Arizona State Sun Devils forward Dominic Garcia revealed Wednesday night that he's been the subject of racist slurs throughout his time in the hockey world.
In a statement issued through the program, the 23-year-old said an opposing player called him the N-word for the first time at age 10. Garcia also divulged that he was called the same slur while concession snacks were thrown at him as he was walking back to the dressing room at the intermission of a junior game when he was 19.
"It's numbing," Garcia wrote. "I question if I made the mistake and misheard them. When reality sets in - that I heard what I heard - a deep pain and sadness comes over you. It's a feeling that lingers no matter what unfolds the rest of the day. It occupies your mind, even though I (along with many others) continue to put on a brave face."
The Sun Devils alternate captain said that at age 17, he stayed behind on the team bus after a game while everyone else left to go eat because the area they were in was "known to be racially confrontational."
Garcia added that he's experienced racism outside of hockey as well and that he "should be seen as an equal to all."
The Las Vegas-born winger also shared a photo of himself playing against K'Andre Miller, the New York Rangers prospect and then-University of Wisconsin defenseman who was targeted by a racist hacker during a video call with the NHL club in April.
"To you all, it may look like two players on opposing teams battling for the puck," Garcia wrote. "To me, I see a great person and hockey player in K'Andre. But I also see two black men in a predominantly white sport, who overcame adversity from not only a performance-based standpoint, but racial adversity as well. Two men who play at some of the highest levels of hockey but still continue to fight for equality."
Garcia played his junior season with Arizona State in 2019-20.
The Western Hockey League has a tentative plan to begin its next campaign in the fall.
The league confirmed Wednesday it is targeting a start date of Oct. 2 for the 2020-21 regular season, but that date is dependent on approval from government and health officials.
"The WHL is committed to protecting the integrity of the WHL regular-season schedule and fully intends to complete a full 68-game schedule for 2020-21, regardless of when the season begins," the league said in a statement.
It added it will work with authorities in relevant regions to determine how many fans will be permitted to attend games once play resumes.
The WHL's 2019-20 campaign began on Sept. 20. The league halted play on March 12 and canceled the rest of the schedule six days later amid the COVID-19 outbreak.
When Andrew Raycroft was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2006, he was ecstatic to get the chance to play near his hometown of Belleville, Ontario.
Unfortunately for the netminder, things didn't go as planned.
"It started to snowball on me, getting more and more difficult," Raycroft said of his two seasons in Toronto, according to The Athletic's James Mirtle. "I just didn't know what to do. I wasn't Martin Brodeur. I wasn't Patrick Roy, where I had the talent or the pedigree to just to play my way out of it. I needed confidence and I needed mental clarity and I wasn't able to find that."
Raycroft showed immense promise as a young goaltender, taking home the Calder Trophy in 2003 while with the Boston Bruins. The Maple Leafs, who were looking for an immediate answer in net at the time, traded away the rights to Tuukka Rask to bring in Raycroft.
He started 71 games in his first season with the Leafs and went 37-25-9 with an .894 save percentage and 2.99 goals-against average. His peripheral numbers dipped as the year went on, and Toronto eventually missed the playoffs by a single point.
With the roller coaster of ups and downs during his first year and constant media spotlight, Raycroft believes he may have periodically suffered from depression.
"I don't know. I'm sure there was. I wasn't happy, that's for sure," he said. "It was hard for me to be excited about anything and get to the rink. ... I don't know if it was depression clinically or what exactly that feels like, but there was certainly times when I was really sad and just didn't want to deal with anything.
"It was still at a time where it wasn't frowned upon but (getting help) wasn't encouraged by any means. And it goes to the point of me not really having the confidence to go and ask for help and just trying to deal with it myself. I don't really have many regrets. I tried my best. But I wish I asked for help."
Raycroft pointed to the constant pressure from the media in Toronto as a key reason why he didn't seek help at the time.
"It would have made miles of difference, I believe, had I been able to just go and talk to someone," he added. "But if that had got out in the media that I was going to see someone? I was scared of that happening and looking even more weak than not just playing bad and losing games, but also looking like I can't handle it."
His second season in Toronto was one of the worst of his career, as he won just twice in 19 games. He bought out of his contract in the summer of 2008 and went on to be a backup goalie with the Colorado Avalanche, Vancouver Canucks, and Dallas Stars until he went to play overseas in 2012. He announced his retirement from pro hockey in 2014.
NHL players won't be required to wear full face shields if the season resumes this summer, sources told The Associated Press' Stephen Whyno.
The NHL and NHLPA have focused on testing and other off-ice safety precautions rather than equipment changes amid return-to-play negotiations, Whyno added.
An infectious disease specialist recommended last month that players take extra precautions if the NHL returns. They suggested the use of face shields and the elimination of scrums, spitting, and fighting from the game.
However, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said in May that players and personnel would be tested every evening for the coronavirus. As a result, there isn't expected to be specialized on-ice equipment.
NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly also said he didn't think drastic changes to equipment would be necessary.
Bauer Hockey is expected to announce a new line of protective equipment including specialized facial protection, according to TSN's Darren Dreger.
The CEO of Seattle's NHL franchise says the organization will continue to hold off on revealing the team name amid widespread protests against police brutality as well as the coronavirus pandemic.
"It's not the right time," Tod Leiweke told The Seattle Times' Geoff Baker on Tuesday. "Vegas did it a year out. We've got ample time, and the thing this organization will never be is tone-deaf. So we've got to pick the right time, and we've got to make sure all of our ducks are in a row."
Leiweke added that the team may wait until October to announce its name and that it has started designing logos and uniforms for several possible names. He also noted the club is working through "myriad" trademarking issues.
"If you do just one (name), then you've left yourself hostage to any sort of challenge," Leiweke said. "So we've had to do multiple (trade)marks, and that's about where we are."
The Seattle franchise won't begin play until 2021-22. The regular season normally begins in October, but it remains to be seen how the schedule will be affected if the 2020-21 campaign begins later than usual because of delays in 2019-20.
Leiweke said Tuesday that the reopening of KeyArena following renovations is expected to be postponed at least two months until late in the summer of 2021 due to the coronavirus. That timeline is not expected to affect the team's on-ice debut.
Seattle general manager Ron Francis said last July that the club was aiming to unveil its name in early 2020, but that plan was put on hold in March amid the COVID-19 outbreak.
The Vegas Golden Knights revealed their name and logo in November 2016 before beginning play in the fall of 2017.
Waterloo Regional Police, the Ontario Hockey League, and the Kitchener Rangers are investigating allegations that a Rangers player forced younger teammates to do cocaine at a rookie party in 2016, according to The Canadian Press.
Eric Guest, who played for the Rangers from 2016-2019, said Monday that one veteran player forced Guest and another younger player to try the drug in a bathroom. Guest said he was 16 at the time.
"It was him and then me and another young kid and we were locked in that bathroom and he said, 'you are not allowed out of this bathroom until you do this,'" Guest said in a video shared on Instagram.
Guest did not disclose any names, but he said the older player had already been drafted to the NHL at the time of the incident.
The Rangers issued a statement Tuesday saying they became aware of the allegations Monday night and contacted local authorities.
"These allegations involve former players with our team and are extremely serious and potentially criminal conduct," the team said, adding that it will cooperate with the OHL's investigation.
Guest split the 2019-20 season between the Caledonia Corvairs and the London Nationals of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League.
Jason Botterill inherited a tough situation with the Buffalo Sabres when he was brought on as general manager in 2017. Though he made a handful of big moves over the last three years, he was simply unable to make the team a top contender in the league quickly enough. The Sabres still haven't made the playoffs since 2011.
As his time with the Sabres came to an end Tuesday, let's take a look at some of the decisions that ultimately led to his dismissal.
Trading Evander Kane to San Jose
Dave Reginek / National Hockey League / Getty
Kane showed consistent goal-scoring ability with Buffalo but wasn't an absolute game-changer. During his three seasons with the team from 2015-18, he potted 20, 28, and 20 goals, respectively. In 2017-18, Kane's contract year, Botterill dealt him to the San Jose Sharks at the trade deadline.
Buffalo received a decent haul for Kane, but the return didn't help the team immediately; the Sabres received an AHL-level player, Danny O'Regan, and a 2019 first- and fourth-round pick.
Meanwhile, Kane quickly made an impact in San Jose. After a successful stint with the Sharks to end the season, Kane was rewarded with a seven-year, $49-million extension. In the first season of his new deal, he put together one of the best campaigns of his career, recording 30 goals and 56 points while leading the league in penalty minutes with 153.
Since Buffalo traded him away, Kane's career has been on an upward trajectory. Still only 28 years old, he's the type of secondary scorer the Sabres are dearly missing.
Parting ways with Ryan O'Reilly
Bill Wippert / National Hockey League / Getty
The Sabres made a big splash by bringing in O'Reilly during the 2015 offseason in hopes that he would help the franchise turn a corner. Buffalo swiftly signed him to a seven-year extension, and the dynamic two-way center's impact was immediate. He posted some of the best numbers of his career during his three years with the team.
Despite his individual success on the ice, O'Reilly soured on the Sabres rather quickly. After the 2017-18 season, he said that he'd lost his love for the game of hockey multiple times because the Sabres kept on losing. With five years remaining on O'Reilly's contract, Botterill traded him to the St. Louis Blues in the 2018 offseason for a first- and second-round pick, Tage Thompson, Vladimir Sobotka, and Patrik Berglund.
O'Reilly won the Stanley Cup in his first season with the Blues, taking home the Conn Smythe Trophy in the process. He also tied his career high in goals while posting a career-best 77 points. He recently said that winning the Cup and playing in St. Louis "completely revamped" his career.
With a glaring lack of depth down the middle behind Eichel, Botterill was then faced with the tough task of filling O'Reilly's spot in the lineup. A true No. 2 center has yet to emerge in Buffalo.
Jeff Skinner's monster contract
Icon Sportswire / Icon Sportswire / Getty
After arriving via a trade with the Carolina Hurricanes, Skinner demonstrated his offensive prowess in his first season with the Sabres, potting a career-best 40 goals in his 63-point 2018-19 campaign. The club seemed to have found a top-line talent worthy of flanking Eichel, but the then-26-year-old was set to become an unrestricted free agent.
The decision to sign Skinner was understandable considering his fit alongside Eichel, but the framework of the deal was questionable from the get-go. The franchise hadn't rostered a 40-goal scorer since 2008-09 and was stuck in a near-decade-long postseason drought, which put more pressure on Botterill to reach an agreement while likely decreasing his negotiating power.
In the end, Botterill inked Skinner to a splashy eight-year, $72-million pact - just $1 million short of Eichel's annual salary - that made him the sixth-highest-paid winger in the league at the time. Skinner recorded 14 goals and a career-low 23 points in 59 games, making his mammoth contract instantly regrettable.
Questionable moves in 2020
Bill Wippert / National Hockey League / Getty
With the Sabres trending in the wrong direction, Botterill made a couple of desperation moves in the second half of the season to try to salvage the campaign.
In January, he dealt defenseman Marco Scandella to the Montreal Canadiens for a fourth-round pick and then flipped that fourth-rounder to the Calgary Flames for a declining Michael Frolik. Botterill apparently undervalued Scandella, as the Canadiens traded the rearguard to the St. Louis Blues six weeks later for a 2020 second-round pick and a conditional fourth-rounder in 2021. Meanwhile, the 32-year-old Frolik registered just one goal over 19 games for the Sabres.
With Buffalo six points out of a playoff spot at the trade deadline, Botterill sent a conditional fifth-round pick with the potential to convert into a fourth-rounder to the New Jersey Devils for another aging rental piece in Wayne Simmonds. The club lost its next six games in regulation and Simmonds chipped in with just one assist.
Failing to deliver for Eichel
Icon Sportswire / Icon Sportswire / Getty
Signing Jack Eichel for the long haul was an absolute no-brainer, but the minute Botterill inked him to an eight-year, $80-million contract, the clock began to tick. The deal cemented the Sabres' commitment to building a contender around the blue-chip center, but as the team continued to show virtually no improvement, it was a matter of time before Eichel spoke up.
Eichel's frustration appeared to reach its boiling point last week. The Sabres missed the postseason for the fifth straight time since he was drafted second overall, despite this year's format expanding to include 24 clubs, and the captain described his tenure as "a tough past five years" and said he was "fed up with the losing."
Shipping out Kane and O'Reilly - superior forwards compared to any of Eichel's recent teammates except Skinner - for minimal returns didn't exactly send a winning message, and Botterill's attempt to plug-and-play inferior talent around Eichel yielded similarly disappointing results over the previous three campaigns.
