel they can contribute to our team.”
