Canadian NHL player Akil Thomas (right), who was recently drafted by the LA Kings, hosts the podcast Soul on Ice with Elijah Roberts (left) and Damon Kwame Mason.Handout
Until this year, Akil Thomas never thought he would host a hockey podcast, let alone produce one – but the pandemic changed everything.
Like many Canadians, Thomas loves hockey. He spent his childhood travelling from city to city for games and tournaments, but rarely saw representation of players of colour on the ice, except when in Toronto.
“The first thing I noticed was how diverse players were. There were Indian players and Black players and I thought: Wow. When I lived in Florida all I saw were white kids play hockey,” Thomas said.
In Toronto, he played with kids who all came from different backgrounds, but as he got older he came to realize how predominately white the sport actually is.
The 21-year-old Scarborough native was drafted in 2018 by the Los Angeles Kings. Because the pandemic delayed the 2020-21 season, he and his former Niagara Ice Dogs teammate and best friend Elijah Roberts decided to try a new hobby and start a hockey podcast.
“We would always debate about different things happening in hockey and we wanted to find a way to engage our fanbase in Niagara,” Roberts said.
When they started the podcast, the intention was to keep busy during the first wave of the COVID-19 lockdowns, but it has since grown into something much more powerful. The show took a turn as the United States faced racial reckoning amid the killing of George Floyd.
“When George Floyd was killed, there was a lot of social-justice issues that sparked the conversation to get on top of the podcast,” Roberts said.
He and Thomas felt like they couldn’t have a hockey podcast without addressing some of the issues surrounding social justice and systemic racism in hockey. If they were to host a hockey podcast, they wanted it to reflect the positive and negatives happening in the game.
“With all of the things happening in America and in hockey, it just took over everything we talked about on the show. How could you not talk about it?” Thomas said.
They needed help with the project, so they approached the one man they knew who would be the perfect fit – Damon Kwame Mason. Mason, a family friend of both Thomas and Roberts, is a Canadian documentary film director who also works extensively with the NHL to elevate Black voices in hockey. The experienced radio host agreed not only to help produce the show, but also be a co-host.
“I was the only one of the three with that experience and I was able to guide the nuance and the format of the show and present it in a certain way,” Mason said.
Thomas and Roberts were both featured in Mason’s 2015 documentary Soul on Ice: Past Present and Future – a film about the contribution made by players of colour in hockey.
The podcast is a spinoff from the documentary and shares its title. The podcast is a platform for players of colour to talk about the game from a different perspective. The show wants to highlight Black voices in hockey while letting listeners of colour know that they also have a place in the game.
The podcast approaches hockey in a different light. The hosts discuss various topics that are not typically addressed in other hockey podcasts, such as hip hop, pop culture and food.
“A lot of our topics are also about hockey, but if something happens regarding race in that space, then we’re going to talk about it from a person of colour’s perspective,” Mason said.
“For me personally, my goal is to normalize Black names and faces in the game of hockey in all respects,” Mason said.
The show also discusses current events in the game at the grassroots and professional level. They discuss social activism in the NHL and what could be addressed within the league that might result in changing the game in a positive way.
“We’re approaching it unlike other podcasts. Coming from Black peoples’ perspective – there’s a whole different vibe,” Mason said.
Since the podcast’s launch, listenership has grown from 200 an episode to more than 2,000. Part of the reason for the growth is because of the high-profile guests, including Minnesota Wild’s Matt Dumba, and the San Jose Shark’s Evander Kane – both of whom are founding members of the Hockey Diversity Alliance, a program dedicated to eradicating systemic racism in hockey.
“It’s kind of intimidating meeting these players for the first time over Zoom, because I look up to them. At the same time, if I hope to accomplish my dream, I’ll be able to use my voice more like they do,” Thomas said.
Traditionally, hockey has been a sport predominately played by white players. Neither Thomas nor Roberts had heard of a hockey podcast written, produced and hosted by an all-Black team.
Black Canadians have a long history with hockey that dates to the late-19th century with the Coloured Hockey League – an all-Black hockey league founded in Nova Scotia in 1895.
There are very few NHL players, among 700, who are people of colour. The podcast hosts all hope to see those numbers grow.
“For me, I want our show to be a platform where any Black hockey players can follow it and feel like they’re a part of an environment and call home,” Thomas said.
Their ultimate goal is to have young kids of colour find a podcast they can relate to and without feeling like they are underrepresented in the game. The hosts want to see the podcast grow to tens of thousands of listeners. For them, it’s about spreading a message. “What we do on the podcast is normalize this so when you think about hockey podcasts, it’s normal to know there’s Black people doing the podcast,” Mason said.
The co-hosts hopes that hockey fans will give the podcast a chance.
“If you want to see progression in hockey, this is the place to be,” Mason said.