NHL, Diversity Alliance skating on different paths

Both seek better opportunities for people of colour

No one from the National Hockey League will come right out and say why they have distanced themselves from the Hockey Diversity Alliance led by Evander Kane and Akim Aliu.

But it isn't all that difficult to figure out why.

The NHL says it wants to do the right thing when it comes to Black Lives Matter, when it comes to dealing with the long-term history of racism in their sport, when it come to taking important stands and fighting intolerance and when it comes to making certain there are greater opportunities for minorities in their game.

The league is steadfast about that.

They just don't want to do it the way in which Kane and Aliu and the HDA were pushing and proposing it — and that personality clash of leadership has placed the Hockey Diversity Alliance on one side and the NHL on another side of a very significant battle.

This isn't just a division between the league and the Alliance group, which came to fruition after a number of well-known racial instances were made public about problems in hockey.

In this case, this is an internal division between Black players, some on one side, some on the other inside, almost all of them inside the NHL world.

Most of them are not necessarily working against each other — but in this case, they're not necessarily working together, either.

On one side, there is the HDA with Kane, Aliu, and Matthew Dumba of the Minnesota Wild as the most prominent voices of the movement against what they call “systemic racism and intolerance in hockey.”

On other side there is Kim Davis, the NHL's executive vice-president, Social Impact, Growth Initiatives and Legislative Affairs, with league backing, and prominent hockey voices, players such as P.K. Subban and former players Anson Carter and Kevin Weekes.

And caught somewhere in the middle are Trevor Daley, now in the front office of the Pittsburgh Penguins, and Chris Stewart, now working for the Philadelphia Flyers, two recently retired NHL players, whose names are listed as founders on the HDA and have been recently employed in NHL management roles.

This is an uncomfortable subject, this division, even for those directly involved on either side of the apparent dispute. The HDA was necessarily born after a series of racially related incidents, recent and not so recent, came to light. The initial idea was supposed to be aligned with the NHL. The goal was not just to “change the face of hockey” but to create more opportunities for minority players, coaches and management in the game — while at the same time, promoting “social justice in support of Black, Indigenous and racialized communities.”

HDA asked a lot of the NHL with its initial pledge — with some of the initial proposals ambitious but somewhat impossible — and it also asked for a significant financial contribution. It isn't known how large that contribution was intended to be. Whatever the number, it was thought too large for the NHL and the worry in some places was: Where would the money be going and to whom?

In light of the division between the NHL and the HDA the league has set up a significant number of committees to deal with a wide-ranging variety of intolerance in the game and among those listed on their committees are Subban, Ryan Reaves of the Vegas Golden Knights, and broadcasters David Amber and Ron MacLean, along with former players and current broadcasters Carter and Weekes.

Not long ago, the HDA announced it would operate separately and “independent of the NHL ... unfortunately, the support we hoped to receive from the NHL was not delivered and instead the NHL focused on performative public relations efforts that seemed aimed at quickly moving past important conversations about race needed in the game.”

The NHL's response to what happened between the two groups: “Ask them,” a high-ranking official said. “We didn't make the decision.”

Speaking on an ESPN podcast, Subban spoke of the disagreement.

“There are always going to be multiple people fighting the fight, that want to eradicate racism, and everyone is going to have a different way,” Subban said. “Malcolm X and Martin Luther King didn't always see eye to eye, but they had an impact in their own way.

“I think in the sport, we're all after the same thing, and that's about continuing to build our game, improve our game, make it more inclusive and make it more welcoming at all levels. There are a lot of moving parts in change.”

Several attempts were made to contact leaders of the HDA and NHL about this battle. No calls were returned.

The recent situation with Arizona drafting teenage bully Mitchell Miller raised the ire of the HDA and had it attacking the league again. “The NHL and Coyotes should sign the HDA Pledge and start practising what they preach.” A few days later, the Coyotes dropped Miller.

It isn't known what part the NHL played in that determination.