Color of Hockey: Hispanic trainers making their mark in pro game

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 Gustavo Canals, assistant athletic trainer with the Florida Panthers' American Hockey League affiliate in Charlotte and one of a growing number of Hispanic trainers in pro hockey.

Gustavo Canals says he owes it all to “The Mighty Ducks.”

The assistant athletic trainer for the Florida Panthers' American Hockey League affiliate in Charlotte discovered and fell in love with hockey watching the 1992 Disney hit movie as a kid in a Puerto Rican family near Washington, D.C.

“That’s what really got it going,” Canals said. “Seeing all those kids coming from different backgrounds in the movie. It was awesome seeing that and picking up on it, knowing I could do it also.”

The film inspired Canals to follow his hometown Washington Capitals, a team that was just coming into its own with Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom.

“Ovechkin, Backstrom, (Mathieu) Perrault, all those guys were, like, influences on me, pushing me more and more to go into hockey,” he said.

Canals said he’s equally proud to be in his fourth season as an assistant trainer with Charlotte, of his Puerto Rican roots and being among a growing number of trainers of Hispanic heritage in professional hockey.

Their ranks include Thomas Alva, who worked 22 seasons with the Florida Panthers, Dallas Stars, Atlanta Thrashers and Philadelphia Flyers before joining Charlotte as head athletic trainer in September.

Jaime Garcia has been the head athletic trainer and manager of sports medicine with the San Jose Sharks' AHL affiliate in San Jose since 2024-25. Haley Cruz is in her third season as head trainer with the Anaheim Ducks' AHL affiliate in San Diego. Jacqui Gutierrez was hired as an assistant trainer with Hershey, the Capitals’ AHL farm team, in July.

Canals attributes such growth to the NHL expanding over the years to areas with large Hispanic populations, including California, Florida, Nevada and Texas.

“Hockey is branching out in cities with a lot of Hispanics, so it’s something that’s definitely becoming more recognized in our culture,” he said. “I think the exposure has pulled a lot of people into working in hockey.”

For Garcia, who is Mexican American and grew up in Southeast Houston, becoming a hockey athletic trainer was an opportunity to try something different.

“It wasn't the conventional Texas sports, you know, basketball, football, baseball,” said Garcia, whose first hockey job was with Fort Worth of the old Central Hockey League in 2012-13. “I knew nothing about hockey. I watched it a little bit. But I just wanted to do something more challenging, and there were a lot of challenges that first season. But it's something I probably wouldn't trade for a perfect season.”

Canals said becoming a hockey trainer allowed him to stay involved with the sport he loves. He said he started playing street and inline hockey when he was around 6 years old and transitioned to ice by middle school.

He became a forward with Christopher Newport University’s American Collegiate Hockey Association’s Division III team in Newport News, Virginia, in 2015-16. But the costs associated with club hockey coupled with the need to study more prompted him to stop playing.

But then he learned he could work in hockey with his undergraduate degree in exercise science and kinesiology and his master's in athletic training from Shenandoah University in Winchester, Virginia.

“As a kid, I wanted to be a veterinarian, work on animals instead of people,” Canals said. “And then I was like, ‘Oh, I can do medical and still work around hockey?’  I was, like, ‘I'm going to strive to work in hockey.’”

While in college, Canals had an immersion year working primarily as a trainer with Colgate University’s NCAA Division I women’s hockey team.

“They took me on every trip,” he said. “I was able to see the amenities at different schools and work with different athletes with different backgrounds,” he said. “It was an unbelievable experience that I don't think I'll ever forget.”

Canals became an assistant trainer with NCAA Division I Lindenwood University’s women’s hockey team in August 2022 after he earned his graduate degree. 

He was hired as an assistant by Charlotte in 2023. His main tasks include prepping the rink and bench for practices and games for the training staff and helping treat injured and rehabbing players.

“I'll do a lot of the initial rehab skates with some of our players coming back from injuries,” Canals said. “Or when the team travels, sometimes I stay back and I'll work with some of the (injured) guys and skate them while I'm doing rehabs and making sure that they’re staying fit and in shape. And as soon as they’re able to travel out to meet the team on the road or once the team gets back that they’re able to continue skating and progress back into practice.”

Canals said he feels a sense of accomplishment when an injured player he cared for returns to the lineup.

“One of my favorite things is when that athlete scores their first goal coming back or makes a big play, knowing that they were out three weeks ago and now they're back playing full go,” he said.

Like the players he treats, Canals hopes to get the call to the NHL someday. He has gotten a taste of the League working at Panthers development and rookie camps and with Florida’s “Black Aces,” extra players who are added to the roster during their Stanley Cup Playoffs.

“It put a little fire under me to get there (NHL), to push to be there,” he said.