Color of Hockey: Vilgrains speaking out for inclusion, against racism

William Douglas has been writing The Color of Hockey blog since 2012. Douglas joined NHL.com in 2019 and writes about people of color in the sport. Today, he profiles retired NHL forward Claude Vilgrain and his daughter Cassandra Vilgrain, who is social & media coordinator at Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation, the parent company of the Calgary Flames.

Cassandra Vilgrain grew up knowing about her father Claude Vilgrain's place in history as the first NHL player born in Haiti and the second Black player to skate for Canada in the Winter Olympics, in Calgary in 1988.

But she didn't know about the depth of the racism her father faced in his playing career until he began to open up about it in candid conversations and interviews following the murder of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis police on May 25, 2020.

"There are stories that I even heard a couple of months ago that I've never heard of his before," she said. "I've always been proud of my dad. I think growing up you don't really realize the extent of anything, especially not knowing some of the stuff he went through over the years."

Now father and daughter are using their platforms whenever and wherever they can to speak out against racism and advocate for more diversity and inclusion in hockey.

Claude Vilgrain, who had 53 points (21 goals, 32 assists) in 89 NHL games with the Vancouver Canucks, New Jersey Devils and Philadelphia Flyers from 1987-94, does it through media interviews and coaching he does near his Calgary home.

The 59-year-old former forward also helped spread the message as a consultant for Haiti's team that competed at the 2022 International Street and Ball Hockey Federation World Ball Hockey Championships in Laval, Quebec, in June.

Cassandra Vilgrain, a 27-year-old former NCAA Division I and Canadian U Sports forward who played one season professionally in Sweden, is communication & social media coordinator at Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation, the parent company of the Calgary Flames, Calgary of the American Hockey League and Calgary of the Western Hockey League.

"I always haven't been as outspoken as I am and been as much of an advocate as I have been over the past few years," she said. "I think we've really leaned on each other and encouraged each other to speak up more and talk more on our platforms. It's kind of a team effort."

Cassandra, who does most of her work for Calgary of the WHL, was able to highlight diversity and inclusion in April, when she and her father spoke about their hockey experiences skating on the Scotiabank Saddledome ice for a video that promoted the NHL Black Hockey History Tour mobile museum's visit to the city.

"That was very cool," Cassandra said. "Always being out there and shooting around the puck is awesome and fun but being able to talk about things that are really important and share our stories in that setting, I think, was a very unique experience."

Claude and Cassandra Vilgrain epitomize the saying "Like father, like daughter." She wore her dad's No. 19 in honor of her father when she played for University of New Hampshire from 2013-16 and No. 91 (19 reversed) with the University of British Columbia from 2016-18.

Cassandra had 43 points (24 goals, 19 assists) in 102 NCAA games and 40 points (14 goals, 26 assists) in 49 U Sports games, as well as 14 points (10 goals, four assists) in 32 games in 2018-19 with Brynas of the Swedish Women's Hockey League. She said she was a playmaking power forward much like her dad, who was also her coach.

"I did model my game after him, and my game really focused on hard work," she said. "He always talks about being driven and hardworking, and I think that's what I got the most from him. Also adding on the humility and the humbleness aspect. That's something that I really admire him for, facing everything that he had to face, adversity and everything, and still being the positive guy that he is and still wanting to give back."

Claude Vilgrain said he accentuated hockey's positives to his daughter. Selected by the Detroit Red Wings in the sixth round (No. 107) of the 1982 NHL Draft, he played for fourth-place Canada at the 1988 Calgary Olympics and won back-to-back championships with Canada at the Spengler Cup in 1996 and 1997. He played three seasons with Laval of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League from 1980-83, and had 126 points (46 goals, 80 assists) in 69 games in 1982-83, when he was named a second-team All-Star with teammates Mario Lemieux and Bobby Dollas.

But he said he kept most of the negative experiences to himself.

"I don't know how many bananas got thrown at me, and the monkey signs in the stands," he said.

"It was my path and things were happening every day. I never went home and told my parents that people threw bananas at me. I got interviewed recently during Black History Month and my brother, my sister, my mom, were, like, 'Oh, we didn't have a clue, we didn't know.'"

Vilgrain said he and several other Black players of his era suffered silently because they feared being labeled as malcontents, being traded, cut, or dispatched to the minor leagues forever if they spoke up.

"Nobody understood what we (Black players) were going through," he said. "Hockey was my dream. I know there were some guys … they kept defending themselves every time somebody said something. I would have had to do that all the time. My dream was to play in the NHL, so I looked the other way."

Not anymore.

"It's a new generation of young kids out there, and I don't want them to go through even one percent of what I went through," he said.

Photos: Doug MacLean and Paul Bereswill, Hockey Hall of Fame, Candice Ward, University of British Columbia, University of New Hampshire.