Color of Hockey: Roque big hit with kids from Hockey in New Jersey program

William Douglas has been writing The Color of Hockey blog since 2012. Douglas joined NHL.com in 2019 and writes about people of color in the sport. Today, he profiles Abby Roque, a forward for New York of the Professional Women’s Hockey League and the bond she has formed with Hockey in New Jersey, an NHL Hockey is for Everyone affiliate that serves socioeconomically disadvantaged and underserved boys and girls.

Abby Roque scored another “Michigan” goal last week.

But instead of an opposing Professional Women’s Hockey League goalie, the New York forward went top shelf on 9-year-old Hockey in New Jersey player Carla Soto with a lacrosse-style goal, like the one she had in a 5-2 loss to Ottawa at Prudential Center on March 22.

“A few kids told me they watched it, and the goalie wanted me to try it on her,” Roque said.

Roque displayed the move, first made famous by former University of Michigan forward Mike Legg during a 1996 NCAA tournament, to HINJ players during their practice Wednesday at the Sharpe James/Kenneth A. Gibson Recreation Center rink in Newark, where she’s become something of a regular this season.

Roque has made the nearly 2-mile trek from Prudential Center, the Sirens’ home, to the Ironbound rink to hop on the ice or visit with HINJ players several times this season whenever her schedule allowed. She and defenseman Brooke Hobson will be there again Monday as part of the Sirens’ “Pro Series,” in which players join local youth hockey practices in the area during the PWHL regular season.

Through the NHL Player Inclusion Coalition, Roque reached out to HINJ earlier this season and indicated she wanted to become more personally involved with the program with an eye toward helping grow the sport among girls and people of color.

HINJ, an affiliate of the NHL’s Hockey is for Everyone initiative, is a nonprofit organization founded in 2003 and provides a year-round hockey program for socioeconomically disadvantaged and underserved youth in the area at no cost in the Newark, Englewood and Jersey City, New Jersey, areas, each having a sizable Hispanic population.

About 758 boys and girls are in the program this season, 415 of whom live in Newark, said Tera Hofmann, HINJ’s director of hockey operations and girls programming. She said about 39 percent of the girls registered in Newark speak English as a second language, 61 percent come from households earning less than $50,000 a year and 23 percent are from families earning less than $20,000 a year.

“It's important, honestly, to give back to those communities,” Roque said. “I think hockey has so much more room to grow. It’s obviously a predominantly white sport and I think it's huge to make it have access for everyone. I love their (HINJ) vision. They don't charge for their hockey. They keep the ice free. The way they're running their program, I thought, was really amazing. I was just happy to sometimes be a part of it, when I can stop it and say ‘Hi’ to the kids. It's great for me too. I get to go there, and the kids are always so happy, and they really just love the sport. I’m just happy to be a part of it.”

Roque (pronounced “rock”) is a hockey trailblazer. Before the 27-year-old Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan native scored the first “Michigan” in PWHL history, she was the first Indigenous woman (Wahnapitae First Nation) to play for the U.S. women’s national team and in the Winter Olympics. Her hardware collection includes a silver medal from the 2022 Beijing Olympics, a gold medal from the 2023 IIHF Women’s World Championship and silver medals from the 2020 and 2022 IIHF women’s worlds.

She won the NCAA women’s Frozen Four championship in 2019 with the University of Wisconsin, where she had 170 points (56 goals, 114 assists) in 155 games from 2016-20, including 58 points (26 goals, 32 assists) in 36 games in her senior season.

Roque is fourth in scoring for New York this season with 17 points (six goals, 11 assists) in 27 games. Her presence in the PWHL and being a role model for HINJ players is impactful, Hofmann said.

“They're able to see who they could be, they’re able to see their potential,” said Hofmann, a former goalie who played for Metropolitan of the National Women’s Hockey League and Buffalo and Toronto of the Premier Hockey Federation from 2020-23. “It just gives them such a broader range of things to dream for, and it humanizes that as well. It's not just something that they see on TV or something that they hear about, like, it's not this nebulous thing. It's something that becomes very tangible for them.”

Roque certainly left a lasting impression on Carla Soto with the “Michigan” goal.

“She goes around and puts the puck on her stick and then she throws it at the goal,” Carla said. “It was amazing.”

Roque said she wants to do more with HINJ on her own and with the Player Inclusion Coalition, which was established by the NHL and NHL Players’ Association in 2023 to advance equality on and off the ice.

“I'm really hoping it's going to be a long-term relationship,” she said. “It's tough with our schedules to come consistently, and that's why I thought it was really important to try to get involved somewhere where it was easiest for me to be able to stop in when times were available.

"It's great they have programs on weekdays and weekends. That makes it easy for me when I have a day off or maybe have an afternoon where I can just stop in and be able to just go over, get on the ice for an hour or two.

“Whatever I can do.”