Color of Hockey: NHL's first Black physician set to aid U.S. at 4 Nations

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 Dr. Joel Boyd, the Minnesota Wild team physician who will serve as team physician for the United States at the 4 Nations Face-Off on Feb. 12-20 in Montreal and Boston.

Dr. Joel Boyd said he half-jokingly told Bill Guerin not to be afraid “to pull the old guy out of mothballs.”

The Minnesota Wild team physician had an interest in working as team doctor for the United States at the 4 Nations Face-Off. Turns out that Guerin, the Wild’s general manger who will hold the same role for the U.S. for the tournament, had a punchline for Dr. Boyd’s quip.

“Lo and behold, he turned around, gave me a call and asked me if I if I wanted to participate,” Dr. Boyd said. “I said, ‘Well, you know, I do.’ It was very nice of him to let the old guy try to take another run at it.”

Dr. Boyd, who turned 67 on New Year’s Eve, is an original in the NHL and in international hockey. He became the League’s first Black team physician when he joined the Wild in their inaugural season in 2000-01.

Before breaking that barrier, he served as a team physician for the U.S. men’s hockey team at the 1998 Nagano Olympics, the first Winter Games in which NHL players were allowed to compete.

He cared for a U.S. roster that featured Hockey Hall of Fame inductees Chris Chelios, Pat LaFontaine, Jeremy Roenick, Brett Hull, Brian Leetch and Mike Modano.

The sixth-place U.S. team also included Guerin, who became Dr. Boyd’s boss when he was named the Wild’s GM on August 21, 2019.

"I mean, we go back to Olympic teams when I was playing, and we've had a relationship for a long time,” Guerin said. “And then being here, working with him the last five-plus years, I have complete trust in him and faith in him. He does a great job. He's committed to USA Hockey, always has been.

"There's nothing he hasn't seen. And you know what? He’s got a great attitude. He's got a great personality, fun to be around. He just fits."

Dr. Boyd said he’s looking forward to the 4 Nations Face-Off, which features teams from the United States, Canada, Sweden and Finland to build on his Olympics experience and serving as a team physician for the U.S. Men's National Team at the 1998 IIHF Men's World Championship.

“It’s one of the most fun things you can do at all levels -- players, coaches, equipment people,” Dr. Boyd said. “Whatever your position is in hockey, being involved in international tournaments and play is so much fun.

“Getting out to see other places and other cultures, doing international hockey was one of the highlights of my life.”

Another highlight has been watching his children continue the family’s hockey legacy.

His daughter, Kendall Boyd Tyson, is senior vice president, finance and business intelligence for the Seattle Kraken, and his son, Kyle Boyd, is the Kraken’s senior director, fan development; and his son, Kasey Boyd, coaches youth hockey in the Seattle area.

“I didn’t see it coming,” said Dr. Boyd, who has a home in Seattle so he and his wife, Cheryl, can visit their children and grandchildren. “I’m extremely proud of where they’ve gone and the things that they have been able to accomplish even so far,”

In addition to his work in hockey, Dr. Boyd has served as a physician for University of Minnesota football, the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings and the Minnesota Lynx of the WNBA.

Football was Dr. Boyd’s thing, having been a star running back at Bucknell University in the late 1970s. But hockey always seemed to be in the background.

The Washington, D.C., native became intrigued by the sport watching Mike Marson, a forward who became the NHL’s second Black player when he debuted with the Washington Capitals in 1974-75, their inaugural season.

“Being in D.C. and African American, people were, like, ‘Wow, there’s a Black guy playing hockey, that’s unheard of,’” Dr. Boyd said. “My friends and I were, like, ‘We’ve got to go see this.’ And at the time, they were giving tickets away for the most part just trying to get a fan base. We would go down to the Capital Centre and watch Mike Marson play.”

Hockey fell off Dr. Boyd’s radar when he attended Bucknell in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, and Temple University’s Lewis Katz School of Medicine in Philadelphia.

His interest in the sport was rekindled during a sports medicine fellowship at the University of Western Ontario in Canada where part of his training dealt with hockey injuries.

Dr. Boyd’s involvement in international hockey grew through a United States Olympic Committee training program for physicians that led to opportunities with USA Hockey.

By the mid-1990s, he was working as a physician for the Minnesota Moose of the old International Hockey League and for USA Hockey’s Under-17 teams and international squads.

Dr. Boyd’s work with United States’ hockey governing body also began to a sort of six degrees of separation.

His USA Hockey affiliation also began a sort of six degrees of separation chain that led to Dr. Boyd’s hiring by the Wild. Through USA Hockey, he met Bryant McBride, then an NHL executive who was an architect of the NHL Diversity Taks Force, the precursor of the League’s Hockey Is For Everyone initiative.

Working with McBride on the task force put Dr. Boyd in NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman’s orbit. Impressed by the doctor’s credentials, Bettman mentioned him to the expansion Wild’s ownership group.

“There were a number of people who helped support me locally, getting me to know the ownership group, but one of the big letters for me was actually from Gary Bettman,” he told the Color of Hockey in 2018. “I still have that letter he sent to the ownership group. That was sort of the beginning.”

Dr. Boyd hopes his international hockey experience doesn’t end with 4 Nations Face-Off.

He said he’d like to work the 2026 Milano-Cortina Olympics, which will mark the return of NHL players after they didn’t participate in the 2018 and 2022 Winter Games.

“If it works out and everybody is in agreement, I certainly would love another opportunity to go to the Winter Olympics, there’s no question about it,” he said. “I think it’s the penultimate sporting activity on the planet. I love the Olympics.”

NHL.com independent correspondent Jessi Pierce contributed to this story.