The Checkers are hosting Hispanic Heritage Night on Saturday - a chance to celebrate hispanic culture and to help introduce new people to the sport of hockey.
It’s also a night that hits close to home for one member of the Charlotte bench.
Gus Canals is in his third season as the Assistant Athletic Trainer for the Checkers. The son of Puerto Rican parents, he grew up in the Washington, D.C. area and was drawn to hockey at an early age - albeit in unique fashion.
“The Caps [Washington Capitals] started getting big and so I kind of hooked onto that,” said Canals. “I also remember when I was younger watching some Disney Channel show and it was Mickey playing hockey, so I got a hockey jersey with the characters on it - that’s kind of how I got into hockey.”
What started out as an introduction via cartoons quickly became an athletic journey for Canals.
“I grew up starting in roller hockey when I was really young, probably about three or four,” he said. “Then I switched to ice hockey in middle school and I was playing ever since.”
As he grew more into the sport, there wasn’t much in the way of hispanic representation that Canals noticed on the ice.
“There were the superstars like Ovechkin and guys like that watching the Caps growing up,” he said of players that he looked up to. “But in terms of players who had a background like me, there weren’t really a ton that I knew of.”
Canals would continue playing hockey two years into college before shifting his focus to school. After getting his Master’s at Shenandoah University in Virgina, he landed his first job with the Lindenwood University hockey team before joining the Checkers in 2023.
As his journey through hockey has taken him from the playing side to the staff side, he has seen that hispanic representation rise.
“I know the IIHF has started doing a lot more with the Carribean countries,” said Canals. “There was a point when I was younger where I got contacted to play for Puerto Rico - I didn't just because there wasn't really much to it. Now they have a true team that plays out of Chicago.”
Looking at the Checkers’ Hispanic Heritage Night, Canals sees the impact it can have on someone like his younger self.
“I would have loved it,” he said. “I know there’s all the baseball players, soccer players, boxers, everything like that that come out of Puerto Rico. So it’s awesome seeing the sport branch out a little bit and see players come from different backgrounds. I know it would have helped drive me a lot more to play and pursue different avenues, to go harder and pick it up a bit earlier.”
Canals carved his path into pro hockey by following his passion for athletic training, and he takes the bench every game with his medical kit emblazoned with a Puerto Rican flag patch - honoring his heritage and standing as an example to anyone watching searching for someone who looks like them.
“I love the sport,” said Canals. “It’s cool being an influential aspect to something like that. A couple of times in Florida I’ve been working and had people bang on the glass and point to the flag all excited.”
