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By Sam Laskaris
Windspeaker.com Contributor
OAKVILLE, Ont.
Representatives from Toronto and area companies will have the opportunity to play with former National Hockey League stars while helping raise funds for an organization that serves Indigenous communities.
The inaugural Tech4Good Hockey Tournament will be staged April 7 in Oakville.
All matches in the day-long tournament will be held at the four-pad Sixteen Mile Sports Complex.
As of Wednesday, 14 teams had registered to compete in the event. In order to ice a team in the tourney, companies are required to raise a minimum of $10,000.
Proceeds from the event go to Connected North, a charitable program that provides video technology and allows for virtual education as well as mental health and wellness services for those in Indigenous communities across Canada.
A draft party will be held at Toronto’s Hockey Hall of Fame the night before the tournament. Teams will be allowed to draft which former NHLer they would like to play on their squad in the order of the amount of money they have raised.
Ashleigh Walker, the event manager, said having a former pro be a teammate for a day is a huge appeal to many of the tournament participants.
“They get to play with somebody that they have looked up to all these years,” she said of the former NHL athletes.
Bryan Trottier, a seven-time Stanley Cup winner, is the official spokesperson for the tournament.
Trottier, who is Métis, has won more NHL championships than any other Indigenous player.
For starters Trottier was a member of the New York Islanders when they captured four consecutive league titles, from 1980 to 1983. He then played for the Pittsburgh Penguins, who won back-to-back Stanley Cup titles in 1991 and ’92.
Trottier won his seventh Cup in 2001 when he served as an assistant coach for the Colorado Avalanche.
“It’s an exciting way for NHL alumni to give back to the community that we came from,” Trottier said in a news release.
Other Indigenous former NHLers who will be playing in the tournament are Jamie Leach, Arron Asham, Darcy Tucker and John Chabot.
And other ex-NHL players who have confirmed their participation are Nik Antropov, Tom Fergus, Gary Leeman, Brad May, Dennis Maruk, Craig Muni, Ric Nattress, Bernie Nicholls, Rick Vaive and Adam Graves.
Walker said there is still time for squads to enter the tournament. Organizers can accommodate a maximum of 24 clubs. Registrations will be accepted until late next week.
“I think 18 (teams) was the goal,” Walker said. “But we’re still happy with the 14 so far since it is the first year.”
Walker said organizers are hoping the tournament becomes an annual event.
“So far it’s been a success,” she said. “We just have to keep the momentum going.”
Walker also said it’s too early to start discussing whether future tournaments will also be staged in Oakville.
“If we get good feedback afterwards we’d consider having it in Oakville again,” she said. “We’ll see though if we move it to Toronto or somewhere closer.”
The Connected North program was founded in 2013. It uses Cisco Canada’s video conferencing technology for its virtual education.
So far more than 30 schools – and over 7,500 students – from across the country have benefitted from the program.
Schools that have used the program are in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario and Saskatchewan, as well as the country’s three territories, Yukon, Nunavut and the Northwest Territories.
“The goal is to have the program in every single (Indigenous) school in Canada so they can learn virtually,” Walker said.
As an example of previous virtual education Walker said Connected North officials were able to hook up a school with representatives of Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada, which is located in Toronto. Students were able to learn about aquarium activities while sitting in their own classroom.
Another school was connected to officials in London, England where they were able to ask questions about Shakespeare and even had the opportunity to see a live play performance.
Proceeds from this year’s tournament will assist with expanding the Connected North program into more schools. Funds will also help bring more experts and content providers to the venture.
Rola Dagher, the president of Cisco Canada, believes Connected North is already a huge success because of the work it has done.
“But we also recognize there is still more work to be done, more schools to add, more resources to mine, more students to connect,” she said.