First Nation teen starring for Toronto-area prep school hockey squad

By Sam Laskaris

VAUGHAN – Landyn Paquette is still pursuing his hockey dreams far away from home.

Paquette, a member of Long Lake #58 First Nation in Northern Ontario, is in his final year (Grade 12) of his high school studies at the Everest Academy, based in Vaughan, Ont., a city located just north of Toronto.

Paquette, who is 17, is a forward with the Everest Under-18 AAA squad, which competes in the Ontario Prep Hockey League (OPHL).

Paquette left home when he was 13 to go play at the Seventh Fire hockey academy in Thunder Bay, located three hours from his First Nation.

He spent two years in Thunder Bay, living with his aunt and uncle.

Paquette is now in his second and final year at Everest Academy. He’s living in southern Ontario with family.

“I’m just trying to ride it out, see how far I can go,” Paquette said of his hockey career. “I guess there’s no end goal that I have. I’m just trying to make it as far as I can.”

Though he’s eager to take some online post-secondary courses next season, Paquette plans to focus on his hockey career for the next few years. He will have three years of junior eligibility remaining.

And there’s a chance he might get a taste of some junior hockey action this year. He recently signed on to be an affiliate player with the Caledonia Corvairs, a Junior B club that competes in the Greater Ontario Hockey League (GOHL).

As an affiliated player, Paquette can be called up to the Caledonia squad at any time now.

As for next season, Paquette would love the opportunity to play at an even higher level – with a Junior A team in the Ontario Junior Hockey League (OJHL).

“The OJHL is a hard compete level,” Paquette said. “It’s physical. It’s good. I think I could compete at that level.”

Brian McLaughlin, the head coach at Everest Academy, is also confident Paquette can make the jump up.

“I think he can play Junior A no problem in my opinion,” McLaughlin said. “And I think at one point he was saying he’d like to go to the states. So, there’s some options.”

Paquette, who is about 5-foot-8 and weighs 150 pounds, is not the biggest player around. Despite his size, McLaughlin said Paquette enjoys playing the role of an agitator.

“And he scores big goals,” he said. “There’s no one that scores bigger goals for our team than him. He’s a little undersized but stocky enough to be physical. I think he loves that role. And every game everyone knows who he is.”

Paquette primarily has been utilized as a right winger this season but he has also seen action at centre and left wing as well. When he arrived at Everest last season, Paquette was hoping to play defence.

“We asked him to play forward,” McLaughlin said, adding Paquette was selected as the team MVP during the most important tournament of the year during the 2024-25 campaign.

McLaughlin also has plenty of other praise for Paquette.

“He’s a complete player,” he said. “He a hard-working player. He has skills, scores goals, and plays physical. He’s a coach’s dream.”

Paquette and his teammates have competed at tournaments in Sudbury, Vaughan, Ottawa, and Markham so far this season.

Everest is also sitting in second place in the standings of its seven-team league having won five of its first seven regular season matches.

Paquette believes his club has a decent chance of winning its league title this season.

“I think we have a really good shot,” he said. “The other team in our league that’s really good is BioSteel (Sports) Academy.”

The Biosteel squad is based in Windsor.

“They’re a pretty tough team,” Paquette said. “It will probably be the two of us going head-to-head in the end.”