Color of Hockey: Daniels relishing role mentoring Indigenous youth

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 Indigenous Peoples’ Heritage Month, he profiles Sydney Daniels, a former Winnipeg Jets scout who is actively working with Indigenous youth through hockey.

Sydney Daniels enjoyed working as a college scout for the Winnipeg Jets and became the second Indigenous woman named an NHL scout when the Jets hired her in September 2022.

But something kept gnawing at her.

“I had an amazing experience working for the Winnipeg Jets, I was able to learn so much from them and grow personally and professionally,” Daniels said. “I just thought the longer that I was trying to push down and push away the passion that was calling, the further away it might have gotten away from me.”

Daniels left the Jets prior to this season to follow that passion: to help improve lives within the Indigenous community, particularly its youth, through hockey.

“I took a leap, took a risk, and didn’t re-sign with them just to fully immerse myself into finding, following and, hopefully, making my dream come true,” she said.

The 29-year-old former Harvard University women’s hockey team captain and assistant coach now spends a lot of her time speaking to Indigenous groups in Canada, mentoring girls and working with closely with her father, retired NHL forward Scott Daniels, in operating Daniels Hockey, which runs camps and clinics that help support Indigenous youth in Saskatchewan and other provinces in Canada.

The Jets organization said: “We’re happy for Sydney and excited to see her impact as she pursues her passion of helping Indigenous youth grow and succeed in the sport that she loves.”

In September, Daniels skated with her father, Reggie Leach and Jamie Leach, John Chabot and other Indigenous former NHL players in the second annual Every Child Matters Hockey Game in Kamloops, British Columbia.

The charity event was presented by the Orange Jersey Project to help raise awareness and encourage action for truth and reconciliation for the Indigenous children lost -- and those who survived -- at Canada’s residential schools, as well as their families and communities.

“I look up and I’m on a line with John Chabot and Blair Atcheynum and I’m, like, ‘How did I get here? This is pretty special,’” said Sydney Daniels, part of the Mistawasis Nehiyawak First Nation. “It was an incredible opportunity for me to meet more of Indigenous descent within the NHL, to learn from them and ask them questions about navigating this space for myself professionally.

“Getting to be linemates and just playing hockey with other Indigenous players was the most special part. Definitely a Top 10 favorite memory.”

Daniels has worked with Canadian Tire Jumpstart Charities as a mentor in its “Play to Lead” program, a network of women and girls that provides an enabling environment for high-school aged athletes to reach their potential as leaders and advance gender equity and diversity in sport.

Canadian Tire Jumpstart Charities president Marco Di Buono said the organization has been impressed with Daniels’ work as a “Play to Lead” mentor and work with Daniels Hockey, and is exploring ways to support her outreach efforts in the Indigenous community.

“Don’t know what that looks like yet, she’s still got some ideas she’s fleshing out," Di Buono said, "but we want to be side by side with her on that journey. She's saving lives, not just changing them.”

Daniels said she’s a hockey lifer because the sport was a life saver for her family. Her late grandfather, Noel Daniels, attended the St. Michael’s Residential School in Duck Lake, Saskatchewan.

It was part of a government-sponsored, church-run education system established to assimilate the country's Indigenous children, who were separated from their families. The schools, which opened in the 1880s and closed in 1996, were rife with abuse.

Becoming a skilled hockey player helped Noel Daniels and another St. Michael’s student, Fred Sasakamoose, survive the harsh environment.

Sasakamoose later became the first Indigenous player with treaty status to play in the NHL when he debuted with the Chicago Blackhawks against the Boston Bruins on Nov. 20, 1953.

“I've been told that one of the priests that actually coached the hockey team looked after my grandfather, made sure he was fed and made sure he wouldn't be beaten and that was all given to him and afforded to him because he was a good hockey player,” Daniels said. “My grandfather, him being grateful for the sport and recognizing that maybe this is what saved his life, paid it forward by teaching all of his kids how to play, including my father.”

Scott Daniels went on to become a forward for the Hartford Whalers, Philadelphia Flyers and New Jersey Devils from 1992-99 and had 20 points (eight goals, 12 assists) in 149 NHL games and no points in one Stanley Cup Playoff game, with the Devils in 1997-98.

He passed the love of hockey on to his children.

“Ever since I was little, I always grew up wanting to be just like him, wanting to play in the NHL and fight in the NHL,” Sydney Daniels said. “But I quickly learned it wasn’t a possibility for me.”

But college hockey was. A forward for Harvard from 2013-17, Daniels was captain in her senior season and had 86 points (59 goals, 27 assists) in 126 NCAA games.

The Waltham, Massachusetts, resident also played for the United States and won a gold medal at the IIHF Under-18 Women’s World Championship in 2010-11 and a silver medal the following year.

After college, she played seven games for Boston of the National Women’s Hockey League in 2017-18 and was a Harvard women's assistant coach from 2018-22, before the Jets hired her as a scout.

Daniels followed her friend Brigette Lacquette, a defenseman who was the first Indigenous woman to play for Canada’s women’s national team, into the NHL scouting ranks.

The Blackhawks hired Lacquette, a member of Cote First Nation in Saskatchewan, in 2021. She is also a member of the NHL Player Inclusion Coalition, established by the NHL and NHL Players’ Association in 2023 to advance equality and inclusion in hockey on and off the ice.

“She definitely helped me transitioning into the NHL Scout world,” Daniels said. “She was always there for me and being a great sound board.”

Daniels said she’s excited to see what this newest chapter in her career and life holds.

“Because of the success I’ve had in the hockey world," she said, "I’m very lucky that it will and has opened doors for me to allow me to work directly with youth, impact them directly, allow them to see me and the things that I’ve done in hopes that it inspires a few of them.

"If I can impact just one person at one event, that would be the best thing that could happen for me.”