The CI Aggregator is a compilation of recent stories regarding the hockey world, The Carnegie Initiative, our Board members, other industry influencers, similar organizations doing work to change the culture of the game, related issues, and anything aligned with our important mission to make hockey more inclusive, supportive, and welcoming to all.
A new edition is posted each Friday.
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WEEKLY RECAP: Friday, February 9, 2024
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Gary Bettman insists hockey isn’t to blame for 2018 world juniors case. Experts disagree
Ian Mendes, The Athletic, Feb. 8, 2024
On Monday afternoon, the London Police Service held a news conference to provide an update on their investigation into an alleged sexual assault involving five members of the 2018 Canadian world junior hockey team.
The news conference garnered headlines as police chief Thai Truong opened his statements by delivering a direct apology to the alleged victim.
But roughly 30 minutes into the news conference, Truong stopped the line of questioning from reporters to deliver a personal statement about what he felt was a root cause of sexual violence.
TheGoodMenProject.com, Feb. 8, 2024
The best way to observe Black History Month is to keep it in mind all year long. But there’s no denying that in February, Seattle arts venues are filled with Black artists whose work shines a light on African American heritage. These paintings, dance pieces, films, music, photography, architectural works — and in one case, a sports logo — are rooted in Black culture past and present. So prepare for a packed calendar.
Why police aren’t likely to give details any time soon in the world junior hockey sex assault case
Public appetite for information must be balanced with ensuring fair trial, lawyers say
Rhianna Schmunk, CBC News, Feb. 8, 2024
WARNING: This article contains graphic content and may affect those who have experienced sexual violence or know someone affected by it.
During a highly anticipated news conference on Monday, the chief of the London Police Service and a detective with the department’s sexual assault section took questions from reporters covering the sexual assault case against five members of Canada’s 2018 world junior hockey team.
For 31 minutes and 45 seconds, they faced questions on the evidence in the case, the details of an initial investigation that was closed without charges in 2019, and the fate of remaining players who were implicated in a civil lawsuit but not charged in the criminal case.
The officers gave reporters slightly different versions of the same answer 21 times — roughly once every 90 seconds.
“I can’t disclose details of that.”
Volt hockey giving disabled kids more sports options in Edmonton
Karen Bartko, Global News, Feb. 8, 2024
Hockey is quintessentially Canadian but the traditional sport requires full mobility. However, more and more, the essence of the sport is being adapted so people of all abilities can get in the game.
Enter: volt hockey.
“It’s kind of like floor hockey and it’s designed for those with limited ability,” said Rachael Hansen, the head coach of Volt Hockey in Edmonton. “They’re able to participate in sport regardless of any conditions they have or any mobility issues.”
Volt hockey is an all-ages game played on a court in specially designed, battery-operated chairs. The modifications allow participants with limited upper mobility to play hockey.
YOUTH SPORTS: GAHA to host ‘Try Hockey for Free’ day at McCarthy Ice Arena
[email protected], Feb. 8, 2024
The Genesee Amateur Hockey Association is set to host ‘Try Hockey for Free’ day at the David M. McCarthy Memorial Ice Arena on Evans Street on Saturday, Feb. 24th.
The annual event includes a clinic as part of ‘Hockey Week Across America’ that will run from 10:40 a.m. to noon. Local youth, ages four to nine, are encouraged to experience ice hockey for the first time and learn the basic skills in a fun, safe environment.
“We look forward to welcoming families to David M. McCarthy Memorial Ice Arena to try our great sport of ice hockey for free” said Sharon Gray, Coordinator of the Event. “Our goal is for these families to enjoy watching their kids learn new skills with big smiles on their faces.”
Brock McGillis reflects on ‘grueling’ and ‘rewarding’ tour to combat homophobia in youth hockey
Ian Mendes, The Athletic, Feb. 7, 2024
For the past three months, Brock McGillis’ schedule has been meticulously planned.
So when he finally gets a chance to exhale next week, McGillis plans on pivoting to a more relaxed agenda.
“I’m going to sleep on a beach for a week,” McGillis told The Athletic with a laugh recently.
This week, McGillis is concluding his Culture Shift tour, an ambitious project that aimed for him to conduct 100 talks with high school-aged minor hockey teams in Canada over the span of 100 days. McGillis, who played in the Ontario Hockey League as a teenager and later came out as gay as an adult, created this grassroots initiative with the mission of trying to break down barriers that exist around homophobic and toxic language in youth and minor hockey dressing rooms.
Some men told her to leave their hockey league. She’s not going anywhere
Hailey Salvian, The Athletic, Feb. 7, 2024
When she was hit by an opponent in a no-checking hockey league and then chided to “stay on your feet, this is a men’s league,” Jenna Trubiano was shocked.
Trubiano, 29, grew up playing hockey in Michigan. She played five years for the University of Michigan women’s club hockey team in the American Collegiate Hockey Association — the school does not have an NCAA Division 1 program — and is now the team’s head coach. Last season, she was a finalist for the ACHA coach of the year.
Pro women’s hockey game coming to Detroit during ‘takeover weekend’
Brandon Champion, MLive.com, Feb. 7, 2024
Professional women’s hockey is coming to Detroit. For one game at least.
The Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) announced this week that it will hold a “Takeover Weekend” March 16-17 in which it will play games at NHL venues in Detroit, Pittsburgh and Minnesota.
The event, held in partnership with the Detroit Red Wings, will feature PWHL Ottawa against PWHL Boston at Little Caesars Arena at 6 p.m. on Saturday, March 16.
St. Charles students, Sudbury Wolves mark Black History Month
Sudbury Star, Feb. 7, 2024
Students and staff from St. Charles College in Sudbury, including members of the school’s Black Student Association, joined players from the Sudbury Wolves to welcome Rico Phillips, the OHL’s director of cultural diversity and inclusion, for a special event to celebrate Black History Month on Tuesday.
Attendees watched the documentary Beyond Their Years: The Incredible Legacies of Herb Carnegie and Buck O’Neil, which tells the stories of high-profile athletes in hockey and baseball who were excluded, because if their race, from the highest professional levels of their respective sports, but nonetheless became pioneers who made those sports more inclusive.
Tuesday’s event at St. Charles was part of a partnership with The Carnegie Initiative that includes a series of panel discussions featuring Phillips, as well as Wacey Rabbit, a Western Hockey League alumnus and assistant coach of the Saskatoon Blades, Yvan Mongo, a Quebec Maritimes Hockey League alumnus, and Bernice Carnegie, The CI co-founder.
Penguins partner with Black Girl Hockey Club to promote sport as part of Black History Month
Shaylah Brown, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Feb. 6, 2024
Renee Hess remembers her first Pittsburgh Penguins hockey game — she was in Orange County, Calif., had wonderful seats, and there was a hockey fight, a novelty she said rarely occurs now.
She was enamored by the sport.
Today, she is the founder and executive director of California-based Black Girl Hockey Club, which she said is about Black joy.
“That is what this is all about — getting together, building community and retaining that joy in a sport that we love but may not always love us back,” she said.
Hess traveled from Riverside, Calif., to Pittsburgh for a VIP Skate on Tuesday with the Black Girl Hockey Club, presented by the Penguins and Pittsburgh Penguins Foundation at Hunt Armory Seasonal Ice Rink. Eleven sixth grade girls from The Neighborhood Academy in Stanton Heights participated.
On Tuesday night, the Penguins celebrated Black History Month with their annual Black Hockey History Game, against the Winnipeg Jets at PPG Paints Arena.
PWHL player Emma Greco, from Burlington, Ont., says TV has made the difference for women’s hockey
Greco is a defender for Minnesota after playing for the Burlington Barracudas, Toronto Furies and other teams
Saira Peesker, CBC News, Feb. 6, 2024
Burlington’s Emma Greco played for two other professional hockey leagues before the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL), but says she’s never seen the kind of interest the women’s game is experiencing now – and credits it largely to television.
“People I haven’t talked to in a while, they’ll message me and say, ‘I was watching you on TV,’ or they’ll post me in an Instagram story saying they were watching my game at a bar somewhere,” said Greco, a former Burlington Barracuda who, as a defender for Minnesota, has had nine shots and four penalty minutes in the PWHL this year.
Celebrating diversity in hockey in Brampton | OMNI News Punjabi
OMNI News, Feb. 5, 2024
ਬ੍ਰੈਂਪਟਨ ਸ਼ਹਿਰ ਵੱਲੋਂ NHL United by Hockey Mobile Museum ਅਤੇ Hockey Night in Canada: Punjabi ਦੇ ਸਹਿਯੋਗ ਨਾਲ Gore Meadows outdoor rink ਵਿੱਚ ਭਾਈਚਾਰੇ ਵਾਸਤੇ ਫਰੀ ਸਕੇਟਿੰਗ ਦਾ ਆਯੋਜਨ ਕੀਤਾ ਗਿਆ। ਜਿੱਥੇ ਭਾਈਚਾਰੇ ਵਾਸਤੇ ਠੰਡ ਦੇ ਮੌਸਮ ਵਿਚ ਇਹ ਈਵੈਂਟ ਖਿੱਚ ਦਾ ਕੇਂਦਰ ਬਣਿਆ ਰਿਹਾ, ਓਥੇ ਉਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਸਾਡੇ Hockey Night in Canada: Punjabi ਦੇ ਹੋਸਟ ਰਨਦੀਪ ਜੰਡਾ ਅਤੇ ਅੰਮ੍ਰਿਤ ਗਿੱਲ ਨਾਲ ਮਿਲਣ ਦਾ ਵੀ ਮੌਕਾ ਮਿਲਿਆ।
OMNI Television is a free, over-the-air multilingual/multicultural television system committed to reflecting Canada’s diversity by broadcasting an array of ethnocultural programming, serving multiple language communities.
Blind Hockey Players in the DC Area Are Facing Off in the Rink
In this up-and-coming sport for the visually impaired, players shoot, pass, and skate like their sighted peers—and keep their ears on the puck.
Patrick Hruby, Washingtonian.com, Feb. 5, 2024
The first time Doug Goist heard about blind hockey, he laughed. It was 2016, and one of the founders of the Washington Blind Hockey Club had asked him to attend a “try it” event. “I thought it was crazy,” says Goist, who loved watching pro and Olympic hockey before losing his vision to a genetic disease at 30. “You’ve got people on skates at high speed with boards all around. Are you going to tell me there’s a blind Formula 1 ‘try it’ event, too?”
Goist went anyway—and has been hooked ever since. The 55-year-old Alexandria resident plays goalie for the club, which has 15 active members and has welcomed more than 150 participants since its 2016 inception. “We’ve had players as young as five and as old as 70,” says Kevin Brown, who in addition to playing and coaching is president of the WBHC. “Some of them played the game and had vision before but lost it over time. Others were born totally blind.”
The five former and current NHL players who have been charged have all denied the allegations.
Natalie Kainz, NBC News, Feb. 5, 2024
New evidence about an alleged 2018 sexual assault prompted authorities to reopen an investigation involving one former and four current NHL players, Ontario police said Monday. The athletes were arrested and charged last week.
Officials have not disclosed additional details about the new evidence.
The Philadelphia Flyers’ Carter Hart, the New Jersey Devils’ Cal Foote and Michael McLeod and the Calgary Flames’ Dillon Dubé, all 25, and ex-NHL player Alex Formenton, 24, made their first court appearances over video call Monday morning, according to the Ontario court docket.
Hart, Foote, Dubé and Formenton each face one count of sexual assault. McLeod faces two counts, sexual assault and being “a party to the offense,” which refers to aiding or abetting others in carrying out an unlawful action.
All five have denied the allegations through their lawyers.
Carter hosts teens from around world at Hockey 4 Youth event
Seeing 30 kids skate on Maple Leafs’ home rink ‘something special’
Dave McCarthy, NHL.com, Feb. 5, 2024
Anson Carter remembers the time he got to skate at Maple Leaf Gardens as a kid.
Growing up in the Toronto neighborhood of Scarborough, Carter did not have the opportunity to attend Toronto Maple Leafs games, but at school he won a read-a-thon, which afforded him what he considers to be a life-changing experience around 40 years ago.
“It was everything,” Carter said Monday. “I remember skating down the right side like I was taking a slap shot like Rick Vaive, who scored 50 goals a season with that big slap shot booming down the wing. I didn’t have a stick in my hands because it was a public skate, but I was skating down the right side doing the same type of thing.”
Carter went on to play 674 NHL games for the Washington Capitals, Boston Bruins, Edmonton Oilers, New York Rangers, Los Angeles Kings, Vancouver Canucks, Columbus Blue Jackets and Carolina Hurricanes, getting 421 points (202 goals, 219 assists).
Now a studio analyst with the “NHL on TNT,” the 49-year-old, through the NHL Player Inclusion Coalition that he co-chairs with former player and ESPN analyst P.K. Subban, organized the All-Star Overtime Clinic to provide that same chance to approximately 30 teens from the Hockey 4 Youth program.
GTHLCanada.com, Feb. 5, 2024
The Under-13 ‘A’ George Bell Titans are set to visit Whitefish River First Nation from February 9-11 in the second leg of the home-and-home exchange program.
In its second season, the exchange program, which featured the first leg in Toronto on October 27-29, strives to provide opportunities to GTHL and First Nations players, parents, and other participants to develop relationships, fellowship, and a cultural understanding through a shared passion for the game of hockey. For younger recreational-level players and players who have not previously played hockey, the exchange aims to provide introductory skill development opportunities (both on and off the ice) to encourage further participation in the game of hockey, while fostering new learning experiences and relationships.
Hockey legend thanked 2 nurses who helped him at Calgary International Airport
The Canadian Press, Feb. 5, 2024
The 70-year-old wrote in an Instagram post Monday that two nurses heading to their own flights at Calgary International Airport helped him when he was in distress.
“It’s true that even tough old guys need help sometimes,” McDonald said in the post.
In the stress of the moment, McDonald’s wife Ardell didn’t get the nurses’ names.
“We are eternally grateful for their care and action … I owe them my life,” McDonald said.
NHL scored big when it came to supporting their gay fans during All-Star Weekend
Alex Reimer, Queerty, Feb. 5, 2024
Gay hockey players wearing blue NHL Pride Cup shirts.
It’s been a rough year for the NHL’s relationship with the LGBTQ+ community, given the league’s misguided bans on Pride jerseys and rainbow tape.
But over All-Star Weekend in Toronto, the NHL made progress towards mending those issues. The league hosted its first ever Pride Cup, providing out LGBTQ+ hockey players a chance to shine on one of its biggest stages.
The Toronto Gay Hockey Association fielded both teams, with Team White defeating Team Blue 6-2. Both coaches, former NHL exec Brian Burke and ex-defenseman Andrew Ference, are two of the most vocal LGBTQ+ allies in league history.
Burke, who founded You Can Play, a group dedicated to eliminating homophobia in sports, is currently executive director of the Professional Women’s Hockey League Players Association.
Herb Carnegie Collection Now Available Through CCM Hockey
CarnegieInitiative.com, Feb. 5, 2024
The attendees at The CI Summit 2024 last week were the first to purchase CCM’s special edition Herb Carnegie t-shirts. Limited quantities of the shirts are now available through CCM’s website.
Sarah Nurse reveals moments that changed everything
CBC News, Feb. 5, 2024
Get to know one of Canada’s best hockey players as Sarah Nurse reveals how she fiercely pushed past the doubters and barriers to fall in love with the game, win an Olympic gold medal then make history as a founding member of the PWHL.
Comment: Tribute to a Black trailblazer, John Utendale
He was the first Black man to sign an NHL contract in 1955 with the Detroit Red Wings (the era of Gordie Howe, Ted Lindsay, Alex Delvecchio).
Joe Cardle, Times Colonist, Feb. 4, 2024
In Canada, we once again acknowledge February as Black History Month. We share a variety of stories noting the history of Black people in order to preserve and honour their richly deserved legacy.
These individuals and their families possessed strength of character and humble spirits throughout their lives. Such strength of character is synonymous with Black athletes seeking careers in professional sports. Many attempted to be trailblazers in their athletic endeavours.
John Utendale, originally from Edmonton, Alberta, epitomizes such strength and humility. He was the first Black man to sign an NHL contract, in 1955 with the Detroit Red Wings (the era of Gordie Howe, Ted Lindsay, Alex Delvecchio).
He never played in the NHL; that legacy is owned by his former line-mate, Willie O’Ree.
A widely recognized reason for Utendale never playing in the NHL was thought to be his relationship and eventual marriage to a Caucasian woman.
Brian Burke and Andrew Ference coached the two teams before Bettman presented the Toronto Gay Hockey Association with a cheque.
Nick Barden, The Hockey News, Feb. 3, 2024
For the first time ever at NHL All-Star Weekend, there was a Pride Cup.
Tucked away in the far right corner of the Metro Toronto Convention Center, players from the Toronto Gay Hockey Association warmed up as they prepared to compete in a ball hockey game.
Starting at 10 a.m., right as the NHL Fan Fair’s doors opened up, the game began with Executive Director of the Professional Women’s Hockey League Players Association Brian Burke and former NHLer Andrew Ference coaching the two sides.
“I‘ll go anywhere to coach in a Pride game,” Burke told The Hockey News on Saturday morning. “If it were at six in the morning, I would’ve been here.”
For some, this might be a positive step for the direction of hockey. For others, this might be a little too late, given the NHL had banned Pride Tape earlier this season, and then reversed their course when there was backlash.
For Burke, having the Pride Cup at the All-Star festivities is a step in the right direction.
“It should be an important part of All-Star, it is,” Burke added. “I’d be annoyed if it weren’t.”
Indigenous Hockey adds former NHLer to board
Founder provides Hockey Indigenous update at Toronto summit
Sam Laskaris, The Daily Press, Feb. 2, 2024
It’s been a hectic 12 months for Stephane Friday.
A year ago the Timmins resident found himself in Toronto as one of the inaugural recipients of the Herbert Carnegie Trailblazer Award.
Friday was back in the Ontario capital this past week attending the Carnegie Initiative Summit, which honours Herb Carnegie, a trailblazing hockey player who was denied the opportunity to play in the National Hockey League because of his Jamaican ancestry.
After his playing days were over, Carnegie became an advocate of having hockey being a sport that was inclusive of all.
Friday, who co-founded Hockey Indigenous with his partner Abigail Linklater, was one of seven winners of Carnegie’s trailblazing award last year. The organization supports Indigenous youth to play hockey and develop as athletes, from the minor hockey ranks to various pro levels.
The recipients were invited to this year’s summit, held Jan. 30-31, to provide updates since their recognition in 2023.
NHLers to return to Olympics in 2026, 2030 after missing last 2 Winter Games
McDavid, MacKinnon among stars relishing opportunity to compete internationally
Myles Dichter, CBC Sports, Feb. 2, 2024
Connor Hellebuyck was part of the electrifying under-23 Team North America squad at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.
But having just completed his rookie season and with only 26 games of NHL experience to his name, Hellebuyck didn’t see the ice.
Now eight years later, the American goalie still hasn’t competed in a best-on-best tournament.
“I’ve just been waiting to throw that jersey on. My window’s now, I’m in my prime and I’d love to be part of it,” the Winnipeg Jets goalie said at NHL all-star media day on Thursday.
On Friday, commissioner Gary Bettman announced that NHL players would return to the Olympics in 2026 and 2030. The 2026 Games will be held in Italy, while it is expected that France will be chosen to host the 2030 Games later this year.
PWHL has come out of the gate strong and has plenty more in the pipeline
Mike Ganter, Edmonton Journal, Feb. 2, 2024
It was showcase night for the one-month-old PWHL as they took over prime time of Thursday night of the annual NHL all-star weekend.
The game was dominated by the vets in the league like PWHL Ottawa’s Savannah Harmon, who scored three goals and assisted on the other two as Team King outlasted Team Kloss 5-3 in the three-on-three shootout featuring the league’s top players.
Marie Philip Poulin’s seeing-eye pass on Harmon’s easiest goal of the night was a highlight of the evening. The woman they refer to simply as Pou or Captain Clutch for her national team heroics showed just enough to remind everyone who still sits atop the women’s game at the moment.
PWHL Toronto’s Jocelyne Larocque, another veteran of the women’s game long before it reached the kind of professional status it has now with the PWHL, broke free on a breakaway and snapped one over the shoulder of Team Canada’s and PWHL Montreal’s standout goaltender Ann-Renee Desbiens for another highlight of the night.
Front and centre among the 24 named to the two teams were league builders like Sarah Nurse, Hilary Knight, Brianne Jenner and Kendall Coyne Schofield, who did the grunt work negotiating the league’s ground-breaking collective bargaining agreement that ensures the PWHL has sustainability.
It truly was a complete celebration of a very young and, for some, shockingly successful, league that has taken the sports world by storm.
‘We’re no longer standing out, we are in it’ | Vivid Hues: Hockey’s Black history
A sheet of ice where obstacles are tackled, dreams are cultivated, and history is made. Artist Chris Clark and Dan Hickman share hockey’s Black history.
Keitha Nelson, First Coast News, Feb. 2, 2024
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Hockey isn’t a sport where you’ll typically see a lot of Black players on one team. So, when Daniel Hickman hit the ice 18 years ago with two Black players by his side leading the Jacksonville Barracudas, it was a huge deal.
Hickman sat down with Good Morning Jacksonville Anchor Keitha Nelson at the Community First Igloo ice rink where history was made during the 2006-2007 season.
“That was huge for me,” Hickman said. “We had our championship here. We were a team that wasn’t even supposed to make the playoffs. But, we beat the No. 2 seed and we made it there.”
Hickman recalls being a part of the second team in professional hockey history to play with an all-Black line. The starting lineup for the Jacksonville Barracudas included Khalil Thomas, Tyrone Garner and Hickman.
Big Ten Hockey Draws Largest NCAA Crowd of the Season
BigTen.org, Feb. 1, 2024
The Border Battle between Minnesota and Wisconsin drew the largest NCAA men’s hockey crowd of the 2023-24 season with an attendance of 15,359 at the Kohl Center in Madison, Wis.
Saturday’s game marked the first sell out at the Kohl Center since the 2019 season. The Big Ten has now recorded sellouts in all seven of its arenas this season.
The figure eclipsed the previous season high of 15,289 at Madison Square Garden in a November game between Boston U. and Cornell.