Donald Teuma-Castelletti
CLARENDON June 15, 2018
For many, the chance to meet a lifelong hockey hero may never come – especially when said hero flies in via helicopter for a private, surprise encounter.
However, that’s exactly what happened last Friday, when NHL legend Guy Lafleur arrived at the Donald New Memorial Airfield in Clarendon, looking to spend some time with Portage du Fort’s Wayne Troke and his family.
“Every time he talks about the visit, he’s talking a mile a minute,” said Brenda Troke, Wayne’s daughter. “It was pretty awesome, and I know it meant a lot.”
The surreal tale began as a bit of day dreaming – what if there was a Make a Wish program for adults? – between Brenda and her step-brother, and the idea quickly snowballed. Brenda reached out to her friend, Dylan Black, of Ottawa radio station Boom 99.7, and though he initially didn’t think there was much he could do, some good news arrived.
“[Black] basically said, ‘I’m sorry, I don’t think I know anybody,’” said Brenda. “Just a couple hours later, I get a message back from him saying, ‘Contact [Liam Maguire]. If anybody could help you, he could probably give you a hand.’”

Maguire, known as the number one NHL historian and trivia expert, admitted that he wasn’t sure he’d be able to do much. He has received many similar requests in the past and few came to fruition, Maguire explained to Brenda.
Then, a couple weeks later, she received even better news.
“Liam called me saying, ‘Guy’s asking where you live,’” she continued. “I said, ‘He’s asking where we live? What?’ Then it kind of went from there.”
After arranging to have some space at the airfield cleared for Lafleur, everything suddenly came together. Brenda called up Maguire to say that the landing was a go, and the family eagerly awaited Friday’s visit.
“It was a surprise until he started coming in on the helicopter,” she said. “I had been joking around with dad, saying, ‘Wouldn’t it be crazy if you could meet Guy Lafleur?’”
Brenda described Lafleur as one of the sweetest people they’ve ever met, as he enjoyed lunch with the group, constantly chatting and never leaving Wayne’s side. He posed for many photos with the family, even helping Wayne stand up for them, too.
It was no surprise that he’d fit in though, as Brenda said Lafleur had long felt like an extended member of the family.
“There were a couple of times [growing up] where I might have heard him screaming at Guy in front of the TV,” said Brenda. “To me, Guy was like a part of the family … because he was a part of my dad’s hockey family. Dad watched him fully, he followed his stats, his numbers. When Dad played baseball – I’ve got his old baseball jerseys from when he was younger – his number was 10. He’s been always a lifelong fan of Guy’s.”
Wayne has been a diehard fan of the Montreal Canadiens, spending countless nights following his favourite team and by extension, Lafleur, on the television screen. A collector of some Habs memorabilia, he shocked even The Flower with some of the magazines he’d held onto, which were brought out for Friday’s visit.
“He had some old NHL hockey news magazines, literally back from the early ‘70’s – my dad has them all,” said Brenda. “I brought them so that Guy could sign them. Guy was flipping through them and said, ‘I can’t believe you actually have these.’”
All-in-all, the whole experience was a dream come true, helping not only Wayne, but his whole family come to terms with his recent cancer diagnosis. Brenda could not put into words her gratitude for everyone that helped make her father’s surprise a success and was further appreciative at the generosity of Lafleur, who paid for all the transportation to Clarendon out of his own pocket.
“Dylan Black and Liam Maguire … I owe them big time, if it wasn’t for them, this wouldn’t have happened,” she continued. “Liam had a lot of back and forth with me trying to make it work and I could tell he really wanted to do it for dad, too.”
As for Wayne? Well, his early Father’s Day was one that’d be tough for anybody to top.
“We were sitting on the deck, looking out over the water while he had his coffee and I said something about it being Father’s Day,” said Brenda, about a memory from Sunday. “And he said, ‘It’s been Father’s Day all weekend.’ I don’t think I’ve seen a smile on his face like this for a long time.”