As Philadelphia Flyers’ forward, Wayne Simmonds aligned himself for a September 2011 exhibition shootout in London, Ontario, only one thing was on his mind: scoring this goal. He hustled down the ice, and as he prepared to take his shot, a London fan tossed a banana directly in front of him. An eruption of laughter was overheard throughout the arena as the 23-year-old maintained his approach towards Detroit netminder, Jordan Pearce. Instead of acknowledging the act, Simmonds scored, winning Philadelphia the game.
An uproar was heard across the league, as NHL players and coaches alike expressed their disappointment towards the London crowd. Minority NHL players, Evander Kane, and former London Knight’s forward, Nazem Kadri each expressed their disgust for the occurrence.
The event befell the same week as former NHL players Kevin Weekes and the NHL’s first-ever African American player, Willie O’Ree were representing the league at D.C.’s Congressional Black Caucus.
Despite the advocacy calling for a veracious change, this turmoil did not last.
That same season, Washington Capitals’ forward, Joel Ward won Washington their series against Boston in Game 7 overtime. Following his heroics, Ward was bombarded with racist abuse from Boston fans on social media. For Ward, a similar commotion to the Simmonds incident was made, and woefully no real change was implemented.
Seven years later, Washington Capital’s forward, Devante Smith-Pelly was constrained by the Chicago penalty box, and was forced to hear taunts of “basketball, basketball, basketball” from an adjacent fan.
This bigotry carried on in the summer of 2020 when New York Rangers prospect, K'andre Miller, was subject to a plenitude of racial mocks on the team’s public zoom call.
At the 2020 NHL Draft, the Arizona Coyotes selected Ohio’s Mitchell Miller in the fourth round. In 2016, Miller was convicted in Ohio juvenile court for bullying and harassing an African American, developmentally disabled classmate.
The continued responses from NHL personnel stating that there’s no place in hockey for this kind of behavior has run banal. No matter the affair, the NHL has continued this inattentive approach to racism. Despite a league-wide advertising campaign prompting the slogan “Hockey is for Everyone,” it is clear that it’s not.
The NHL has 690 regular players in their lineup, last season only 43 of those were of a minority background. With ever-growing registration fees, this lack of diversity stems from a socioeconomic issue that is constantly expanding. The rise in the number of costs makes it increasingly demanding for families of all backgrounds to afford the game, leaving only the most privileged to enjoy its luxuries.
According to Scotiabank, nearly 60% of hockey parents spend over $7,000 CAD a year on the sport. For some, a league registration fee can reach up to $2,500 a year, and with travel an additional $2,500. With growing children, some equipment demands annual purchases of up to $1,000. And if your child wants to play year-round hockey, summer camp fees can swiftly exceed $500. At one point, these high fees were exclusively reserved for the elite players, enabling children to play at lower levels if their parents could not afford a high-end league. Since these high fees have now carried into the lower levels this notion has become moot. The surging fees at all levels have led to several families cutting back on daily expenses. In Canada, 67% of hockey parents give up vacations and 35% of them take on additional debt or a second job to put their kids through hockey.
With a median household income of $61,400 CAD in Canada, many families have to make a choice on which of their children will be able to continue playing. In NHL defenseman Sam Girard’s case, he was fortunate enough to be the sibling that continued playing. His older brother Jeremy gave up hockey, allowing Sam the chance to pursue his dreams.
While Girard was able to achieve his NHL dream, many professionals would not have been given the opportunity of professional hockey if they were coming up today.
In Canada, the number of boys registered to play hockey has dropped by 2 percent over the preceding four seasons. With the introduction of composite hockey sticks, entry-level sticks have gone from a $12 wooden stick to upwards of $100 for a simple composite. These heightened fees have begun alienating long-time hockey townships to the point that many locations are waiving registration fees. In New Waterford, Nova Scotia residents hope that by eradicating their $500 registration fee, new children will sign up.
The astronomical fees also apply to players in the United States. In the Western United States, a player can expect travel fees of up to $10,000 USD a year. In California, the LA Jr. Kings organization offers payment plans on their $7,000 registration fee; however, a $2,000 deposit is required. Not limited solely to the west coast, these extraordinary fees carry over across the United States. In Edina, Minnesota, one of the hockey hotbeds of the United States, registration fees can reach up to $1,430 plus an additional $200 for any child over 10 years old.
Despite hockey’s celebrated blue-collar roots, with stars like Gordie Howe and Maurice Richard deriving from humble beginnings, it has become evident that hockey is a rich-man’s sport. Instead of focusing on talent, this is the era where great opulence determines an athlete’s future moreover than ability.
Sports oriented institutions with an upwards tuition of $40,000 have reigned supreme in recent years. Hill Academy, Shattuck St. Mary’s, Athol Murray, and Blyth Academy all boast notable professional hockey alumni. NHL Stars, such as Jonathan Toews, Sidney Crosby, Mitch Marner, Connor McDavid, Vincent Lecavalier, Zach Parise, and many more all credit their time to these academies. For children in lower-income municipalities, these great expenses make it virtually impossible for a chance to compete.
A native of Scarborough, Ontario, the now Toronto Maple Leafs’ forward, Wayne Simmonds understands this inequality better than most. To fund Simmonds hockey aspirations, he and his family hosted several community fundraising events throughout his minor hockey career.
In Scarborough, the average household earns approximately $48,000 USD a year. Assuming that Simmonds’ fees were in the vicinity of the $7,000 range reported by Scotiabank, 11% of his family’s yearly income was spent financing his hockey.
For former NHL player and Toronto native, Akim Aliu a similar story was told. Initially ridiculed for obtaining hand-me-down skates through a garage sale, Aliu went on to play seven games in the NHL. He narrated his experiences with racism while playing hockey as part of an immense cultural awakening for the NHL in the 2019/2020 season. Describing hazing experiences in junior and in professional leagues, his stories sent genuine change through hockey’s old boys' club. Long established coaches like Toronto’s Mike Babcock and Calgary’s Bill Peters were let go due to their problematic background.
The revelation of the Babcock and Peters incidents were hardly isolated stories. Hockey has glorified the idea of a coaching dictatorship due to their typical victorious results; Scotty Bowman, Mike Kenan, Conn Smythe, and Toe Blake are all iconized by hockey fans. The abusive coach is no foreign concept to minor hockey either. A belittling environment that often encourages violent behavior runs rampant. A 2010 study by JustPlay cites that about 40% of minor sports games contain some form of unchecked aggressive abuse. Apart from the dismissal of any indicted staff, the NHL seemingly only renounces this behavior when a commotion is made.
Despite the lack of substantial efforts by most of the hockey community, the culture has exhibited some change. Participation among girl’s hockey in Canada was up 12% last year, and more women than ever are joining NHL front offices.
NHL Vice President, Kim Davis has been at the forefront of the league’s diversity campaign since her 2017 hire. Understanding that the league needs to better work with their players, Davis has been instrumental in comprehending methods on how to diversify the game. Following suit, Hockey Canada Legend, Hayley Wickenheiser was hired by the Toronto Maple Leafs in a player development role.
In 2020, Blake Bolden was hired as the NHL’s third female scout. She joined the likes of Cammi Granato and Noelle Needham as some of the few women employed by NHL teams. While the hiring of more women signals a progressive change, this passable ideology by the NHL only further demonstrates that the league relies on the absolute minimum of actions. Taking matters into their own hands in the summer of 2020, current and former NHLers, founded the Hockey Diversity Alliance.
Led by Akim Aliu, Evander Kane, Wayne Simmonds, Nazem Kadri, and others, the HDA launched amid the Black Livers Matter protests through a joint press conference with the NHL. In efforts to better understand and listen, players kneeled during national anthems for a portion of the league’s return-to-play.
Regrettably for hockey, the NHL’s display of cultural awareness was only influenced by a massive outcry for the league to do better. A few months after the HDA and NHL’s joint press conference, it was announced that the HDA was departing from the NHL, due to an alleged lack of willingness to sincerely diversify on the NHL’s part.
Nine years after a banana was hurled at Wayne Simmonds and sixty-two years after Willie O’Ree played his first NHL game as the league’s first black player, the hockey community and the NHL still struggle to confess their prevailing problem. Despite the league’s ventures for change, these attempts have been trivial, as segregation continues to flood the hockey community. While the expenses of minor hockey are not exclusively an NHL issue, any attempt at solving this rampant matter has either been patchwork, or less than substantial. The OHF disbanding their diversity and inclusion training program wholly exhibits this disheartened campaign. On the surface, hockey may attempt to be for everyone, but deep inside, dishonesty and suspect behavior runs supreme.
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