Minnesota Wild defenceman Matt Dumba will never forget the vile things said to him as a half-Filipino kid playing hockey in Calgary.
“So many times as a little kid, I saw my own family and my mom and myself leave the rink in tears,” Dumba recalled in a Zoom conference call yesterday. “You’re sitting in the car, talking about what happened. Having the conversation, you have to have a tougher skin. You have to take the high road on this. They’re only saying that because you’re playing so well.”
It’s these memories in common which have driven Dumba, Sharks winger Evander Kane, Akim Aliu, Wayne Simmonds, Trevor Daley, Chris Stewart and former Shark Joel Ward — all current or former NHL players of color — to form the Hockey Diversity Alliance (HDA).