Like all of you, I’m at a loss for words. It’s Eli, he’ll be there every time we go down into the tunnel for our pregame video of the Cens coming onto the ice. He’ll crack a joke, or he’ll wink at the camera while laughing, hoping we got it on video. 

 

That was Eli, a fun loving guy who always made time for everyone. If you’re a rookie player, he’ll take you under his wing. If you’re a veteran, he’ll lead by example on the ice. 

 

Last Thursday night, 5 days before his tragic passing he was named the captain of the 2022-23 Centennials. He didn’t know. What you saw in our 519 video was his natural reaction to the moment. He was beaming with pride. 

 

The moment was incredibly special. Having the captain jersey presented to him by Sean Kawalec, a former Cens captain himself. Kawalec also wore the C with the Kitchener Dutchmen while Palfreyman was playing there a few years back. 

 

Palf said in his interview “him giving me my first ever C, it’s a special feeling coming from Seanie, he’s such a great guy”. 

 

I’m so happy everything worked out and we had the ability to give Palf that deserving spotlight on Thursday. He deserved every second of airtime and adulation he got that night and into Friday on social media. 

 

His hard work, team first attitude and love of the game earned him a C in his final year of junior hockey. It was deserving recognition. 

 

Shortly after the presentation, out came Palf for his interview. 

 

“It’s an honour first of all to wear the C in this long historic organization, ever since I moved to Cambridge I’ve been coming to see games in Ayr”. 

 

Like always, Palfreyman did a great job expressing his thoughts on camera. He was comfortable, confident and well spoken. 

 

After the camera stopped rolling, he said “I think we nailed that interview”. I said “Palf we absolutely did, great job”. We laughed, he shook my hand and off he went to get changed. 

 

Never did I imagine, that would be our last ever interview. 

 

Let’s rewind back to last season quickly, one night at the rink Palf said to me “Darren you gotta call me Freyman in the videos”. I thought he was being sarcastic. He said “no, no Darren try it out. It’ll be hilarious”. 

 

The next time he scored a goal (it might of even been that night, I don’t remember).. I was voicing the video and yelled “the Freyman scores!”.. He loved it. We laughed so hard the next time I saw him. And that’s how the Freyman nickname was born. 

 

One former player said to me on Wednesday “he would make me laugh so long all the time man”. 

 

Eli had a big personality. He was charismatic. Some players you get to know better than others doing what I do. Eli was at the top of the list of players I respected and had fun with. 

 

On the ice, he was a fierce competitor who always stood up for his teammates. His last ever shift, he skated over to defend a teammate who had just been hit near the Cens bench. 

 

The hit happened, Palf skated over as fast as he could and got into it with the opposing teams player. Then the buzzer sounded to end the 2nd period. 

 

If you look at the boxscore, you’ll see he got a 2 minute roughing penalty at the 20 minute mark of the period. 

 

The last thing Eli did was defend his teammate. Simply put, that was Eli. 

 

His respect level stretched far beyond the doors at the North Dumfries Community Centre. Numerous local hockey people with other teams told me this week “he’s a guy you hate to play against but LOVE to have on your team”. 

 

If Palf was on the ice, he was making his presence felt either crashing and banging in the corners, causing havoc in front of the net or scoring goals with his classic one knee celly after. 

 

He loved and appreciated every moment on the ice. He was one of those players where you could see his passion. That’s just one of the reasons he was loved by his teammates and was a fan favourite in Ayr. 

 

Eli, you were a bright light who will be sorely missed. I’m sorry we never did that Mic’d Up segment we talked about. It would be been comedic gold, with a few bleeps of course. 

 

Thank you for being you, we will never forget your friendship, the fun times and your love for the game. 

 

Forever a Centennial. 

 

#RIPFreyman