Anthony Duclair’s dream of a more inclusive game is becoming reality

TAMPA — When Anthony Duclair played his first game in south Florida as an opposing player after wearing a Florida Panthers uniform the previous three seasons, fans filled Amerant Bank Arena with the familiar “Duuuke” calls every time he touched the puck.

That was in October, in Duclair’s sixth game with the San Jose Sharks. He returned as a visitor again Saturday, this time as a member of the cross-state rival Lightning.

Panthers fans don’t like the Bolts — Nikita Kucherov and Andrei Vasilevskiy received some of the loudest boos at last year’s All-Star Game in Sunrise — but they are expected to welcome Duclair back with open arms.

He had some of his best seasons playing for Florida and became a fan favorite. He still has a home in Fort Lauderdale. The organization also helped provide Duclair a forum to grow the game in underserved communities and promote diversity and inclusion throughout the game of hockey.

Rink of dreams

In the upcoming days, construction is expected to begin on Duclair’s first project in south Florida, an outdoor synthetic-ice rink to introduce kids to the game who might not normally have the chance to play hockey.

An enclosed parking lot at Boyd H. Anderson High School in Lauderdale Lakes, less than 12 miles from the Panthers’ arena, will be the site of the rink, which can be easily installed and uninstalled within days.

“Just trying to give equal access to underserved communities,” Duclair said. “Obviously, being in south Florida you’re trying to get kids ice, but at the same time you know how expensive that is. And there’s so few (rinks) in Florida. I just feel like that was the right decision, especially because you can do it outdoors.”

The school has a 98% minority population, according to U.S. News and World Report, and Lauderdale Lakes has one of the highest percentages of Haitian-born residents in Florida. That was one of several reasons the school seemed to be the right fit for Duclair, who is a French-Canadian of Haitian descent.

Over the All-Star break, a formal groundbreaking was held for the rink, which included Duclair, Panthers general manager Bill Zito and assistant general manager Brett Peterson.

“That’s the type of demographic I want to target,” Duclair said. “Just even going there over the All-Star break this year, a lot of kids there don’t know too much about hockey. So that’s the kind of kids I really want to attack with this. And you can just see that in the eyes on their faces, seeing that it’s going to be built in their own backyard, it’s going to be pretty cool.”

Stay updated on Tampa Bay’s sports scene

Subscribe to our free Sports Today newsletter

We’ll send you news and analysis on the Bucs, Lightning, Rays and Florida’s college football teams every day.

Loading...

You’re all signed up!

Want more of our free, weekly newsletters in your inbox? Let’s get started.

Explore all your options

Building a more inclusive game

Duclair said he plans to build more synthetic ice rinks throughout the state. He wants his next one to be in the Little Haiti neighborhood in Miami and then continue to branch out from there.

“I’m looking to do it all over Florida at this point,” he said. “That would be great.”

Growing up in Montreal, Duclair often was the only Black player on his team. Once he got to the NHL, the numbers were still small. It wasn’t until his fifth year in the league that he had his first Black teammate when he played with defenseman Seth Jones in Columbus.

This season, Duclair’s 10th in the league, was the first time he had two Black teammates in San Jose. In Tampa, he’s playing with good friend Matt Dumba, someone Duclair considers a brother. Dumba and Duclair were founding members of the Hockey Diversity Alliance, which was born out of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020.

From the time he was a young player, Duclair wanted to do something to help make hockey more inclusive and fight the racism he saw on his way up to the NHL.

“A lot of times kids turn away from the game because there’s no place for them because they feel isolated,” said Jason Gershonovitch, executive director of Duclair’s Foundation. “There is a lot of racism. So, he wanted be a resource to some kids who were having trouble, but at the same time we felt, ‘Why don’t we create some access?’ ”

Making his vision a reality

Before last season, Peterson — who became the NHL’s first Black assistant general manager when he joined the Panthers — approached Duclair and told him the team had secured a rooftop patio area at the Kimpton Shorebreak Fort Lauderdale beach resort for the upcoming All-Star week.

“The floor is yours, do what you want with it,” Duclair said Peterson told him. “So from there, my mind started running.”

Duclair had injured his Achilles that summer, so while he rehabbed he had some extra time to commit to making his dream a reality.

“It’s just always something that was brewing in my mind for years,” Duclair said. “It was going to happen either way. Maybe a little sooner because of it.”

He took advantage of that time during the All-Star break to launch his foundation. Help came quickly.

The Panthers donated $100,000 to get his non-profit going. The NHL/NHLPA Growth Industry Fund, a decade-old program committed to increasing participation at all levels of hockey with an emphasis on youth, pledged to cover the cost of Duclair’s first synthetic ice rink.

The NHLPA Goals & Dreams fund donated $50,000 to purchase sticks, pads, helmets, goal cages and skates for use on the rink. Boyd Anderson High School will oversee programming that will teach the fundamentals of hockey, teamwork and sportsmanship.

Gershonovitch said construction should be underway in a matter of weeks and the rink could be up at some point next month.

Duclair’s foundation also held youth camps in Broward County and Laval, Quebec. This summer, he hopes to extend the length of those camps. Gershonovitch said it wouldn’t take much to hold one in Tampa once Duclair gets settled in his new hockey home.

“Just how he talks about his camps and seeing the growth of those kids, how excited he is about this upcoming year and what he’s doing and the change he’s making, it’s powerful stuff,” Dumba said. “I’m really proud of him and there to support him through it all. I’m going to try to get to one of these camps.”

This is just the beginning. Duclair hopes some day one of the kids he helps will get to the NHL and have an impact on making the league more diverse.

“It’s something I’m just trying to change in the future,” he said. “Hopefully when I’m done playing and I’m an old man and all watching hockey in my rocking chair, I can see a few Black guys per team. And then, one day I would love to see like a full starting five on each side. That would be awesome.”

• • •

Sign up for the Sports Today newsletter to get daily updates on the Bucs, Rays, Lightning and college football across Florida.

Never miss out on the latest with your favorite Tampa Bay sports teams. Follow our coverage on Instagram, X and Facebook.