Last Updated on October 20, 2022
The NHL recently announced that it will be increasing its efforts to create a more “diverse” workforce while complaining that the majority of hockey fans, players and workers are white. The league’s “diversity report” found that 83.6% of the NHL’s staff and the staff of the league’s teams are white. The league’s rosters are 90% white.
Citing the report, the NHL’s “executive vice president of social impact” argued that the league needs to stop hiring white people in favor of other races in order to even out the numbers. She added that the report should influence “where you need to hire” and “how you need to hire,” and that “this is a good start, but there’s a ways to go.”
Kim Davis, the league’s executive vice president of “social impact,” said the results were expected. “It says that we are where we expected to be but now we have the facts to back it up,” Davis said. “I think the one area that we are uhm feeling positive about is that 38% of our workforce are women. We’ve done a-lot of work to improve in that area,” she continued.
“Having said that, we have a-lot of work to do with women of color and we are into that.” Davis added that the study is a “progressive outlook” on how the league manages its talent.
The NHL's first internal demographic study found its workforce to be overwhelmingly white.
Kim Davis, NHL EVP of social impact, growth and legislative affairs, says seeing the numbers is a first step toward fixing the problem.
by @swhyno https://t.co/ufH2itfiip pic.twitter.com/OziGR3nrR4
— AP Sports (@AP_Sports) October 18, 2022
Stephen Whyno, a hockey writer for the Associated Press, wrote that the report gives the league “a baseline from which to improve on.” He went on to add that identifying the problem of too many white people is a “a first step toward fixing the problem.”
The NHL for the first time conducted an internal workforce demographic study. The results, while mostly not surprising, give the league a baseline from which to improve on: https://t.co/pupwM2OPUL pic.twitter.com/fchGxn5yHU
— Stephen Whyno (@SWhyno) October 18, 2022
While the NHL looks to address the “problem” of too many white people, similar pushes have not been launched in the name of “diversifying” the NBA, where 73% of the players are black. A large percentage of NHL players come from Canada, while other predominantly white, cold-climate nations such as Russia, Finland and Belarus provide significant numbers as well.