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#302 The Mall Ice Rink Where Kids Go Pro
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Ravia sits down with Kanwar Sandhu and Sonny Sekhon to explain why the Brick Invitational Hockey Tournament at West Edmonton Mall feels like the loudest, most electric week in youth hockey. We share the traditions, the history, and the new push to build leadership and inclusivity alongside elite U10 competition.
• What The Brick Invitational Hockey Tournament is and why it’s best on best U10 hockey
• The shock factor of watching 9 and 10 year olds play at a pro level
• How 472 alumni reaching the NHL changes how you see the rink
• Favourite memories from the tournament including meeting NHL players and collecting signatures
• What makes the experience special for kids and parents from swag to theme days
• Where the tournament started and how it became a 37 year Edmonton tradition
• What’s new this year including more teams and a skills combine
• BRICK Leadership and why respect inclusivity character and kindness are taught on purpose
• How parents are brought into the leadership work and why that matters
• The When They Were 10 book and where to find it
Tune in weekly on Mondays & Thursdays to TURN it up with Ravia on 97.9 FM or live-stream at www.theuniversalradio.com
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What The Brick Tournament Is
SPEAKER_01Welcome back to the Universal Radio Network Podcast. This is Ravia, and today I get to have a conversation with Gunver Sandlu and Sunny Sekon about the Brick Invitational Hockey Tournament, a local tournament that takes place right here in Edmonton. Welcome back to the Universal Radio Network. This is Ravia and I have Gunver or Kenny here in the Gunver Swine in the studio. We are hanging out and we're gonna be talking about something called the Brick Invitational Hockey Tournament. So I will start off with this question because I've never been. Can you describe the Brick Invitational Hockey Tournament to someone who's never been there?
SPEAKER_02So the Brick Invitational Hockey Tournament, I honestly think it's the best experience just for as fans, as honestly as kids. I started there when I was like younger. Uh like came and watched it's the best 10-year-olds, so it's the best of the best 9 and 10-year-olds that come out from everywhere from North America. And they play at the West of Intomal Ice Palace. So it's it's a crazy experience for the kids themselves. And then it's the best on best hockey that I think I've ever seen. Yeah. Like like you watch NHL and then you watch The Brick, and like you just look at these kids and you're just in awe, like, wow.
SPEAKER_01Wow, this is this the future of the NHL you're watching. Is that what it feels like?
SPEAKER_02Like I forgot what the stat was. It's in the uh it's in the program. A lot a lot of the N like a lot of the kids make it to the NHL. So if you walk through Ice Palace and you walk down into the dressing room area, you'll see a full list of names of every kid that's played in the brick tournament, which is a really cool experience for the kids and watching. And every name in the NHL and PWHL is underlined. So you'll walk through, you'll see a bunch of names, a bunch of underlined names, and every year each kid are like looking, oh wow, he made it, he made it, right? Yeah, like the new Joe Hopkins made it.
SPEAKER_01Whoa, so there's they're like, oh, one day my name is gonna be on that list. Like that's really exciting.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's why everyone holds. Um it it's it's honestly like one of the coolest experiences.
SPEAKER_01That's awesome. So what like it's a really cool experience.
Beach Party Traditions And Big Numbers
SPEAKER_01What's your favorite part of the tournament?
SPEAKER_02Honestly, I think the favorite part of my tournament is I think it's a beach party. So the so the kids on usually it's the night before the championship game, they get a beach party. So all the kids, all the parents come out, do those mini games that they challenge each other for prizes. And each kid'll walk home with it uh a prize based on how they do. So it's in in like the mini mini games. So it's pretty cool. Um also going back to what we were talking about before, 472 kids have made the NHL.
SPEAKER_01From the Brick Invitational. So it's a pretty cool invite if you get invited there. Hey, yeah, that's pretty awesome. So we'll get a little bit more into how you got involved and your favorite memories from this tournament,
Dates Schedule And Why It Matters
SPEAKER_01right? So this hockey tournament is taking place next week, correct?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it starts on Sunday, June 28th, I believe. Sunday, June 28th, alright. And it carries on. The finals will be on July 5th.
SPEAKER_01And features some of the biggest stars in U10 hockey. Is that right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Nine and 10 years.
SPEAKER_01Nine and 10-year-olds are the best hockey players that we can find at that age, and many of them make it to the NHL, and many of them have. What was that number you gave me earlier?
SPEAKER_02I believe it was 472 who have made it have gone on to the NHL.
SPEAKER_01472 kids that played at this invitational hockey tournament went to go on and play in the NHL. That's pretty incredible, if you ask me.
A Controversial Dash For A Signature
SPEAKER_01What is, I was gonna ask you, Gunver, what do you have a favorite memory? What is your favorite memory of this tournament?
SPEAKER_02So there's honestly been quite a few memories made at this tournament. Um, I think the like my favorite memory, the most funniest memory, I Sunny will touch on it a little bit after, is I I believe it was three years ago. We had three or four years ago, it was a 21-22 tournament. We had a double header. Um, Evander Kane, when he was on the adventure weathers, came out and uh was talking to the kids, and I was across the ice doing the score clock at the time, and I saw Sunny, uh sorry, I saw Evander Kane walk in and I didn't want to miss my moment. So I ran across the ice. I shouldn't have done it. I was maybe 16 years old. Um, I wanted to go get my picture and signature, and uh it was it was pretty controversial. Uh everyone saw everyone recorded the video because it's all recorded.
SPEAKER_01Oh wow.
SPEAKER_02So everyone saw it was a funny moment. I ran across to get a signature by Van Der Kane. It's actually on this hoodie back here.
SPEAKER_01Oh wow, he's wearing the signature. I see it. Wait, turn around, turn around, I want to see it. Oh, it's like you have I see it. So, how many signatures do you have on this hoodie? Okay, so he's wearing this red hoodie that says the break invitational hockey tournament started in 1990. There's a bunch of little scribbles on the back. How many do you have there? I think I have like 15 to 20.
SPEAKER_02Who's on there? Who are the big names? So big names, I would say Evander Kane, Jimmy Howard, um uh sorry, Ekholm was on there, Chris Osgood, there's Max Patrick who's on there. There's there's there's quite a few names I'm just uh forgetting now.
SPEAKER_01But like a lot of them are former NHLers. Yeah, and so you wear this every tournament and collect your signatures.
SPEAKER_02So now I don't wear it as much because like now I want to preserve it, yeah, collect the signatures. So like I'll take it, keep it in uh the downstairs where we have like the volunteer room for everyone.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_02With the coaches and everyone. And then you'll get it signed.
SPEAKER_01Get it signed, and then you'll keep it for this is cool. So you get to meet some amazing legends in the game. We are gonna talk about some of the things that sets the brick tournament apart from
What Makes The Tournament Unique
SPEAKER_01others. Gunmer, do you have any idea what makes this one so special, so unique?
SPEAKER_02Honestly, there's so many that like I'm like trying to wrap my brain around it. Um I think it's first day they get there, um, you get goodie bags. So you'll get a bunch of brick swag, you'll get a bag, some shoes, some slides, like sorry, slides, some glasses. Like last year was like a big chain. The kids love it. And the parents love it too, right? Like, it's just a huge experience for them. I think there's nothing like the competition, like the most hard like this is probably the biggest thing they want to win at their age now. I think winning the brick tournament for them is the biggest thing. Like, uh, I'm a team rep for Detroit, and our team won in 2023, I believe 2024, sorry. And it was the biggest thing. Like they they loved it. They like the coaches started crying, the parents started crying, and the coaches were like former NHLers, and like they like they've won, they've won championships, right? And like this is like this means a little bit. This meant a lot to them.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's really special. Like having those big names in the house and having those feelings and emotions come up, even though it is like a a U9, U10 tournament. Yeah. In other sport, in other sports that I'm I played, I'm familiar with, you don't normally have that type of like pressure cooker, or like not maybe not pressure cooker, but that kind of competition.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so in uh so I in 2019, I was on I was just a volunteer at the time. Like uh I came out and watched uh this team Break Alberta. They were probably the best best team that tournament. Um, there was a defenceman, Liam Liam DuPont. You guys might have heard of him. Uh he got exceptional status for the WHL, just I believe as at 14 years old. He's he's ripping it up. He's been doing good from when I saw him at 10 years old now. And then I believe today he signed uh his commitment with the University of Michigan to play uh at their university. He's gonna be eligible for a draft next year, and everyone's saying he's gonna be a first-round pick.
SPEAKER_01And you saw him at this very tournament that's happening next week at West Ciment Mall. So if you guys aren't interested, if you guys are interested in seeing some future NHL stars, I feel like you gotta make your way out to WEM and see all the fun stuff that they're doing out there. All right, so we'll have a conversation with Sunny Seiko himself.
How The Brick Began In 1990
SPEAKER_01We finally have Sunny Seiko in the studio, and we're talking about the Brick Invitational Hockey Tournament. Sunny, welcome to the Turn Studio.
SPEAKER_00Thank you for having me, Rabby.
SPEAKER_01I'm really excited. So tell me, because you've been with this tournament for a long time, tell me about the start of the tournament. Did you ever think this tournament would go from where it started to the iconic summer tradition it is today?
SPEAKER_00You know, no, and I I, you know, I joined later. I've been there for almost 20 years. The tournament's in its 37th year. Uh so in 1990, Bill Carmere, who started the brick warehouse, his son uh Mike Carnie was outstanding, and he went to Craig Sales and Andy Wigson, who were working at the tournament and said, Hey, I want to see how Mike is against kids his age, go make a tournament. And so what started as like kind of like a out of desperation, they did it in the mall. It wasn't built for a purpose, built for what we see today, has evolved into like truly one of the biggest and best tournaments in youth sports in the world. And so, no, I I don't think anyone would have when I joined when I was 14. I would never have guessed that it would become what it is today. Uh, but here we are, and we're very proud of it.
SPEAKER_01That's really awesome.
New This Year Teams And Combine
SPEAKER_01So I I know you said there was a lot of new things happening this year. Tell me what's new this year compared to last year's.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so our committee is amazing. We meet every month uh to try and always level it up. Uh, first and foremost, we're adding additional playoff teams. We have 14 teams coming from across North America. So we we're adding uh more teams. Uh it's parody is so strong. Any given year anyone could get in, so that's that's huge for us. Uh we're adding a skills combine with hockeyology. So every kid will go through, you know, like they're at the NHL combine to see how they do against other players around the world. And then probably most exciting is at 37 years and becoming pretty iconic in the space, we've decided to use a platform for more than just a game. So we've launched BRIC Leadership, which is an acronym for building respect, inclusivity, character, and kindness. So the committee decided to partner with Hockeyology Zero One Athletic Hair to purposefully teach kids uh what it means to respect each other, uh have integrity in the locker room, how to like actively grow inclusivity in a space in a game that historically hasn't always been that way. So we're very proud of it, uh, above and beyond all the amazing things we'll see at the Ice Palace at West End. Um, and it's just a testament to like I mentioned Bill Cromry earlier and Craig and Andy, testament to their legacy to always never settle for being good enough and always trying to find new ways to continue to make the experience better for kids.
BRIC Leadership Inclusivity And Parents
SPEAKER_01That's amazing. I feel like we're talking about when we talk about inclusivity. I'm thinking about what kind of South Asian players are you thinking of when you think about this? Because just because I'm talking from a South Asian radio station.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, 100%. And you know, it I've been there again, I it's almost 25 years now, and you're definitely seeing more BIPOC players, you're definitely seeing South Asian players, and you know, it gives me a ton of pride to see Archdeep Baines, you know, in the Vancouver Canucks system. And he played for John Calvano in the BC Junior Canucks in 2011, and then Zayn Perek, who's an outstanding prospect with the Flames, he actually played with uh the Lamachias and the Toronto Bulldogs twice. So he played as an underage player and uh came back a second time. And then this year, probably the highest touted uh prospect that we've ever had was again from BC, Kilima Ultra. Uh so you're seeing it, and you're seeing that representation, you're seeing younger kids coming to the mall. Um and you know, as someone that is a mixed BIPOC or BIPOC origin, that that's super meaningful to me. And we're just trying to mirror what is happening on the ice with the volunteers off the ice, but yeah.
SPEAKER_01Awesome. Thank you so much. That's like really good information for all of those young BIPOC kids that are starting out and continue to do their journey. There's a lot of prestige that comes out of this, but there's also a lot of building of players, and I want to learn more about how you build these players beyond just their skills.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so truthfully, outside of uh working and really working well with the franchises and knowing that the teams that come to the tournament mirror like our values, we we haven't actively taken uh an effort to do that till this year. So that's why this brick leadership is is so awesome. Like to my knowledge, I don't think there's any other tournament that sat there for you know like years and then months to put the time in to sitting there and actually wanting to put every single kid that comes through the tournament, all their parents, through this program. And we're not naive, we we recognize that you can't put 14 teams of 20 athletes through a 75-minute session and think that you're solving all of hockey's issues. You know, these issues have been around in hockey for a long time. All we're hoping is that at nine and 10 years old, these kids are young enough that they can be molded and they're old enough to understand these concepts, and maybe, just maybe, they understand that becoming a leader and learning about leadership is no different than working on your stick handling or your skating, and it's a skill that you can lean into and grow and develop for the rest of your life. And we always talk about yeah, 472 kids played in the tournament and went to NHL. But guess what? Thousands have come and they didn't. But that doesn't mean that the life skills you learn from hockey and from something like brick leadership can't go with you and leave an impact on whatever you do in the world, and so that's what we're leaning into and hoping to do.
SPEAKER_01This is gonna happen this year. I'm fascinated to hear that parents are involved. How are parents involved in this?
SPEAKER_00So we're we're hosting this session at Zero One Athletic Care, and so it's uh, you know, it's an open forum, and we're uh I went through the the training myself just two days ago, and uh Emily and Bianca, they uh they're the way they designed it, it's there's breakout sessions, there's scenarios where they're working with the parents because at nine and ten years old, some of these negative habits and some of these negative beliefs at something like inclusivity that's learned somewhere. And so if we can address the parents and say, listen, like if you want to be part of the brick family, the broader brick brick family, this is these are non-negotiable assessments and hopefully, again, you're not gonna change everyone, you know we know that, but if we can change two and three at a time, that ripple effect will carry forward. And and that's all we're trying to do is we're trying to have have a couple people that are brave enough to stand up and say that's not right, and then over time hope that these young, amazing hockey players just carry it forward.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think developing that leadership is so important for any player, any leader. And like you said, developing those life skills. Um, I wanted to talk about a little bit more about why why do you think the tournament keeps coming back after all of these years?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, it's if you haven't been, and you know, it's been in Edmonton, this is the 37th year. It sounds so crazy when you hear about a world-class hockey tournament played in a shopping mall, but it you really can't do it justice till you go and you see it. And you see teams with all matching clothes, and every day is a different theme. You see like the big, you know, plastic cutouts of the kids' heads, you see chants, and this is for nine and ten-year-olds, and they are incredibly good at hockey. Like, make no mistake, it is hard to believe they're that young, but it you just it's just something you have to see to believe. And believe me, I've been there long enough that and I've been around the volunteers long enough that usually you just have to see it once. Like, we have volunteers, including myself, that have been there 20 years and longer because they mark it on their calendar, they can't wait to see these like tiny little humans doing things that you couldn't cannot fathom.
SPEAKER_01You're like, this is the future of the NHL here, right? Like 100%. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Terry Jones said that at any time you can watch a game and there'll be an NHL out there.
SPEAKER_01Ah, so cool.
International Reach And The Brick Book
SPEAKER_01Is it international? Do you have international players coming?
SPEAKER_00We well, we have so we're Canada and US, so international, and then uh we do get kids that come from the you know, we I know for sure we've had kids from China, Sweden, Korea. Um, yeah, so the like all the team, not all the teams, 12 of the teams have imports. So you're uh like based on how many kids are in your area, you can uh you know bring someone from somewhere else.
SPEAKER_01From somewhere else and and invite them to this tournament and they can play with their future arrivals. Tell me about the when they were 10 book. I I just heard about this when we talked, so tell me more about this. And it seems like you helped craft this book, so tell me about that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so Terry Jones, local legend, yeah. I think this is I think he said it was his 15th book, Hall of Fame Inductee. He uh he for the last year and a half worked with Craig and Dale, and yeah, I chipped in a little bit about volunteers, and he's he put together a full history of the tournament. And we uh we thought we knew to some degree how how many players came through, but he brought numbers for that. We were just shocked by like 472 that have gone on to the NHL, three to the PWHL, uh, seven first overall draft picks in the NHL. So it it's it's incredible, and it's it's a beautiful uh coffee table style book, very similar to like the books that you would see when you walk into a bookstore and you look at like Gretzky or Kobe. That's like what it's styled after. You can get it at brickhockey.ca. And uh whether you're a fan of it doesn't really matter if you're a fan of the tournament or not. If you're a fan of hockey and the NHL today, this book will blow your mind. Like there's there's stories from Austin Matthews and you know Landon DuPont, uh the Hughes brothers that because they all came through this, and this is kind of like the launching pad for most of these kids. It's the first time they're playing in a tournament at this scale, and then to again, it's it's a small number when you look at how many have come, but when you look at the players that have gone on to have the success they do, to be able to go back and see pictures of them as nine and ten-year-olds and then hear see them reflecting about is it's crazy.
SPEAKER_01It is an incredible impact story, like that is very impactful. So there's literally pictures of players when they were 10 years old, and then there's stories uh like going on to be these famous NHL players, famous hockey players.
SPEAKER_00For sure.
SPEAKER_01Like really cool.
SPEAKER_00The title, the cover page, it's got Ryan Nugent Hopkins, Macklin Cellebrini, uh the Hughes brothers, Braden Point, and I'm forgetting one, but that's awesome. They're all like babyface nine-year-olds, ten-year-olds. It's adorable. It's wild.
SPEAKER_01That's so cool to see them grow up. Um, you were recently nominated for an NHL award, the Willie O'Reilly O'Reilly.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, Willie O'Reilly.
SPEAKER_01Community hero award. What does that mean for the tournament and your goals moving forward? What does it mean to you?
SPEAKER_00Um, yeah, it was an awesome, super awesome experience. And I have to give uh another brick volunteer, Arjun, outwell. Uh he was a finalist last year, so uh, you know, something, something in the water at the BRIC tournament putting out uh good finalists, but uh you know it's an awesome honor. It's I'm I never got involved in hockey for those things, but it's super meaningful when guys like Canny and Arjun and you know Amrit, Alicia Delaney, when they view you in such a way that they want to put your name forward, it's super flattering. And you know, I I really wish I could have pushed it over the edge for Edmonton. Um, but I'm I'm super happy for for Doug who won. And um for the tournament, I I I think it just it leans in, it gives more credit to uh or more credibility to something like Brick Leadership to see that hey, this isn't just another guy that's doing it. It's these these are people that are widely respected in the hockey community, and they're they're trying to continue to impact positive change. And uh at the end of the day, that's all we're trying to do. We're just trying to get more kids playing, and we're trying to have um more BIPOC kids playing, and we're trying to make sure that your experience and journey through hockey is more positive than not.
SPEAKER_01I feel like even having your name come forward and a young kid seeing that, they're like, Oh, cool, maybe I can do leadership later into like later in my life. Like that's uh, you know, another way for just seeing other BIPOC people make it. Kids are inspired by that, right?
SPEAKER_00For sure. And you know, we we often talk to the parents too that like just success in sport doesn't have to be you know zero sum. Like it if you don't make it pro, that doesn't mean you failed. Like there's a lot of other avenues that you can find success professionally in and around the game if uh parents have an open mind and let people do it. So that's like something I'm proud of Argin for sure. Like kid could still be playing professionally in Europe, but he's here working with 400 plus kids. You know, I I I could definitely do other things with my time, but I love running the ball hockey league, and I you know, I want I want people to have better experiences with the game than we would have, and I want them to go further than we did. And um, yeah, being being attached to the brick tournament again, it just pours gas on the fire.
SPEAKER_01That's so beautiful.
Shoutouts Must See Moments And Goodbye
SPEAKER_01We're gonna shout out some players I hear. So tell me who you're gonna shout out tonight tonight.
SPEAKER_02We're gonna shout out our team Brick Alberta, team rep that's in Ostrava, Chechia, playing for Team India. Arjun Atwell, he's uh the assistant captain there, and the rest of the boys there from Edmonton, Arjentaliwall, Jesse Verdi, and Sunny Barr.
SPEAKER_01That's amazing. Very own. Edmonton's very own. So tell me what what's this tournament? What is it called? What is it? What are they playing? Ball hockey?
SPEAKER_02It's the ball hockey world championship. So the biggest stage for ball hockey.
SPEAKER_01Or ball hockey. That's so cool. And they are right here from Edmonton, and they're also part of this tournament. So really tying it into how this tournament really can set you up for success, it seems. Hey, that's really exciting. So I want to ask y'all, what about the tournament keeps you coming back and keeps it going? We had a little bit of this, but tell me more.
SPEAKER_00Um, I know for me the two things like the hockey. Uh anyone that knows me knows I love hockey. I can watch it all day every day. Uh again, it's unbelievable how good these nine and ten-year-olds are. And then the other one is the people, right? Like, I've I'm standing here with Canny. I've literally known Candy since he was a little kid now. Uh and I was the this like Canny's age, that the little kid to someone else. And it's you you build like this family with the the volunteers, the refs. Like there's literally hundreds of people involved in putting it together. And we've just you become so close, you feel like you're part of something special. And I come back to see them, and I don't get to see them all enough during the year because we're busy. But for that week, you know, week to 10 days, I'm excited to be with them all day every day because we're all just like there for the same reason, which is to be around this awesome event.
SPEAKER_02That's so good to hear. Same thing as Sunny, honestly. It's uh honestly, as me as a team rep, it's the connections I made. It's honestly just a family. That's at the end of the day, that's all it is.
SPEAKER_01Sunny, tell me the must-hit big must see next week at the Brick Invitational Tournament.
SPEAKER_00Well, you gotta take in a brick game. So, first game 7:30 Sunday. The playoffs on uh they start Friday, so four quarterfinal games. Saturday, July 4th, first thing in the morning, we have Brickley Show Showdown, which is our all-star game. It's amazing, Candy USA, and then of course the championship, which is Sunday. And it's followed by the closing ceremonies and the jersey exchange, which is like again mind-blowing when you watch it all in in person.
SPEAKER_01You watch it all come together and all of those young talents coming up. Uh, where can we get this book? The brick book.
SPEAKER_00So, two places. Uh, and going back to the schedule. So brickhockey.ca, you can buy the book there, we'll ship it to you. You can also see the schedule I just ran through. And then again, trying to get you to come to the tournament, we'll have the we'll have the book there. You can buy it in person, and then you get to see what we're talking about and what this book is about. And hopefully, if you're like me and Canny, you'll see it and you fall in love with it.
SPEAKER_01That's so exciting. Thank you so much for joining us tonight.
SPEAKER_00Thank you.
SPEAKER_01Thank you for listening to the Universal Radio Network podcast. This is Ravia, and we just had a conversation about the Brick Invitational Hockey Tournament. I have said that so many times today, and I am so looking forward to keeping in touch with you at the Universal Radio on Instagram. Keep turning it up with us.