Patrice Nadeau grew up in Quebec City and was the first of his family to actually play the game of hockey. His family up until this point were only fans of the SMJHL team, Montreal Militia which at the time still existed as an organization before being rebranded to the Kraken during Nadeau's playing career. Growing up Nadeau idolized Brett Broadway of the Los Angeles Panthers and at 5 years old, S30, Nadeau put on the skates for the first time and was determined to make the SHL. Little Patrice had lot's of issues getting used to his position because he was quite small for his age group. That never stopped him however and he continued to push on battling through what the world threw at him and little did he know that he would grow up to make the SHL and it would allow him to live his dream. Coaches knew Nadeau was going to be a good player in the league by the time he was 16 years old as he was already projecting to be a star between the pipes and true enough in the future he would be the best goalie of his time in the SMJHL unfortunately his SHL career took a hit after multiple hip injuries kept him playing minimal minutes, and poor training performances from S49-S51.