Hockey star Nazem Kadri rose to prominence playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs and now plays for the Colorado Avalanche of the National Hockey League (NHL). Drafted seventh overall by the Maple Leafs in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft, he became only the third Muslim to ever play in the league when he made his NHL debut a year later. At international level he was part of the silver medal-winning Canadian team at the World Junior Championships in 2010 and moved up to the senior national team five years later, taking part in the World Championships. In the 2012-13 season Kadri had the highest number of penalties drawn in the NHL with 164, reaching 46 more than Dustin Brown, the second-placed player.
Born and raised in London, Ontario, the Canadian first gained notoriety as a junior player in the Ontario Hockey League, initially playing for the Kitchener Rangers where he won the J. Ross Robertson Cup and later helping the Knights reach the Memorial Cup. In 2009 he began training with the Maple Leafs and made his NHL debut against the San Jose Sharks on February 8th 2010.
More than a decade later, Kadri’s impressive playing career has already seen him achieve 234 assists and 191 goals. Away from the ice, he became an inaugural executive board member of the Hockey Diversity Alliance in June 2020, an organisation who aims to address racism and intolerance in hockey.
