Greater Sudbury Cubs defenceman Spencer Horgan in NOJHL action against the French River Rapids at Gerry McCrory Countryside Sports Complex in Sudbury, Ont. on Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026. Photo by Ben Leeson /The Sudbury Star
‘It’s pretty cool to have a record of your own, but I couldn’t have done it without my teammates’
The Greater Sudbury Cubs had plenty of celebrations the last couple of years while winning back-to-back NOJHL championships, but their reaction when Spencer Horgan entered the league record book on Thursday was about as enthusiastic and heartfelt as any other.
As the 20-year-old defenceman raised his arms to celebrate a goal by teammate Noah Kohan on which Horgan marked his third assist of the evening to become the highest-scoring rearguard in league history, it was not only the other Cubs on the ice, but each and every one on the bench who mobbed the talented Bowmanville, Ont. product to offer congratulations while fans at Gerry McCrory Countryside Sports Complex continued to applaud.
“It felt great,” said Horgan, shortly after the horn had sounded on a 9-0 win over the French River Rapids. “It’s pretty cool to have a record of your own, but I couldn’t have done it without my teammates.”
With 212 points in 163 games, split between the Espanola Paper Kings and the Cubs, Horgan surpassed Chelmsford product Noel Caya, who starred for the Rayside-Balfour Canadians in the early to mid-1980s.
“I took a look at the start of the season to see how far away I was, but I didn’t really think about it too much until it came down to 10, then five and tonight it was only three,” Horgan said. “I had two, we had a power play and they left me out there with our other unit and we got it done.”
Head coach Darryl Moxam was happy to help, having eagerly added the soft-spoken, hard-shooting 5-foot-11, 175-pounder to his blueline crew ahead of the 2024-25 campaign following his all-star sophomore season in Espanola.
Following an injury riddled first year with Greater Sudbury, Horgan has suited up for 36 games this season, with totals of 15 goals and 41 assists.
“We talk about team stuff all the time and try to instil that into the culture we have here and in most places, having coached in the league for a period of time, but quite honestly, it’s one of the coolest things I have ever seen,” Moxam said. “You talk about something that has stood for 40 years. This young man comes to the rink the right way every day, he’s professional and he’s one of the best teammates I have ever seen. To watch him accomplish that today, like I said, it’s one of the coolest things I have seen and I think that was felt throughout the entire room, because he’s such a good person and such a good teammate.”
Spencer Horgan gets his third assist of the night and the Greater Sudbury Cubs defenceman is now the highest-scoring blueliner in #NOJHL history with 212 points. pic.twitter.com/NUW6Zx3TSt
— Ben Leeson (@ben_leeson) February 13, 2026
Horgan was something of a late bloomer in the sport who went undrafted at the major-junior level, but still earned a league contract from the Sudbury Wolves partway through his second year with the Paper Kings. He went on to play in six OHL games over two season before being re-assigned to the Cubs, who picked up his junior A rights in November 2024.
He was named as an alternate captain for 2025-26.
“It has been great,” Horgan said. “They have built a culture here that I came into last year and there was not much that I had to bring, just myself and to add to it.
“It has been a lot of fun.”
Moxam gave the veteran D-man credit for continuing to round out a skill set that will surely earn him some interest from post-secondary recruiters ahead of next season
“His ability to move his feet and his compete have taken a step forward in the last year, especially in the last couple of months,” Greater Sudbury’s coach said. “He’s very underrated on the defensive side of the puck and he has the ability to throw an open-ice hit. Spencer knows he’s going to have to improve in some areas to play at the next level, but he’s committed to it and we see every day how good he is offensively, but to see his willingness to be better on both sides of the puck, that’s something that has impressed us.
“When it’s a guy who is that important to your hockey club, it’s really easy for other guys to follow.”
Having played forward up to the U18 level, then in the Quinte Red Devils organization, Horgan is admittedly still learning the finer points of maintaining gaps and boxing out in front of the net, but he feels he’s making good progress. And he believes he’ll only continue to improve as a member of a Greater Sudbury squad that, for all its firepower, has prioritized defence while allowing a league-low 99 goals in 43 games this season.
“We not only want to repeat as three-time champions of the Noj, but to do some damage at the Centennial Cup, as well, and to lift that trophy in May,” Horgan said. “That’s our goal.”
Cubs still rolling
The NOJHL’s leader in points per game, Owen King scored two more goals on Thursday and Mateo Signoretti added a pair of his own. Wolves prospects Mason Walker and Cole Wreggitt also tallied against the Rapids, while Nolan Newton, Noah Kohan and Daks Klinkhammer rounded out the scoring and Matthew Vahramian had a 17-save shutout as the Cubs improved to an NOJHL-leading 33-6-2-2.
They’ll host the Blind River Beavers in a Family Day matinee on Monday at 2:05 p.m.
“We had some meetings this week about how we feel we’re a pretty deep hockey club, but you don’t win with skill alone,” Moxam said on Thursday. “It’s going to be very important for us to check our egos at the door and I think everybody did that tonight. It was pretty impressive to see.”
