The Cape Breton West Islanders recently held their team awards banquet.
Congratulations to the winners:
Lance Heukshorst – Most Valuable Player
Will CHisholm – Play-Off MVP
Sam Trenholm – Top Defenceman
Colby Fleet – Top Forward
Hunter MacDonald – Top Scorer
Ryan Davidson – Unsung Hero
Jake MacInnis – Most Improved Player
Jonah Ellis – Coaches Award
Jack MacInnis – Fitness Award
Cooper MacNeil – Top Defensive Player
Lucas Chisholm – Rookie of the Year
The Islander Scholarship winners were Lance Heukshorst – Nova Scotia Major Hockey League Scholarship, Mathieu Delaney – Donald A.B. MacIssac Bursary & Diana Thorton Education Fund Scholarship, Jack Bell – Islanders Team Academic Scholarship & Sam Trenholm – Ice Jam Scholarship
The Islanders will be going into the 2026/2027 season with a new head coach.
Keenan Gillis will be taking over the position. He is no stranger to the team, for the past 5 seasons, he has filled the assistant coach position.
Keenan holds his High Performance 1 Certification and has been selected as one of only 12 coaches across the country to attend the Hockey Canada Skills Certification Course in Calgary this summer.
As a player he competed for three seasons with the Islanders and was a key member of the 2017 Telus Cup Championship team. He also captured an MJAHL Championship with the Edmundston Blizzard, experiences that have shaped his understanding of what it takes to build and sustain a winning culture.
A graduate of St. Francis Xavier University with a degree in Kinesiology, Keenan continues to give back to the game in his role as Development Coordinator with Cape Breton West Minor Hockey. He and his family call Judique home, and he remains deeply connected to the local hockey community.
