Color of Hockey: Bruins prospect proud of Dominican, Slovakian roots

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, as part of the NHL’s celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, he profiles Boston Bruins prospect and Boston College freshman goalie Leo Henriquez.

Leo Henriquez laughed when asked to recount the “Leo Trick” he registered last season with Green Bay of the United State Hockey League.

The 19-year-old Boston Bruins goalie prospect got into a goalie fight with Sioux City netminder Ryder Shea on Nov. 29, which earned him a shoutout on Florida Panthers forwards Brady and Matthew Tkachuk’s “Wingmen” podcast.

He followed that up by scoring a rare empty-net power-play goal in a 5-0 win against Lincoln (Nebraska) on Feb. 14 after he blanked the same team 2-0 the day before.

“I don't think this ever happened, that a goalie scored more goals on a weekend than the opposing team,” Henriquez said with a smile. 

Henriquez’s eventful season culminated with the goalie of Dominican Republic and Slovakian heritage being selected by the Bruins in the sixth round (No. 170) of the 2026 NHL Draft.

“Being drafted is just a dream come true,” he said. “You know, it's like, it's an indescribable feeling that I don't think anything in my life is going match that. Well, maybe one day I'll have a kid, but as of now, it's probably getting drafted, for sure.”

The Bruins chose Henriquez after he went 21-9-4 with a 2.22 goals-against average, two shutouts and a USHL-best .921 save percentage in 37 games with Green Bay last season. He was 0-1-1 in the USHL playoffs with a 2.01 GAA and .897 save percentage.

Henriquez represented Slovakia at the 2026 IIHF World Junior Championship but didn’t appear in any games. He had a .931 save percentage in two games at the 2024 Hlinka Gretzky Cup and posted a 1.94 GAA and .947 save percentage in 17 games with Slovakia’s Under-18 team, and a 2.13 GAA and .939 save percentage in 20 games with its Under-20 team, each in 2023-24.

“We love his competitiveness,” Bruins director of amateur scouting Ryan Nadeau said after the draft. “Kid who had a real strong year in Green Bay. Battles hard, like the athleticism. Just a kid who made a jump from last year, was on our radar pretty early with some play with the way he can attack pucks, and we stayed on it.”

Henriquez participated in the Bruins development camp in Boston from June 29-July 2, and the team will  be able to monitor his progress closely at Boston College, where he begins his freshman season at Michigan State on Oct. 2.

“It's an honor to play for a program like this with their history and stuff,” said Henriquez, who is a communications major on the Chestnut Hill campus. “It's an honor to be here.”

How Henriquez got “here” is quite the origin story. His father, Roberto, is from the Dominican Republic and his mother, Miroslava, hails from Slovakia. They met while working for IBM in the Philadelphia area.

The couple married in Slovakia and lived in Bratislava, where Leo, whose first name is Roberto, was born in 2007. Though raised in the Central European country, Henriquez cherishes his Dominican roots.

“My grandma still lives in the DR but most of my aunts, they’re in Philly, so we meet up there all the time,” he said. “When I'm with my aunts, they're super lively, super always happy, never a bad day, no matter what happens. Always music on, Bachata (music). Always great cooking. I love fried plantains.”

Leo’s father thought his son would inherit his passion for baseball, the most popular sport in the Dominican Republic, and enrolled him in a sports elementary school in Slovakia that offered it.

But Leo had other ideas after he started ice skating when he was 8 or 9 years old.

“I loved it,” he said. “And on the other side, I saw these guys play hockey in gear and stuff. I was like, 'Whoa, this is cool!’ So I tried that out. Loved hockey, and then I joined the club, my hometown club (HC Slovan). And, yeah, just went on from there.”

As his skill developed, Henriquez felt the need to leave Slovakia to keep improving. At 17, he flew alone for the first time from Bratislava to Alaska via Frankfurt, Germany, to join Anchorage of the North American Hockey League in 2024-25.

“I had no idea about Alaska,” he said of Bruins No. 1 goalie Jeremy Swayman’s home state. “I thought Alaska was like Antarctica. I thought people just go there to study penguins and stuff. I didn't know people would actually live there. Alaska, especially Fairbanks, I’ve never been to a place so cold. But it’s such a nice place, the country’s beautiful with all the hills and stuff.”

Henriquez moved up to Green Bay after he went 17-5-0 with a 2.49 GAA, .923 save percentage and one shutout in 24 games for Anchorage.

His numbers took a dip during his first USHL stint in 2024-25 (4-10-2; 4.01 GAA; .877 save percentage) but he rebounded last season and was named to the USHL second all-star team.

Henriquez ended up at BC after he initially committed to the University of New Hampshire but switched programs after UNH asked him to delay his entry by one season.

BC coach Greg Brown said his program had to move fast on Henriquez because other schools, like Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, were also interested in him.

“Mike Ayers coaches our goalies and recruits, and he was right on top of it, so our timing was very good,” Brown said.

Now Henriquez looks to earn the net on a team that was 20-14-1 overall last season and 13-11-0 in Hockey East. BC finished fourth in Hockey East during the regular season and lost 4-3 in overtime to Connecticut in the conference championship tournament on March 20.

BC defeated rival Boston University 6-2 on Feb. 9 to win the 2026 Beanpot, the prestigious annual tournament for local NCAA Division I college hockey bragging rights that includes Harvard and Northeastern.

“He’s shown us not only ability but a competitiveness that was very exciting,” Brown said of Henriquez. “We'll see how this first month goes of practice/training camp and go from there. (Goalie) Louka Cloutier had a decent year last year, and we suspect those two will compete for ice time.”

Henriquez (6-1, 168) said his plan is to work as hard as he can to impress his coaches, the Bruins brass and eventually reach the NHL.

Another goal is to venture overseas in the offseason to a place he has never been: The Dominican Republic.

“We're definitely going there (next) summer,” said Henriquez, who speaks Slovak, Spanish, English, Czech and Russian. “My national team U20 time is ending, so I won't have so many summer camps and stuff like that with them. I’ll have a little bit more free time, and I’m definitely going to visit.”