Vancouver, B.C.
Breaking: Meanwhile Alex Hoegler of Canuck Way.com broke the news 23 hours ago that Dumba is reportedly on the trade block and the Vancouver Canucks are exploring the option.
“Should the Vancouver Canucks try to make a move for him?” he asks. “So if the price is right, the Canucks need to push hard for Dumba, who would bring immediate results to a defensive unit that’s been a weak link for the better part of the past decade.”
Filipino-Canadian Matt Dumba wins trophy for role in combatting racism
The First Filipino-Canadian to play in a major hockey league has been chosen as the winner of the King Clancy Memorial Trophy, a nod to the first NHL player to kneel during the U.S. anthem for his role in helping the sport combat racism.
Matt Dumba is half Filipino with a Filipino mother and German father. Born in Regina, Saskatchewan, he grew up in Calgary, Alberta and played for the Red Deer Rebels.
He was also part of the Canadian National Junior Hockey Team for the Olympics in 2014.
The 25-year old defensemen off the Minnesota Wild of the NHL knows the challenges of growing up brown in a predominantly white sport. He was usually the only person of colour on his teams and often endured racism from other players.
The King Clancy is awarded for “leadership on and off the ice and who has made a noteworthy humanitarian contribution to his community.”
Dumba joined six Black NHL players to form the Hockey Diversity Alliance to push the sport to become more inclusive.
Dumba took a knee before one of the first games of the playoffs, which he did not play, in after making an anti-racism speed on behalf of the Hockey Diversity Alliance (HDA).
“Little kids threw the bag at you when it came to racial slurs,” he told NBC Asian America’s Sheng Peng in an interview.
More diverse representation in the sport is another focus of the HDA.
NBC said that according to an analysis by The New York Times, the NHL has had only about 100 Black players in its century-plus-long history and even fewer players of Asian descent.
By contrast, players of color make up 70 percent of the NFL and 81 percent of the NBA, according to the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida.
Dumba’s work on racial justice isn’t limited to the HDA. After the death of George Floyd in police custody, Dumba teamed up with the Minneapolis nonprofit Lake Street Council to raise money to rebuild areas damaged by this month’s uprisings and pledged to match up to $100,000 in donations.
Dumba told NBC that “racism starts in our game, with the youth”.
“That’s one of our goals with the HDA — to eradicate racism. Teach our youth, start with grassroots hockey that accepting and diverse culture in our game.”
He told NBC Asian America about some of the challenges that he faced growing up as a Filipino kid playing in a predominantly white sport.
“Up in Canada, people didn’t really know what I was. You have to have a conversation and break through my family history and ethnicity. Little kids threw the bag at you when it came to racial slurs and stuff to get at you. But I took offense to almost everything that was said to me just because of my family background, how many different races are involved in that. Just wanted to stand up for my family. That was a little bit tough. But you work through it. I’m grateful that my love of the game was so strong and I just kept battling through a lot of that.