Vilgrain Blazed Paths in NHL, Olympics | FEATURE

Claude Vilgrain arguably enjoyed the best New Year’s Eve in history. Arguably.

In the morning on the final day of 1986, Vilgrain was informed that he had been chosen to represent Team Canada in the upcoming 1988 Winter Olympic Games in Calgary. In the afternoon, playing with the Canadian national team in Calgary, he scored a goal in a victory against the Soviet Union. Then later that evening, while celebrating, he met his future wife Janet.

“That day I signed a contract, I scored a goal against the Russians and then I met my wife,” Vilgrain laughed. “I was getting to know her and people kept tapping me on the shoulder and telling me I scored a nice goal. My focus was going to the Olympics and that’s all I was thinking about until I ran into her a couple weeks later. My focus was a little different then.”

For Vilgrain, a former New Jersey Devil, the road to the Olympics was long and arduous. Beginning in 1986 he signed on to play for the national team. During that year he bypassed an opportunity to attend NHL training camp in Winnipeg because it would have cost him a chance to wear the red maple leaf on his sweater,

Vilgrain was then invited to attend an Olympic pre-camp in Calgary. He showed well enough to earn an invite into the main camp, which took part overseas in a tournament against Germany and the Soveit Union. After in December of 1986, Canada would hold another tournament against the United States, Soviet Union and Germany. It was then, finally, after a year that Vilgrain learned he would represent his country on the largest stage of the world.

“That was amazing,” he said. “Truly unbelievable.”

Two weeks before the Olympics began, Vilgrain and the Canadian team trained in Lake Placid, New York. It wasn’t until they finally arrived in Calgary for the Games that it hit Vilgrain that he really would be playing in the Olympics.

“The biggest thing for me was the opening ceremony,” he said. “That’s when I realized I made it when we walked into the stadium.”

Vilgrain, who became just the second Black player to rep Canada Olympic hockey, would appear in six games for the Canadians as his country finished fourth overall in the tournament.

“We played the best players in the world, amateur of course. The place is packed. This is the Olympics,” he reiminisced. “Playing the game was business as usual. It was a good experience.”

When it was all over, Vilgrain’s favorite memory of the entire event was the closing ceremony. Particularly when the announcement was made that the Games were officially concluded.

“The closing ceremony when the president said, ‘We have now closed the ’88 Olympics,’ all the athletes ran onto the field,” he said. “I remember running, screaming, hugging a guy from Japan, a girl from France, dancing. I had trained for two years with the team for that moment and when it was over it was just a relief.”

Continuing the rollercoaster month, within a week after the Olympics concluded he signed a contract with the Vancouver Canucks, made his NHL debut and scored his first NHL goal in his debut (on his second shift).

Vilgrain would go on to play 89 games in the NHL (81 with New Jersey), scoring 21 goals and 53 points. He would also play 285 games in the American Hockey League, 189 in the Swiss-2 league and 90 in the German league.

The road to the Olympics was just the beginning of a long pro hockey career that spanned 14 seasons. After retiring, Vilgrain remained active in the sport, particularly helping with varous youth programs as a mentor, instructor, coach, programer and more.

And Vilgrain, who was born in Haiti but raised in Quebec City, has seen how much the sport has grown since his youth days. As a young boy playing hockey, Vilgrain was often the only Black player on his team and had to endure racial mistreatment. But now, he sees a much different world for youth players.

“I think you’ve seen a change in the sense that more kids are playing the game. Less kids are being scared or shy away for not being accepted,” he said. “I roam the rinks arounds around Western Canada, I see different kids from different nationalities. It’s nice to see. It wasn’t like that when I played, when I grew up. I can see the kids finding a place in the sport.

“I go to minor league games or practice and see kids that look like me, skating around and having fun. I know, just like me, he thinks of himself as a hockey player and loves the game like any other kid on the ice. Some people see the color, ethnicity, the race, but they don’t see that that kid has the same dream as their son.”

Vilgrain has seen a lot of in roads in combatting race tensions in the sport, but knows more barriers need to be broken.

“The thing with racism is lack of understanding or people not trying to understand other cultures. That’s what happens,” he said. “Put your foot down when people are maltreated. Make sure people understand that hockey is for everyone. All over the world from Africa to North America to the Southern U.S., more and more ethnic kids are playing the sport. Make sure we have an open mind and open arms and embrace other cultures. It makes the world smaller and you learn so much from other cultures.”

A prime example of progress can be seen in the clinics Vilgrain runs from the participants. Crossing different cultures helps connect people and humanize those who may not look like you.

“I’ve coached players from Japan, Iran, Slovakia, Slovenia,” he said. “It’s amazing looking at their diffrenet cultures, learning the language, learning the hockey here. They came here to better their hockey game, knowledge and skills in the North American way.

"That's how you fight racism. That’s how you learn about other people.”