Color of Hockey: Bawa inspired as first player of Indian descent in NHL

William Douglas has been writing The Color of Hockey blog for the past nine years. Douglas joined NHL.com in March 2019 and writes about people of color in the sport. Today, as part of Asian & Pacific Islander Heritage Month, he profiles Robin Bawa, who was the NHL's first player of Indian descent.

Arjun Bawa said he won't let racist slurs or comments about his Indian heritage deter him from his dream of playing in the NHL.
"On the ice, you might get a racist comment or two, but I just go about my business," said the 16-year-old forward, who plays at Delta Hockey Academy in Delta, British Columbia.
"Just keep your focus on scoring goals."
It's a lesson he learned from his father, Robin Bawa, who made history as the first player of Indian descent to play in the NHL when he debuted with the Washington Capitals against the Philadelphia Flyers on Oct. 6, 1989.
"What he did, it's awesome, honestly it's inspirational," Arjun said. "I'm thinking that if he made it, I feel like anybody can make it because all odds were against him."

The elder Bawa was a rugged center who scored seven points (six goals, one assist) in 61 NHL games with the Capitals, Vancouver Canucks, San Jose Sharks and Mighty Ducks of Anaheim from 1989-94.
Arjun and his stepbrother, Kayden Sadhra-Kang, hope to follow their 55-year-old father's footsteps into the NHL. Kayden is a 17-year-old defenseman who recently completed his rookie season with Lethbridge of the Western Hockey League. He had one assist in nine games after being selected by Lethbridge in the ninth round (No. 195) of the 2018 WHL Bantam Draft.

Arjun, a forward, signed to play with Red Deer of the WHL in May 2020 after being selected in the second round (No. 36) of the 2020 bantam draft.
"It means a lot to carry on my dad's legacy," Kayden said. "There are so few people that have multiple family members in the NHL. Especially as a South Asian, it would be extra special to be able to do that."
Robin Bawa's path to the NHL wasn't easy. Growing up in Duncan, British Columbia, he was told by other kids when he was 7 that "Colored people didn't play hockey, your kind don't play hockey."
He and his father set out to prove them wrong.
"I went and told my dad and the next day my dad bought me a pair of skates," Bawa said. "He didn't skate at all, but he took me out to a lake that froze every year. We'd go out there after work. I'd skate for maybe 10 feet and come back, the next day skate 20 feet, then 30 feet. That's how I learned."
Bawa became good enough to start playing organized minor hockey where he often was the only player of color on the ice. He said he endured some racist name-calling in minor and junior hockey, but he refused to let it derail him.
"Ignore it and move on" became his mantra.
"First of all, no matter what color you are how hard it is to make the NHL," he said. "Then, as a minority, it can be a little harder. You take a different route than maybe a Caucasian player. Back in the day, it was a little tougher, there was more prejudice in society and hockey is part of that society. There are always obstacles in your way to where you want to get to, right? If you let it affect you, you're not going to attain your goals."

Bawa joined Kamloops of the WHL in 1982-83 but soon became frustrated playing major junior hockey.
"When I went to junior, left home at 16, it was a little early for me to leave home," he said. "The maturity level wasn't where it should have been. The first couple of years was tough."
Kamloops traded Bawa to Westminster at the start of the 1984-85 season, and Westminster traded him back to Kamloops midway through the season. The team was coached by Ken Hitchcock, who Bawa says "turned my career around."
Hitchcock said he observed Bawa over several practices and determined he was playing the wrong style of game.
"He was tough, he was aggressive, he was physical, he had a real edge, Hitchcock said. "The two-way game didn't interest him. He saw himself as an energy player. When we watched him in practice doing the drills, he showed skills we were impressed with.
"I sat down with him and said, 'I think you can become a 200-foot player," said Hitchcock, who won 849 games as an NHL coach from 1996-2019, fourth most in League history. " 'I think you can score. I don't think you think you can score, but I think you've got to change the emphasis.'"
Hearing that, Bawa "changed overnight," Hitchcock said, and became a go-to scorer for Kamloops. He improved from 25 points (six goals, 19 assists) in 52 games in 1984-85 to 72 points (29 goals, 43 assists) in 63 games the following season.
He capped his final season in Kamloops in 1986-87 with 113 points (57 goals, 56 assists) in 62 games.
"He was playing in excess of 20 minutes a night and he really bought into becoming a complete player," Hitchcock said. "I don't want to say it was easy but what happened was it was like a breath of fresh air for him. He saw himself in a different light. His confidence grew daily."
The Capitals showed their confidence in Bawa and signed him as a free agent on May 22, 1987. He played five games with Washington and was traded to the Vancouver Canucks on July 31, 1991.

Bawa played two games with the Canucks before he was traded on Dec. 15, 922 to the San Jose Sharks, and scored five goals in 42 games with the Sharks in 1992-93.
He was more of a physical presence than a scoring threat in the NHL but Hitchcock said he could tell Bawa never forgot the lessons he learned in Kamloops about being a complete player.
"I know one thing," Hitchcock said, "some of the coaches when he was in the NHL trusted him because they played him late in the game."
Bawa said he didn't think much about his legacy when he was playing because he was too busy trying to make it to the NHL and succeed.
He helped pave the way for other players of Indian descent, including Toronto Maple Leafs assistant Manny Malhotra, who played 991 NHL games for seven teams from 1998-2015, and Edmonton Oilers forward Jujhar Khaira, the only player of Indian heritage now playing in the NHL.
"It feels great now when you reflect on it," Bawa said. "The more time goes by, the more it means. My grandpa came over in 1906, he's one of the first South Asians to come to Canada from India. In that sense, he broke a barrier. My barrier was in ice hockey."
Photos: Doug MacLellan/Hockey Hall of Fame/Red Deer Rebels/Erica Perreaux