Third-year Griffins forward Chabot adding elite two-way play to his team-leading offensive production

EDMONTON – Trying to keep up with his older brother, Kadyn Chabot would shoot hundreds of pucks in his family's barn as a young kid growing up in the Prince George, B.C. area.

"I'd say my brother would shoot way more than me," said the MacEwan Griffins forward of Korbyn Chabot, who is three years older than him. "I had to be forced out there; I'm not going to lie. But I just looked up to him and tried to (match him). It was kind of a competition."

Later after they moved to Cranbrook, B.C. when he was atom age, their father made a shooting target with a light that would go off when you hit it.

All of the training paid off, giving Kadyn an elite shot that has him currently tied for second in Canada West in goals with 12 through 18 games of the 2025-26 season.

Chabot has also already matched his points total (21) from last season with 10 regular season games still remaining, including a pair of home contests this weekend vs. Trinity Western (Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 3 p.m., both Downtown Community Arena, Canada West TV).

PURCHASE TICKETS HERE (MacEwan students get in free)

"He's got a great release and it's something on the powerplay we've tried to give him freedom to use that and to shoot a lot of pucks," said Griffins head coach Zack Dailey. "That's one of the best parts of his game, for sure."

But there are many other aspects to what Chabot is bringing to the table this season as he shows his veteran poise in Year 3 of this U SPORTS career.

"I challenged him this off-season that I wanted to use him in every situation, not just offensive situations and he's responded really well," said Dailey. "He wanted that and you can see in his play that he wants that. 

"He's on our penalty kill, he's on our powerplay, he's out last minute to protect a lead, he plays against the other team's top lines. He literally does everything for us. A lot of it is just effort based. He leads our group in physicality as well, so he's an all-around player for us. He's doing a great job this year."

His overall game is setting the standard for others on the Griffins to follow and could one day lend itself well to the professional ranks, should he choose to go that route after graduating.

"I kind of take pride in that now and just try to make the other guys see it's important (to play) both ways," said Chabot. "I try to lead by example."

Chabot joined the Griffins in 2023 after wrapping up a five-year junior career split between the WHL's Vancouver Giants, AJHL's Drayton Valley Thunder (where he briefly played with his older brother) and the then-AJHL Spruce Grove Saints.

 After recording 18 points in his first season at MacEwan in 2023-24, Kadyn Chabot, right, won the team's rookie of the year honour. He's seen posing with Team MVP Ashton Abel, left, and head coach Zack Dailey at the Griffins awards banquet (Rebecca Chelmick photo).

He was an immediate force at MacEwan, establishing program records with 11 goals and 18 points in 2023-24, earning the team's top rookie honours.

Since then, Chabot has gone on to set new program standards for the most career points by a Griffin in Canada West play (currently at 60), most career goals (32), most career powerplay tallies (10) and most career shots (215).

His total of 21 points this season is tracking towards Ethan Strang's single season program record of 27, set in 2023-24, and he needs just one more goal to break the single season goals record he shares with Strang.

With two more years of eligibility left after this season, Chabot has the potential to reach even higher and challenge overall program career marks from the ACAC era.

"There's definitely more to come; just getting started," he said. "I feel like I've found my game here and it's just going to get better."

 Kadyn Chabot already has 60 career points for the Griffins and he still has two years of eligibility left after this season (James Maclennan photo).

That's good news for the Griffins, who enter the weekend with a chance to put themselves on the doorstep of clinching a playoff spot. Already 10 points ahead of Trinity Western for the final position in the West Division, two wins would lower their magic number to two with more than a month left. 

They, of course, have bigger goals, however, sitting just two points back of Alberta for second in the division, which would come with a home quarter-final playoff series.

Big picture isn't what's needed now, though, and the Griffins know it.

"That's definitely our goal for this year, but I think we've just got to take it one game at a time and not focus too much on that," said Chabot. 

"You can't look at the standings because a team can win any night. Trinity just swept U of A, so any team can win any night. You've just got to play the same way no matter who you're playing."

And when the Griffins are playing their top game, they can beat anyone in Canada West, as evidenced by two wins already over first-place UBC.

"We're trying not to get ahead of ourselves and just focus on our day to day, making sure we stack together a bunch of really good days," said Dailey. "Our group is quite confident that if we do what we're supposed to we're going to be quite successful. 

"That's our focus is just making sure we can take care of what we can take care of and hopefully we'll get the results we're looking for."