Color of Hockey: Black Hockey Summit shows 'anything is possible'

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 Hockey Equality’s Black Hockey Summit, held last week at Scotiabank Pond in Toronto.

TORONTO -- Trey Caracciolo said it felt refreshing not feeling like a unicorn at the Black Hockey Summit.

“I feel like my whole career, everywhere I’ve been, I’ve been one of one or one of two players on every team I’ve played for,” said Caracciolo, a 17-year-old goalie who played for Kitchener-Waterloo of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League last season.

“It’s good to see people who look like you on the ice. It’s good to look around and see everybody.”

Caracciolo was one of nearly 500 players who attended Hockey Equality’s second annual Black Hockey Summit, a week-long multicultural, multiethnic melting pot of boys and girls players from pee wee to elite from across Canada and the United States.

They enjoyed high-paced on-ice skills sessions run by volunteer coaches at Scotiabank Pond in suburban Toronto, played ball hockey, worked out on a field behind the four-sheet rink facility and listened to discissions on pathways and opportunities in hockey on the ice and beyond.

The goal of the summit is to help make hockey more inclusive and welcoming by producing good players, nurturing them and creating a community and support network for them and their families.

During the week, players met Tennessee State University coach Duante Abercrombie, who outlined the vision for establishing the first hockey program at a historically Black college (HBCU) in the United States, which expects to take the ice in 2025-26.

“This is going to be hockey our way, it has never been done this way,” he said during a presentation to players. “I want music on the ice for practice. We’re going to have DJs for the game. The band is going to be there. ... This needs to be seen, this needs to be experienced our way.”

Karl Subban, father of former NHL defenseman and current ESPN analyst P.K. Subban and eight-season NHL goalie Malcolm Subban, captivated younger players with a story time reading from “The Hockey Skates,” a children’s book he authored in 2023.

“It takes a village to raise a hockey player, right?” said Anthony Stewart, Hockey Equality’s chairman and a 2005 NHL Draft first-round pick (No. 25) who played six seasons for the Florida Panthers, Atlanta Thrashers and Carolina Hurricanes from 2005-12.

Stewart and his wife, Chante Eastmond, are part of the brain trust of the nonprofit organization trying to grow hockey by lowering financial and other barriers that impact BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) boys and girls through mentorships, grassroots and development programs.

Hockey Equality’s impact was evident at the 2024 NHL Draft, when three players of color involved with the organization were selected.

Defenseman Zayne Parekh was taken by the Calgary Flames with the No. 9 pick; forward Kevin He, the highest-drafted China-born player in NHL history, was chosen by the Winnipeg Jets in the fourth round (No. 109); and defenseman Ty Henry went to the Chicago Blackhawks in the sixth round (No. 163).

“I literally cried,” Stewart said. “What it shows for us is that anything is possible. We talk about this change, and people are using it as a noun. But change is a verb, and we are the activation of that verb.”

Parekh and He expressed gratitude to Hockey Equality, Stewart and Eastmond for helping them on their hockey journeys.

“The game has done a great job in having more diversity, having more inclusion, more mentorship," Parekh said. “Anthony and Chante were huge people that supported me in my minor midget years. They invited me in to many things.”

In a text, he said, “Tell Anthony I want to thank him for what he’s done with Hockey Equality, and the future looks bright.”

Hockey Equality and the summit receive support from the NHL and NHL Players’ Association’s International Growth Fund.

The fund was established in as part of the NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement in 2013 and supported by every NHL team to accelerate the development of League and club business initiatives, along with projects to promote long-term fan development and increase participation at all levels of hockey with an emphasis on youth.

“It’s an honor to contribute to Hockey Equality and to witness the incredible program made by young athletes,” said Rob Knesaurek, NHL senior vice president, hockey development and industry growth. “Participating in the Black Hockey Summit further underscores the importance of inclusive programs in hockey, and I am privileged to celebrate and learn alongside such inspiring individuals.”

Karl Subban, a retired school principal, said he was inspired by what he saw at the summit.

“They look around the room and they see themselves represented around the room,” Subban said. “They look at the books on display and they see themselves in those books. They see Willie O’Ree’s image on skates and they see themselves on their skates. I like to think they see themselves in P.K.’s story. It’s such a motivating thing for young people to see themselves in success.”

The summit was about creating community and a sense of family, but it also provided a bonding opportunity for immediate families. Dwight Green came from Dallas with his 7-year-old grandson, Brandon, in tow.

The elder Green was a volunteer coach and the younger practiced and skated with his age group.

“We came for the diversity here, seeing different players who look like him, the friendships and the different things he learns on the ice,” Dwight Green said. “I call this a network because they’ve got coaches, they’ve got trainers, they’ve got equipment managers.”

Bernice Carnegie, the daughter of the late Herb Carnegie, regarded as the best Black player who never reached the NHL, stopped by the summit Tuesday to see her 7-year-old grandson, Jacob Chambers, skate.

Carnegie, posthumously inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2022, would have smiled if he had witnessed the summit, his daughter said.

“Even though you can make it without seeing somebody who looks like you, like my father did and I did, and many people do, it adds something to your life,” said Carnegie, who co-founded the Carnegie Initiative in 2021 to help promote diversity and inclusion in hockey. “It adds something to your life to say, ‘I see that, maybe I can be that.’”