The new president of the Cape Breton Eagles in the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) started his journey with the team when he was just a kid. Joey Haddad was an aspiring young hockey player in Sydney, N.S., and his father Barkley was a consultant with the new Q-League club. “Which meant I had a little more access to the team,” Haddad said. “I got to see the games, I got to meet the players.” From 2007 to 2009, a teenaged Haddad would play two seasons for the team that he grew up cheering. “It was just coming home and having that welcoming feeling from my friends and my family,” the now 36-year-old recalled. “Everybody was at the games.” Haddad’s professional playing career took him around the globe, including a long stint in Cardiff, Wales. A couple of years ago, he moved back to Cape Breton and in 2023 began working in the front office of the team he used to play for. “I got to see a lot of the world, and I was grateful to get the opportunity to just get my foot in the door with the team,” Haddad said. When Haddad got to work, the Eagles’ home rink, Centre 200, was more than half-empty most nights following the COVID-19 pandemic. His job was to fill the stands again, which happened his first year as business operations manager when the team reached the QMJHL semifinal. “Since I’ve come here in 2019, what he’s done just in the rink alone to create a better atmosphere is unbelievable,” says Eagles fan Wes Stanford, who thinks Haddad’s promotion to president is well-deserved. “He’s engaging with the community, whether it be someone that’s a business, whether it’s a fan, the team themselves, coaching staff - he’s fantastic.” Haddad has some goals heading into his first year running the operations off the ice and in the community, “We want to host the Memorial Cup in three years when it comes back to the Quebec League,” he said. “We’re working closely with the (Cape Breton Regional Municipality) to get some funding and get a plan going so we can rejuvenate and modernize Centre 200.” Haddad is grateful to go from a fan in the stands to a player and finally to president all before age 40. “I’m just honoured,” he said. “It’s a privilege and to be in my hometown doing all this and be able to make my community a little bit better and take the organization that I care about to the next level – it’s really something.” For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page
