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Trade Deadline 2022
It's our annual Trade Deadline Preview, where we break down what each NHL team will be hunting for and who will be on the move. Also in the issue: features on Huberdeau, Kessel, Hertl and many more.
RISING ABOVE THE HATE
CHATHAM’S MEMORIAL Arena is a cathedral to hockey. Thick beams span the arching roof. Cold and beaten wooden benches surround the smaller-than-average ice surface. Wires run tacked to the outside of the boards, trying to catch up to the advancing technology that left the building behind. When Tokuzo and Hatsuye Wakabayashi settled in Chatham, Ont., in 1950, the Memorial Arena was only a year old, and it was more than 4,000 kilometers from Vancouver, where the Wakabayashis’ journey had begun. In 1941, when Pearl Harbor was attacked, it didn’t take long for the racist fears of citizens – and the Canadian government – to decide that families like the Wakabayashis and 22,000 fellow Canadian citizens were a threat to national safety. Soon, the Wakabayashis were forced to leave their home. Interned at Slocan…
IT’S TIME TO TAKE A STAND
ON APRIL 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball by becoming the first Black man to play in the major leagues. Through all the disgusting racial incidents and death threats he had to face, he showed a lot of courage and resilience. He’s owed a debt of gratitude for his bravery. On Jan. 18, 1958, Willie O’Ree made history by becoming the first Black player to play in the NHL. He paved the way for many other Black players, including myself, to have a career in the league. In the days since these two remarkable pioneers broke barriers, the fight against racism in sports has not progressed enough: things get slightly better every year, but not as fast as they should. After all, these events happened over six…
HOCKEY’S ULTIMATE IRONMAN
IF YOU HAPPENED TO be watching Phil Kessel at about 9 p.m. on Sept. 22, 2013, you wouldn’t have thought he was about to go on to play the next 733 games in a row. Why? A couple reasons: (a) he was in the process of wickedly slashing Buffalo’s John Scott on the leg, a play that was sure to earn him a suspension, and (b) the 6-foot-8, 260-pound Scott looked primed to pick up Kessel and crumple him like a car crusher. The latter never happened, thanks to the intervention of three Toronto Maple Leafs teammates. The former did happen. However, since it was just the pre-season, the three games he missed while suspended were meaningless contests in which the Leafs may well have rested him anyway. But if that suspension…
OFFICIAL TRAILBLAZER
AS THE PUCK CROSSES the red line, Kirsten Welsh scans the play. Her instincts as a former star NCAA defender tell her to close the gap and stop the puck carrier before they can enter the zone. But she waits and watches. She stands at the blueline and allows the play to pass. Welsh outstretches her arms, signalling to the other officials that the play is onside. The play would not have gotten this far if Welsh was defending. When the goaltender eventually smothers the puck, Welsh takes quick strides to intervene in a scuffle before grabbing the puck to prepare for the next faceoff. Welsh had been on the other side of this exchange for her entire life. Now, she’s calling the shots. In 2021, Welsh became the first woman to…
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