'We want to keep winning': Edmonton duo strive to grow the game of hockey among South Asian Community

They are devoted to a game that Indian and Pakistani kids can still only dream about playing at a Winter Olympics or world championship one day. But the enormity of the challenge hasn’t dissuaded Edmontonians Lali Toor and Kameron Sabir from its relentless pursuit.

Passionate about hockey, and about making it more accessible to South Asian communities in North America, these men and others are building networks, teams, sponsorships and momentum toward the seemingly improbable goal of international participation at the highest levels for a demographic that has not traditionally embraced the game.

Sabir is a doctor who coached Team Pakistan, a collection of Canadian and American men of Pakistani descent, to the Division III gold medal at the 2025 LATAM Cup. It’s a tournament for non-traditional hockey countries that debuted in 2018 with five teams from Latin America. In August, there were 62 teams from 17 countries competing in Florida.

Toor is an entrepreneur who also runs Apna Hockey, a not-for-profit that facilitates participation in the game for South Asian kids who live in Canada. He coached a team of Indo-Canadian men — mostly ex-juniors and college players from the west coast — through a handful of exhibition games at the LATAM Cup last August.

They weren’t allowed to compete for medals because their combined skill level dwarfed that of the competition.

Sabir said the long-term and audacious goal is to take a team to the Olympics.

“That is in the vision. Obviously, it’s not going to be anytime soon. But this (LATAM Cup win) does give us hope and momentum. And I think we just have to build on one division at a time and keep winning. But it’s not just about winning, it’s about winning respectably, being respectable to our opponents, because we want to represent our country in the best light possible.”

Generally speaking, South Asian immigrant families in North America have traditionally turned away from hockey to pursue other sports, hobbies and vocations. It’s an obstacle that prevents more widespread adoption of the game in their communities in Canada and the U.S.

Yet the senior director of hockey development and strategic collaboration for the National Hockey League is a Pakistani immigrant to the U.S. — and Donny Khan is in a great position to help Sabir and Toor.

Khan, who lives in New York City, came to the U.S. as a teenager, fell in love with hockey and has been involved on and off the ice ever since. He organized and played in a league, did radio play-by-play in college, helped organize skills clinics in Pakistan, supports and enhances the work of groups such as Hockey for Youth, the Muslimah Athletic Club and the Hijabi Ballers in the Toronto area, facilitates South Asian nights in a host of NHL cities in concert with Apna, and helped kick-start the Pakistani men’s team that Sabir coached to the division win at the LATAM Cup in August.

Khan and his daughter, Riley, also put together a women’s team that Yale University winger Mariya Rauf coached to a bronze medal at the same tournament. Another team of North American men with Pakistani heritage won a bronze medal at the Dreams Nation Cup in New York last spring.

“I’ve always wanted to use hockey to build bridges and expand communities and welcome more people in,” said Khan, whose focus extends beyond what’s happening on the ice in North America. He believes domestic hockey programs in South Asian countries can be stronger if they work together.

“The more Team Pakistan supports Team India, and Team India supports Team Pakistan, and we encourage Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to start their teams; all together, we’re nearly two billion people in South Asia (and) those communities are growing here (in North America), so there is strength in numbers. And I think we’re using hockey to welcome people into Canadian culture, into American culture. That’s what the game was for me,” Khan said.

Back in the day, playing hockey in North America didn’t always seem like a friendly point of entry. Toor, now 33, remembers feeling isolated in dressing rooms in Edmonton as a youngster, and of being invisible to his own community. He was drawn to the game because he was a good skater and some of his school friends were playing the game.

“When I played in Edmonton, I played Triple-A (bantam) with guys like (NHLer) Billy Ranford’s nephew, Brendan. I grew up with (future NHLers) Brendan Gallagher when we were like eight, nine years old; Colton Parayko, Alex Petrovic. So I was always around some of the best players in my age group, and I didn’t see anyone that looked like me.

“When I played, I was so invisible to my own community, because I went to Catholic schools and hockey academies, and I was just wondering where the hell my community was the whole time.

“I remember we went to Vancouver for a tournament, and there was a South Asian hockey player, Kevin Sundher. He’s my age, he led the whole tournament in scoring. Me and my dad were like, ‘who the hell is this brown kid?’ We never saw another brown kid, let alone one that was really good.”

Sundher was good enough a decade later to be drafted 75th overall by Buffalo in 2010. That same year, Petrovic went 36th to Florida, Gallagher 147th to Montreal. While Petrovic and Gallagher are still in the league, Sundher never played an NHL game, and South Asian role models at that level are still scarce. Robin Bawa was the first in 1989, Manny Malhotra and Jujhar Khaira followed in his footsteps. Arshdeep Bains of the Vancouver Canucks and Zayne Parekh of the Calgary Flames are good bets to continue the lineage.

They all help sell the NHL dream to South Asian kids, but youngsters need more than inspiration.

By collaborating with the Edmonton Oilers, Apna Hockey helps provide grassroots programming that removes some barriers to entry for South Asian families who might not otherwise embrace the sport.

“We had a hard time integrating and I got hurt by hockey,” said Toor. “I went through a lot of stuff where I felt like I was not treated well; direct acts of racism, systemic stuff that really hit me hard.

“I felt hindered because I knew I was putting in the work. I was a very good hockey player. I never got to where I wanted to, but I was also alone and I knew that. And I didn’t have anyone that looked like me to lean on. So that’s really where this started. Lali Toor growing up in Edmonton was an invisible South Asian hockey player. Well, with our platform, the top players are never invisible. We actually showcase them.”

Apna’s relationship with the Oilers began when Toor attended a meeting a handful of years ago with team executive Bob Nicholson, who told Toor about a program called First Shift. Sponsored by the NHL and NHL Players Association, First Shift is aimed at giving “new-to-hockey families” the best possible entrée to a game that can seem intimidating.

“Bob told me about First Shift, and I was like, ‘why haven’t I heard about this program before?’ It’s subsidized, so for $300 you get full hockey equipment, you go to the rink and there are Bauer specialists who will tell you how to put on the equipment, which is literally 90 per cent of the problem for new families.

“And on top of that, you get six ice sessions,” said Toor. “If you’re crawling on the ice the first session, you know how to skate by the sixth session. After that, if they don’t want to play minor hockey, they know how to skate and how to integrate into the culture here too. So that’s the most important part, right?”

Toor has also worked on South Asian inclusion events at the home rinks of the Oilers, Canucks, Flames, Winnipeg Jets, Los Angeles Kings and Dallas Stars.

“Anywhere there’s a South Asian night, I’ve had my hands in it in some way,” he said.

But his focus now is on building teams of North American-based Indian players, male and female, to play exhibitions against teams from Turkmenistan, Macau and Hong Kong, and to form a North American circuit that could include the LATAM Cup, Dreams Nation Cup and other tournaments.

Sabir supports the idea of a tournament circuit in North America, so fundraising is now a major focus for both of them.

“It’s really hard to do anything without it,” said Sabir. “For example, jersey costs, practices, flying teams down … We’re trying to develop a website where a lot of people could buy jerseys and stuff. That would help us get some funding. We would love sponsors … We’re also willing to do sponsorships by putting patches on the jersey and such. Everybody needs some funding. I think, hopefully, this helps open the door for that.”

Khan, of the NHL, wondered aloud if there was a role for the league in getting another tournament of this kind off the ground. The NHL already supports the LATAM Cup.

“So much time and effort goes into assembling these teams and then you’re done for a year or six months at least,” said Khan. “Then you have to spend more money to fly everybody back together again. And it’s hard to build that continuity. So I’ve said to Juan Carlos, the founder and president of the LATAM Cup, is there a way to create a series of tournaments that happen at different times? And then, should the (NHL) get involved? Does it make sense to become a part of this and run it?

“We need to figure out what the right path forward is because hockey is growing in these (South Asian) countries, and the South American population in the U.S. and the South Asian population in Canada have (also) really become very important demographics for the growth of our game, not just in their home countries, but here in the U.S. and Canada.”

The critical mass is indeed building, and Toor senses the opportunity is now to shift the focus of his work away from the grassroots.

“Now it’s time to focus more at the top and create that North American/Indian program. My next five-year plan is to create that.”

He believes his efforts in North America will complement the work being done in India to increase participation and skill levels in hockey. India, which has been a full member of the International Ice Hockey Federation since 1989, has 2,554 players, three indoor and 42 outdoor rinks, many of which are situated high up in the Himalayas.

Ladakh, which is essentially home base for the women’s national team, sits 4,300 metres above sea level. That team is coached by Darrin Harrold of Airdrie, Alta., and is coming off a ground-breaking, bronze-medal performance at the 2025 Women’s Asia Cup. The squad has competed regularly since 2016 in the IIHF Challenge Cup, as well as the Asia and Oceania Championships. The national men’s team has made nine appearances in the Challenge Cup and finished as high as sixth.

“We’re not here to take away anything from the really good hockey players of India,” said Toor. “But I personally want to see India imitate the growth we have here in North America. Because eventually, who’s to say the (22-team Kontinental Hockey League, based mainly in Russia) doesn’t go to Mumbai and create a team there? And then some of these players from North America go there.

“Because expats seem to be the way to develop domestic hockey in foreign countries, and that’s something I learned from Bob Nicholson.”

As the national teams of some European nations were developing, they were able to tap into skilled, North American-based players with dual citizenship, strengthening those programs. Toor believes India should embrace that development model, as it could speed up the qualification of Indian teams for the Olympics and world championships.

Pakistan, which has yet to join the IIHF, is lagging well behind its South Asian neighbour in terms of membership and development, but the team that Sabir coached to a LATAM Cup victory in August in Florida, all of whom were Canadians and Americans of Pakistani heritage, could provide a watershed moment for their movement.

“With this gold, we got international recognition,” said Sabir. “We want to keep winning, we want to keep getting more players, I guess just build a winning pedigree to keep moving forward. I think with funding and sponsorships we would be able to put a more elite team together.

“And the goal is not just to have one team. I think we can unlock an under-16 team. We have the women’s team, a men’s Division II team now. We’re thinking of another Division III team as well.”

Sabir gives credit to Khan: “It’s all his vision and plan; we’re just trying to help him along the way. But it’s close to home for me as well. Growing up, you’re never told in an immigrant family that going into hockey is an option. They push you to go to school. I had to go to med school, even though I was playing hockey and I was quite good at it and I really wanted to go into it.

“So I went into med school. I finished all that. Thankfully, I’m successful, but I’m back at hockey because that’s my passion. Hopefully, this will help open the doors to future youth in the country. The most important thing is the parents’ buy-in because, as you know, children can’t do anything unless their parents support it. I think this kind of gives that buy-in now. It’s slowly opening the door. It’s something that I think (Pakistan) never even thought was a possibility, to be honest.”

dbarnes@postmedia.com

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