Color of Hockey: Baez, Army star, chasing dream of playing professionally

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, as part of NHL.com's celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, he profiles Joey Baez, a forward at the United States Military Academy at West Point who was second in the Atlantic Hockey Association in goals last season and also tied for second in power-play goals throughout NCAA Division I men’s hockey.

Joey Baez idolized Vincent Lecavalier and Steven Stamkos.

“Those two are my favorites by far, growing up in Tampa, watching them on the Lightning,” Baez said. “Vinny Lecavalier really inspired me to be the kind of player I am today.”

Baez is making a name for himself as a forward for the United States Military Academy at West Point. The 23-year-old junior from Tampa finished second in the Atlantic Hockey Association in goals last season with 21 in 37 games behind Blake Bennett of American International (22), and became Army’s first 20-goal scorer since 2007-08.

He was third on Army in points (28) last season and was tied for second in power-play goals nationally (12) with University of Minnesota-Duluth forward Ben Steeves and David Silye, who was a Minnesota State University forward before he transferred to the University of Wisconsin this season.

“I try to be as offensive as possible,” Baez said. “I’ve always wanted to fill the role as a goal-scorer. I’ve worked with (Zach McKelvie), our [associate head] coach a lot trying to be a more defensive player, be reliable and dependable in the d-zone. I’m trying to work on being a more two-way forward. But, more specifically, I want to be a goal-scorer, I want to be a guy everyone can look up to and be a gametime player.”

Army coach Brian Riley said he’s going to depend on Baez for more goals and leadership this season as Army will have one of the youngest teams in NCAA men’s Division I hockey with 11 freshmen, nine sophomores, seven juniors and four seniors.

“Absolutely, we are going to lean on him heavily from an offensive standpoint,” Riley said. “Where we will be kind of looking to figure out a way to score, he’s one guy who has done it and can do it.”

Baez credits his college goal-scoring success to his coaches and teammates including sophomore forward Max Itagaki, who assisted on 10 of his 12 power play goals.

Itagaki, the AHA’s rookie of the year last season, was fifth in the conference with 33 points (four goals, 29 assists) in 37 games, second in the conference in assists behind Aiden Hansen-Bukata (30) of RIT, and set the Atlantic Hockey record for most assists by a freshman in a single season.

“He’s something really special,” Baez said. “He’s very shifty, he’s very smart. He’s able to get out of any situation. He’ll go into a corner, fight for the puck, two guys are on him and then out of nowhere he just slips out and gets the puck over to anyone that’s open.”

Baez said he developed his passion for hockey and desire to serve in the military from his father, Pete Baez, who moved to the U.S. mainland from Puerto Rico when he was 19 or 20 and served in the Air Force.

The elder Baez became a huge Lightning fan when they won the Stanley Cup for the first time in 2004 and decided to get 4-year-old Joey into ice skating.

“I did learn-to-skate, Hockey 101-type stuff and then I fell in love with it from there,” Joey Baez said. “He fell in love with it just as much as I did. He did a lot of research on hockey, and he learned the game by himself just through watching videos and watching hockey games. He dedicated pretty much his whole life after I was born into molding me into a hockey player just from watching the Lightning play and all that.”

Pete Baez never got to see his son play in college. He died in October 2018 after a short battle with cancer.

“Him and my mom, Cathy, were my biggest supporters,” Joey Baez said. “He was always the one taking me to practices, getting me up early to go work out or do off-ice training or go to the rink for skating lessons. He was fully dedicated to me succeeding not just in hockey, but in life.”

Baez left Florida to chase his hockey dreams. He played for the Skipjacks Hockey Club (York, Pennsylvania) of the United States Premier Hockey League, as well as Johnstown (Pennsylvania) and Lone Star (North Richland Hills, Texas) of the North American Hockey League from 2015-2021.

He had a breakout season with Lone Star in 2019-20 when he led the NAHL in goals (32) and was second on his team with 58 points in 53 games.

While playing juniors, Baez committed in 2018 to play for the University of Alabama in Huntsville. But plans changed in 2021 when the school suspended its hockey program, which was the lone Division I team in the southeastern United States, due to a lack of conference affiliation.

Former Alabama-Huntsville coach Mike Corbett knew that Baez wanted to continue his family’s military tradition by joining the Army at some point, so he reached out to West Point, Riley said.

Baez said he knew he had a new hockey home as soon as he talked with Riley and his staff.

“I felt like it was a good opportunity to play hockey at the Division-I level and then still be able to serve,” he said. “It worked out perfectly.”

Baez hopes to play professional hockey someday when his military obligation is complete. Graduates of the Army, Navy and Air Force academies are required to serve at least five years of active duty.

Dan Hinote is the only former West Point student to play in the NHL, but he didn’t graduate from the academy. He left after two seasons (1994-96) and joined Oshawa of the Ontario Hockey League.

He was selected by the Colorado Avalanche in the seventh round (No. 167) of the 1996 NHL Draft. Several other West Point graduates have gone on to play in the American Hockey League and ECHL, Riley said.

“I’ve always dreamed of playing professional hockey,” Baez said. “Whatever opportunity comes I’d be very happy, very grateful for anything.”