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Fred Sasakamoose, Indigenous NHL trailblazer, dies at 86 after battle with COVID-19

By CNN

Fred Sasakamoose, the National Hockey League’s first Indigenous player, died Tuesday at 86, according to his son Neil Sasakamoose, who delivered the news in an emotional video on Facebook. Fred Sasakamoose’s death came five days after being hospitalized in Saskatchewan, Canada, with Covid-19.

“This Covid virus just did so much damage into his lungs, he just couldn’t keep responding, his body just couldn’t keep up,” Sasakamoose’s Neil said in the video.

Sasakamoose played 11 games for the Chicago Black Hawks during the 1953-54 season, according to NHL’s website. He is widely believed to be the first Indigenous player in the league’s history, though the NHL tells CNN this is impossible to determine.

NHL honors a trailblazer

An outpouring of respect has come from across the NHL following the news of Sasakamoose’s death.

“That lasting impact of his legacy will forever be celebrated and continue to bring people together for generations to come,” the Black Chicago Hawks organization said on its website. “To the entire Sasakamoose family that includes his wife, Loretta, four children and over 100 grandchildren and great-grandchildren, the Chicago Blackhawks organization extends our deepest condolences.”

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said in a statement that Sasakamoose was the first Cree player to appear in an NHL game at age 19. Sasakamoose then dedicated his life to “serving the First Nations community — using hockey and other sports to provide opportunities for Indigenous youth,” Bettman said.

“The story of Sasakamoose’s groundbreaking, 11-game NHL career with the Chicago Black Hawks in 1953-54 was the culmination of years of dedication to overcoming adversity in pursuit of a dream, and the pivot point at which he turned his focus to helping others pursue their dreams,” Bettman said.

Bryan Trottier, who is also of Indigenous heritage and is a Hockey Hall of Fame center, called Sasakamoose “a pioneer, somebody looked at with First Nation blood who was an achiever, broke barriers,” according to NHL’s website.

“He didn’t realize how inspiring he was, which makes him a humble man, which, to me, is much like Jean Beliveau and Gordie Howe and all of those guys who we hold in such high regard,” Trottier said.

Reggie Leach, who played for the Boston Bruins, California Golden Seals, Philadelphia Flyers and Detroit Red Wings, said he didn’t know about Sasakamoose until he was 16. He felt proud to be of First Nation heritage when he found out about Sasakamoose, the NHL website said.

“He was one of the players that we wanted to be like him and play in the National Hockey League,” Leach said. “He accomplished his goal and that was a big feat at that time in the 50s, being First Nation and playing in the NHL. If you think back, it’s unbelievable the things he had to go through and what he went through going to residential school and accomplishing what he did. It’s just amazing.”

Residential schools “were part of a government-sponsored, religious education system designed to assimilate the country’s Indigenous children. The schools, which began in the 1880s and closed in 1996, were rife with abuse,” according to the NHL.

The Blackhawks honored Sasakamoose in 2002 and the Edmonton Oilers did the same in 2014 as part of their Celebration of First Nations Hockey, the NHL said.

Sasakamoose was inducted into the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame in 2007, according to the NHL.

Father seemed in good spirits hours before death

Neil spoke to his father on the telephone mere hours before his passing and said he seemed in good spirits and was unafraid of what may lie ahead.

“I’m not scared, I’m ready to go, if I gotta go, I’m going to go,” Neil recalled his father saying.

“You know what, dad? If you’re tired, you go. You go and don’t worry about us over here. You go. If you’re getting tired and you’re getting beat up and your body is fighting, you go ahead and you go,” Neil told his father.

Neil said his mother Loretta — his father’s partner of 65 years — was currently in lockdown, as were Neil’s sisters. Prior to his death, Sasakamoose lived on the Ahathkakoop Cree Nation reserve in Saskatchewan.

Sasakamoose has an autobiography scheduled to release in the spring of 2021, titled “Call Me Indian: From the Trauma of Residential School to Becoming the NHL’s First Treaty Indigenous Player.”

Capitals salary cap situation could force tough offseason, expansion draft choices

By J.J. Regan
Caps faced with tough choices due to salary cap originally appeared on NBC Sports WashingtonThe Capitals may not be planning a rebuild this offseason, but changes are coming. The team's salary cap situation is going to dictate a lot of what the Caps do this offseason and will force the team to part with some significant players.Washington currently has 11 forwards, seven defensemen and one goalie under contract with a cap hit of just over $72 million."We're still going to have a veteran team because that's our core," Capitals General Manager MacLellan said at the team's final media availability of the season late last month.The first problem is that the salary cap is going to remain flat at $81.5 million for the 2021-22 season. Typically, the cap rises every year based on expected revenue, but the pandemic has changed that. It's complicated, but the players are going to owe the owners a significant amount of money from the 2020-21 season so the cap is going to stay in place until the players are able to pay that money back. This could take several years.A flat cap is an issue for Washington because it means no cap relief, but several other teams are going to be in similar positions. With more teams out there trying to shed cap and fewer willing to take it on, MacLellan's options will be limited.The second issue is a big one: Alex Ovechkin. He finished out the last year of his contract. Though he is expected to re-sign, it is also expected that his cap hit is going to go up from his previous $9.5 million which is already more cap space than the team has left.Basically, a team with an aging core that lost in the first round in each of the past three postseasons does not currently have the cap space to re-sign Ovechkin, re-sign goalie Ilya Samsonov who is expected to be the No.1 goalie heading into the season and add any players to improve the roster.That's why even though the team won't commit to a rebuild this year, changes are still coming and they will have to be significant.Don't forget, when a team moves a player it means having to bring in another to replace him. That's why trying to move a fourth-line player or a bottom-pair defenseman is not going to be enough. Moving a player like Garnet Hathaway, for example, would only clear up $1.5 million worth of cap space. But even if he's replaced with a prospect making only $700,000, the team has only saved $800,000 against the cap.That's not going to cut it and this will ultimately force MacLellan's hand this offseason.When asked about the possibility of trading away Evgeny Kuznetsov, MacLellan said: "I think we're always open to trading people if it makes sense for what's going on. If it's going to make our team better, I think we're open to it. I don't think anybody's off the table. We're not going to trade Ovi or [Nicklas Backstrom] and those type of people, but I think you have to be open on anything. We would talk to anybody about any player."Even if MacLellan didn't want to trade Kuznetsov, his cap hit is $7.8 million. His trade value is probably the lowest it has ever been at this point, but it is something the team will have to explore if, for no other reason, than to try to recoup cap space.The Seattle expansion draft is also looming. It's a good news/bad news prospect for Washington as the Caps are going to lose a player off their roster which could ease the cap situation, but that may mean giving up a better player than MacLellan would want to give up for nothing.T.J. Oshie's name has been widely speculated as a possible target for Seattle given he was born in Washington state, is still a productive player and is the type of personality a new team could easily promote. He is also 34 years old with four years remaining on a contract with a cap hit of $5.75 million.In his postseason availability, MacLellan didn't seem happy with an option of losing him to Seattle."[Oshie] continues to produce, he continues to be a big part of what's going on in the room and on the ice. He's a big part of our organization. It would hurt our team and our organization if we lost him in the expansion draft," he said.But again, he may have no choice.(Oshie, for his part, told reporters that he wanted to stay in D.C.)RELATED: With expansion draft looming, Oshie wants to stay with the CapsWhat if the Kraken look at the Caps roster and decide to go after a player like goalie Vitek Vanecek? Samsonov may be expected to be the No. 1, but Vanecek's cap hit is less than $717,000. Replacing him with a different backup goalie would probably be more expensive, thus making the situation worse. Losing a player and losing cap space in the expansion draft would be the absolute worst-case scenario for Washington. Could that force MacLellan to make a tough decision about Oshie?The Caps may not want to rebuild and they may still have belief in their core as championship contenders, but for a team that does not see the need to make significant changes to the roster, they will have no choice.They have to clear cap space. The question is how?
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