Ten years or so ago, Dan Daneault and his wife, Maurie, were having what seemed like a fairly typical day — sitting upstairs in their Red Deer, Alta., home while their three hockey-loving sons were playing mini-sticks in the basement.
Youngest child Madden, now 15, always was put in net by middle brother Easton and oldest kid Ty.
Easton — three years older than Madden and now a second-year forward on the WHL's Lethbridge Hurricanes — and Ty — seven years older than the baby of the family and now a senior forward for the NCAA's Merrimack Warriors, the reigning Hockey East champions — didn't exactly take it easy on Madden.
But the latter wasn't willing to simply concede defeat against older, stronger competition.
"All of a sudden we hear a cry and we're, like, 'Oh,'" Dan Daneault recalled over the phone this week. "I get downstairs and there's blood everywhere. I'm like, 'What's going on?' and Ty had a big gash on his forehead, so we rushed him to the hospital."
"Madden was sitting in his room (after the incident). And I'm like, 'What's going on, bud?' He's like, '(Ty) made me mad."
Madden, it turns out, "split (Ty) in the forehead for four stitches."
While his parents obviously didn't condone that type of behaviour, this snapshot at an early age was a little sign of what has become a trademark of perhaps one of the best 15-year-old hockey players in the world — his fierce competitive drive and deep desire to, in the words of his minor-hockey coach, bring "everybody into the fight."
This year, Madden Daneault became eligible to play up to 34 games in the WHL one season early after going first overall to the Kelowna Rockets in the league's draft. The top five players in the draft could enter the two-year-old Western Canadian Development Model, allowing players to split seasons between the WHL and their minor-hockey squads.
Playing against players up to five years older than him, Madden hasn't shown any signs of backing down. The five-foot-11, 179-pound centre had three goals and seven assists for 10 points in his first eight games with Kelowna before returning to Red Deer to join his under-18 team last weekend. The Rockets, who hosted the Memorial Cup last season and lost many of their star players, were 4-2-2 with Daneault in the lineup.
"Obviously, it's a huge change coming from U-15 hockey. But I feel like I've adjusted really fast," Madden Daneault said in a telephone interview.
"Everyone in Kelowna, from the coaches to the management to the players, they've helped me out so much. It has made it that much easier and my billets (Harold Rempel and Ashley Klimpke) also, I feel I've got some of the best billets not only in the WHL, but the CHL. Can't ask for a better spot to be."
Daneault put up an Alberta league-record 149 points (65 goals, 84 assists) along with 68 penalty minutes in 34 games with his Red Deer under-15 team last year, so his skill and willingness to get physical weren't any kind of secret. But the jump to major junior can be huge for 16-year-olds, never mind a player one year younger than the majority of his fellow rookies.
Since first putting on skates at age 2, however, Daneault pretty much always has been playing up — whether in the basement against his brothers and their pals or in minor hockey at an older age level. Those experiences, he says, have served him well with each step up on his hockey journey, especially the brotherly battles.
"Just playing mini-sticks with (his brothers), that's what made me so competitive," Daneault said. "They'd always put me in net, so I'd be giving it my all. I'd be drenched in sweat by the end of it. But it was fun, for sure. Anything we did when we were young, like road hockey, basketball, pickleball, anything, all of us wanted to win. My older brothers never wanted to lose to the youngest brother and I never wanted to lose to the older brothers."
Added Dan, a former junior hockey player in Manitoba: "Having his older brothers around kind of kept him on his toes, kept him competing with the older boys. He's always the younger kid, always trying to follow the older brothers and keep up with them."
Justin Jarmolicz, the coach of Madden's under-18 Red Deer team and the former coach of the under-15 team where all the brothers played, said Madden "has always been better than his age group."
He too sees Madden's upbringing as being a big reason for his success, calling them "a great family."
Dan, a construction manager for a home-building company and an assistant coach with the under-18 team, and Maurie, a speech-language pathologist and the team manager of Madden's squad last year, have guided their three sons through the complex world of elite minor hockey.
Madden, of course, is dealing with unique challenges.
"He's an anomaly," Jarmolicz said. "He's got that whole package and that competitiveness and that will to do what it takes. It's something you don't see, even at the highest level, with some of those guys. Some of the great guys, that work ethic and competitiveness will come through but he's different than some of those top guys too because he's got that willingness to slam his nose in it and get after it with whoever is willing."
This past summer, Dan said, Madden worked as hard as ever off the ice.
He spent at least five days a week at The Dome Red Deer with strength and conditioning coach Kristjan Frederickson.
"When I saw him this summer right before he left and saw how big he got, I was like 'OK.' I was waiting for everybody in Kelowna and all that to realize what they had there," Jarmolicz said.
Said Dan: "Madden really dedicated himself to off-ice training this summer because he knew the 34 games were in play and he knew he needed to get stronger, which he did, to be able to compete."
The improved physical conditioning also should help Daneault deal with a hectic schedule.
Unlike the two Western Canadian Development Model standouts from last year — Liam Pue and Maddox Schultz of the Regina Pats, who have the same agent as Madden — Daneault isn't playing for a WHL team and a minor-hockey team in the same city.
Along with splitting time between two provinces and taking online school courses, Daneault was selected as the only 2011-born player for the two Canadian teams competing at the U17 World Challenge starting Nov. 1 in Oakville, Ont., after not being invited to the U17 summer camp.
Daneault is also expected to play for Team Alberta at the Canada Winter Games under-16 tournament later this winter in Quebec.
"If you ask the coaches and I think the fans and probably his teammates, they'd all want him for all 34 games. But we're going to have to take it trip by trip now and manage it as best we can so he's not running out of steam," Kelowna general manager Curtis Hamilton said. "That's kind of the only thing we do worry about with him is how many games he's going to play and the travel, and try to keep that in mind when making decisions."
The early returns are outstanding.
After watching the Rockets rookie play a game on Sept. 26 with Kelowna, scout Larry Fisher of the Pro Hockey Group wrote: "Daneault is a dynamic forward with all the tools to become a star. He is already producing as a 15-year-old and shining on a nightly basis as an offensive catalyst for Kelowna. His hockey sense and playmaking abilities are elite. He is a very capable scorer, too, with good habits and drive to complement his confidence and swagger."
Hamilton said Daneault can do "a little bit of everything."
"We call him like a one-percenter. He's mature, he's polite, he's very competitive," Hamilton said.
"... When you see him, he'll be messing around with the 20-year-old guys on our team, but he also spends time with the younger guys. He's a leader, he's a complete player. But, more than anything, he's a good teammate."
Daneault said he likes to watch "all the greats like Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby" to look at "what they're doing in their game and try to take it to my game."
Those two probably could relate to what Daneault is going through after being phenoms for much of their youth.
McDavid also entered major junior, in the OHL, a year early for a full season after being one of nine players to be granted exceptional status by Hockey Canada. Daneault and his family decided to stick with the half-season option, which is only available in the WHL, and not apply for exceptional status.
"I do my best to try to ignore (the outside attention and hype), but I kind of just take the pressure," Daneault said. "I feel like I do really well under pressure. I feel like I just take the pressure to fuel me and prove people wrong who are saying I'm overrated or something."
Dan Daneault, who has made several trips to Kelowna and also will be in Oakville to watch his youngest son, said Madden is "a very grounded kid."
That seems to help him in the spotlight.
"I'm surprised but not surprised," Dan said of his quick start. "I'm surprised how well he's adapted to the league and stuff. But, again, every time you think that it's going to be a challenge for Madden, which it is for Madden (in the WHL this year), he always steps up and always seems to rise to the occasion. He's done it again, and that's just his willingness to want to compete and want to win."
Daneault won't be eligible for the NHL Draft until 2029, and much will change in his life before then.
Will he go to the NCAA before the draft? Can he take it to a new level in his first full year in the WHL? It will all be fascinating to watch.
"The sky's the limit for Mads," Jarmolicz said. "It's just how far he takes it. The opportunities he's been provided, he's seized every one of them. So look out, he's coming."
