NHL Launches Player Inclusion Coalition | FEATURE

In 2020, the world was having a racial reckoning in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. People marched in protest and demanded a better world for minorities, including people of color, women and those in the LGBTQ+ community.

The hockey world also was having a reckoning.

"Everything started with the social justice movement and the greater hockey community's response to it broke my heart," said former Devil Mark Fraser.

So, Fraser and others took action.

In 2020, a collection of people within the hockey community came together for the purpose of making the game they love more inclusive and diverse by offering recommendations to the NHL to help grow the game.

The group, the Player Inclusion Committee, featured members from all spectrums of the hockey universe, from former and current players to executives to referees and more. And they represented all walks of life with people of color, women and those in the LBGTQ+ community.
Three years later, that group has evolved with the official launch of the Player Inclusion Coalition, which was announced Tuesday morning. The new focus is moving beyond recommendations and more on action.

"Our main focus has been around educating leaders in our space about the importance of diversity and inclusion, getting into locker rooms at the NHL level and educating the players," said Meghan Duggan, the Devils Director of Player Development. "And taking action, being out in the communities."

Duggan was one of the original members of the group in 2020 and has seen how much of an impact they've had in such a short amount of time.

"This is some of the most substantial, meaningful work I do in my life," she said. "We started three years ago, just engaging in the conversations, taking action, getting out in the communities, educating leaders around the importance of these issues."

The Player Inclusion Coalition, which is co-chaired by Anson Carter and former Devil PK Subban, will provide the NHL with insights regarding equality and inclusivity from a player's perspective. The NHL and NHLPA will support the group through funding to help develop and execute action plans to grow the game.

"I wanted to get involved because I truly believe that it's important to leverage the players and the players' experiences at all levels of the game," Fraser said. "We are the ones who have been faced with a lot of the challenges but have also been successful of our pursuit and reaching that elite level of this beautiful sport. My own personal efforts, to do what I can to help create a positive impact in the game, I wanted to that with peers of mine that have been in my shoes."

Fraser knows the feeling of walking into a locker room and being the only person of color.

"All of us, whether it's in our careers or in society, when we've walked into a room, we were the only one," he said. "I really wanted to join because all my peers have the same experience and feelings of being part of something we love but walking around and being the only one."

"When I was a young kid, I wanted to look up and see someone that looked like me. Or later in my life that identified the way that I did," said Duggan, who identifies as a gay woman. "If you can see it, you can be it."

Most of all, they're doing this not only for the game they love, but for the future.

"We want to create safe spaces and diversify the game so that more future generations of ourselves can feel this is a space for them as well and they can see themselves in hockey," Fraser said, "whether as an executive, as a referee, as a player, and think that it's something they can be a part of, which hasn't always been the case. That's one of our driving motivations. We're not doing this for ourselves. We're doing this for the future generations and we love the sport. We want to young us to know that they can do this as well."

And these people are proving they belong by excelling in their own fields.

"I'm proud to be a part of New Jersey. The Devils organization, hiring a gay woman to work in hockey operations, promoted someone like Kate Madigan to assistant general manager," Duggan said. "Because we've earned those positions. We weren't held back because of our gender or sexual orientation. I'm proud to be a part of our organization and I know we're going to continue to be leaders and making hockey an inclusive and diverse space."