THE DRAPACK DROP

By MARIO ANNICCHIARICO

Meet the modern day, Saint Nick, only Nick Drapack delivers his gifts year-round, not solely at Christmas.

The captain of the BCEHL’s U18 AAA Greater Vancouver Canadians doesn’t deliver toys and games to children at Christmas time, instead he focuses on donating used hockey equipment to those in need, most recently bestowing the gear to the Nak'azdli Whut'en and Kwadacha communities in northern B.C.

It’s nothing new for the 17-year-old, who originally came up with the idea in his native town, Oakville, ON, delivering to communities in northern Quebec. He moved west along with his family to Vancouver and continues his generosity.

His mission, he says, is to assist the youth of the communities in playing the great game of hockey inexpensively and creating opportunities they may not otherwise get. On the last day of November this year, he met with the representatives of the Nak'azdli Whut'en and Kwadacha bands in Prince George. He donated 10 full hockey bags of equipment and over a dozen sticks he had collected, with the help of friends, teammates, schoolmates and family.

Drapack, a top Grade 12 student at the Prince of Wales Secondary School, organized the coordination on his own time and delivered the goods on a recent team road trip up north, bringing smiles to the faces of the recipients.

For him, it all started in 2017 with the original gear donation. His mom was working for a mining company in northern Quebec and he had the opportunity to meet the kids there on a trip with family. He noticed many kids his age loved hockey, but didn’t have access to gear.

“Now I go to Surrey and they have the Source for Sports there and it’s huge. It’s like a dream come true for even me and I’ve been in a lot of hockey shops. They loved hockey as much as I did and along with friends and family we donated a bunch of gear. That was the start of it,” said Drapack, who played at Burnaby Winter Club prior to joining the BCEHL.

This year, he was putting his older gear in the basement and realized he had seven years of equipment piling up.

“It reminded me of how happy the kids were to receive the gently used gear (in northern Quebec) and I wanted to share the same experience here once again. So, I reached out to my teammates and friends from former teams,” he said of this year’s offerings.

Terra, the Canadians’ U18 social media manager, reached out to the Canadians’ U15 team. His school also participated in gathering equipment.

“In the end I was really lucky that everyone was so helpful and we collected 10 full bags of hockey gear and a lot of sticks as well. I was really happy because my teammates were really generous. A lot of them didn’t know what to do with their gear and they had a lot of it,” said Drapack.

He shared his idea and it all worked out well.

“There are a lot of bad hockey stories out there, but there’s a lot of good ones as well. It’s good to shift that perspective and get it ingrained in younger players that giving is a part of hockey,” offered Drapack, who plans on attending university in Calgary or at Queen’s next year. “Yeah, teams get all this new gear every year, but what do you do with the old gear? You can give it to someone that would be happy to receive it.”

He decided on the Nak'azdli Whut'en and Kwadacha communities because of a lack of access to equipment and he could bring it on the U18 Canadians’ bus on a road trip.

He approached Canadians’ General Manager, Al Wozney, and he contacted the BCEHL’s Cariboo Courgars General Manager, Trevor Sprague, and eventually reached out to the two communities. 

“I was really happy with how everything worked out and how everyone worked to make this a real smooth process,” said Drapack. “I’m just very thankful that my teammates were so generous and that everyone worked together to make the communities happy to receive the gear.”

The process just proved the generosity and thoughtfulness of the young man.

“He showed a tremendous ability to communicate his plan and see it to the end,” said Wozney. “His efforts were well received, and the appreciation shown by the representatives of the organizations he identified was magical.”

Wozney noted that Drapack also assists young players at the Prince of Wales School Academy to develop their skills and learn the game of hockey, all while maintaining a 4.0 grade average.

For all his work, the BCEHL awarded Nick with the Humanitarian Award for the first-half of the 2024-25 season. Players are nominated by their team staff and then chosen by the general managers from their respective leagues to vote for who is most deserving. 

Mario Annicchiarico is a freelance writer based in Victoria who has previously covered the National Hockey League’s Edmonton Oilers, as well as the Western Hockey League.