Should the NHL consider adding a translator program? (2024)

Roman Josi is always talking.

Reporters are interested in what he has to say, whether it’safter morning skate, practice or a game.Josi has spoken up in important settings such as the Olympics, the Stanley Cup Final or when he won the Norris Trophy. He has done this in casual environments such as the CMT Awards red carpet or when former teammate P.K. Subban, also a Norris winner, interviewed him in front of a live studio audience as if they were doing a late-night talk show.

This is what it means to be the captain of the Nashville Predators while being one of the NHL’s premier defensem*n. Being good at hockey is the reason Josi is always being placed in front of a camera and/or microphone. Yet a detail that might be overlooked is the fact that Josi is not doing this in his native language. He grew up in Switzerland, where they use four official languages — German, French, Italian and Romansh — and English is not one of them.

Josi grew up speaking German and learned French in school. He started learning English at an early age. Playing professionally for SC Bern as a teenager meant Josi learned what he and other players have called “Hockey English,” because he had coaches and teammates who were American or Canadian.

“In the beginning, it’s tough,” Josi recalled. “I remember my first development camp. You come over, and you are sitting at a table with five guys and having a conversation. Everyone is talking and you can’t even speak to them. You’re thinking about what you want to say but the conversation is going on. Now, I never would have imagined I would ever be a captain and talking in front of people. I am definitely more comfortable now.There are still a lot of words I am learning. But I feel more comfortable.”

English is the predominant language spoken in NHL dressing rooms. But one can often hear players speaking Czech, Danish, Finnish, French, German, Russian, Slovak or Swedish. Nearly 30 percent of active NHL players were born outside Canada and the United States, according to QuantHockey. There are 316 active NHL players born outside of North America, which is one more than the 315 active NHL players born in the U.S, also per QuantHockey. This all once again proves that hockey is a global game and serves as a reminder that there are plenty of players who don’t speak English as a first or even second language.

So it leads to a question: Should the NHL consider having a translator program?

Major League Baseball instituted a directive for all of its teams to hire Spanish-language translators in 2016. At the time, a quarter of players came from Spanish-speaking nations. MLB teams have sometimes employed personal Japanese and Korean translators. But those translators were often included as part of a player’s contract. It used to be that teams leaned heavily upon Spanish-speaking coaches and/or teammates to act as the intermediaries between the player, his coaches, his teammates and the media. But that practice started to be heavily questioned when there were Japanese and Korean translators but none who spoke Spanish.

Translatorshave a lot of responsibilities. The St. Louis Cardinals recently posted an opening for a Spanish interpreter. The posting explains that whoever is hired will be involved with translation assistance with media interviews, press conferences, player/coach meetings, and team meetings while also supporting other MLB staff members. Those additional staff members includethe travel director and equipment manager, along with those who work in medical and video, among others. The demands of the job require candidates to be available to work “long hours, including nights, holidays and weekends and be able to travel both domestically and internationally.”

NHL teams have hired translators before. The most recent examples are the translators hired to work with Minnesota Wild star winger Kirill Kaprizov and New York Rangers duo Artemi Panarin and Igor Shesterkin. The Wild have used a freelance translator during Kaprizov’s two-year tenure. The Rangers have hired freelance translators over the years to assist with Panarin and Shesterkin. Panarin speaks in English on practice days — a change from when he used to rely on Russian-speaking teammates earlier in his career. Both players understand English well enough to know what questions are being asked, but they still use translators on game days.

One of the common themes discovered in talking to the players The Athletic interviewed for this story is that every one of them came from a nation where the introduction of English is not universal. San Jose Sharks center Tomas Hertl said he had an English class in school along with some extra lessons. But that was where it stopped. Hertl used the example of an American movie: There are other European nations where the movie is shown to audiences in English, with subtitles in the native language. In the Czech Republic, that same movie would be dubbed in Czech.

Carolina Hurricanes center Sebastian Aho and Seattle Kraken winger Joonas Donskoi both explained that English is taught in the Finnish school system. Even then, there is a difference between using what they learned in a classroom compared to what they learned living in an English-speaking nation.

“Definitely movies, (television) series, you learn a lot,” Aho said. “I think the most I learned, it was just being in the locker room and hearing guys talking, coach talking. Hockey talk is pretty simple. I think I learned that in a week. It’s always the same pattern there. But I was just hanging around with the guys. That is how I learned.”

Hurricanes winger Andrei Svechnikov, who spoke to The Athletic in November, said he had English classes in school growing up in Russia. But he admitted that there were challenges when it came to learning English. He did, however, know basic phrases such as, ‘Hey, how are you?’ Svechnikov moved to North America in 2016 when he played for the USHL’s Muskegon Lumberjacks before spending the next season with the OHL’s Barrie Colts.

Speaking English with his billet family in Muskegon was one of the early steps Svechnikov took when it came to feeling more comfortable. Svechinkov said he was grateful he had teammates who worked to make him feel included. Though there were some teammates who tried to be a little too helpful.

“When I first came, they started teaching me bad words,” Svechnikov said with a smile. “They would say, ‘Hey, go to the coach and say that, this and that.’ I would say it and they would laugh. But after that, I started picking up more and more words and I think the most English I picked up was around the boys.”

Another method Svechnikov explored was using social media. He said most social media platforms are in English, which also helped him. But he still kept the settings on his phone in Russian.

There have also been players who begin dreaming in English as they are learning the language. Colorado Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog previously said he started dreaming in English within the first three months of moving to North America from Sweden.

“I don’t have dreams!” Svechnikov said. “But I would say I (still dream) in Russian. Even if I think about something, I still think in Russian. That is my first language.”

Donskoi said there is also the work that comes with differentiating between “Hockey English” and English. He said “Hockey English” is universal. But being away from the dressing room is where using more traditional English can provide challenges. He said there were times when he had teammates who spoke with different accents or might have spoken at a quicker pace, which made it hard for him to understand certain words.

Perhaps the greatest obstacle Donskoi faced when trying to feel comfortable with his English? Speaking to women in social settings. Much like the night he met his future wife, Devin, for the first time.

“I was shy!” Donskoi said. “I would say the night we met, she was handling most of the talking and I was being a good listener. That’s a good thing to have, right? Definitely after we started dating, my English got a lot better because we speak it all the time at home.”

Donskoi has becomemuch more proficient in English over the years. He is always willing to do interviews whenever asked. Numerous team public relations staffs will find excuses for him to talk. The Kraken prominently feature Donskoi in a running segment in which he reads dad jokes to see if he will laugh. Spoiler alert: He almost always laughs. But there are some disadvantages when it comes to frequently speaking more English than Finnish.

He said there are times when he may forget a Finnish word when speaking to his mom. Other than calls back home, Donskoi only speaks to his son in Finnish. He does that because he wants his son to be familiar with the language. That way, he can have another tie to an ancestral homeland while being able to play with his cousins whenever their family returns for a long vacation.

“It’s kind of going upside down now,” Donskoi said. “It’s funny how that goes. Now, I am thinking in English. I am counting in my head in English. It has translated.”

So how does this all work if you are an English-speaking captain of an NHL team with players still learning the language? What are some of the things those captains, along with the rest of the leadership group, do to make those players feel welcomed?

Just ask Steven Stamkos. The Tampa Bay Lightning appointed Stamkos captain in 2014, which makes him one of the league’s longest-serving captains. Stamkos said he was beyond impressed with how non-English-speaking players balance learning the language and the courage to use it in daily settings. Stamkos said the progress made by teammates such as Nikita Kucherov and Andrei Vasilevskiy — both born in Russia — with speaking English is “night and day” compared to when they first joined the Lightning.

“You try to do as many activities as you can to include everyone. That is one way,” Stamkos said. “For some reason, it has always worked out in Tampa that if we had a Russian guy come in, we’ve always had a couple guys from Russia. Or a couple guys from Czech or Sweden. So there is always someone for someone to lean on when they come in. …We haven’t really had a situation where one guy was just kinda alone. You try to do as much as you can to help them out. I could never even imagine trying to go to a foreign country not knowing the language, and trying to figure things out.”

As for whether or not the NHL should have a translator program? It all depends on who is answering the question.

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told The Athletic that he has been curious about it over time. Daly said the practice of employing translators has not been widely subscribed to by any of the teams “for better or for worse,” while noting that non-English-speaking players have adjusted to their environments. Daly said there have only been a handful of times when a particular team had a high number of non-English-speaking players.

“I think our clubs are sensitive to it,” Daly said. “But, again, for better or for worse, hockey culture has adjusted to the fact when you come to North America, you are going to be communicated to in English.”

When it comes to what players think should happen, there are differing opinions. Aho, Barkov, Hertl and Josi all come at it from the perspective of players involved in leadership. Aho and Hertl are among the 26 current full-time alternate captains who were born in a nation in which English is not an official language, while Barkov and Josi are one of five captains from the same designation.

Barkov came to the U.S. in 2013 as an 18-year-old with limited English, but he understood what was being said. He and Jonathan Huberdeau, who grew up with French as his first language, spoke broken English with each other when they first met. Since then? They have become players who wear letters. Barkov became an alternate captain in his fifth NHL season and was named captain the next season. Huberdeau was named an alternate captain in his seventh season and remains in that role.

Josi was also named an alternate captain after four seasons and was given the ‘C’ two years later before the 2017-18 season. There is also another commonality Barkov and Josi share beyond being captains born outside of North America who did not have English as a first language. They are also part of leadership groups, which also reflects how NHL players come from everywhere. Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad is the only player on his team who wears a letter who grew up with English as his first language. The same goes for Predators center Ryan Johansen, who is the only member of his team’s leadership group who was born in North America and speaks English as his first language.

Count Barkov and Josi among those who are in favor of having a translator program. Josi said having any extra resource would only help players feel more comfortable and included while they continue to learn the language. Stamkos was also in favor because such a program could help those players who are shy around the media gain more confidence with someone there to help them.

“I don’t know how that would work but I think anything helps with that,” Barkov said. “It would help a lot. Especially with the guys who don’t speak at all. I think it’s a great idea.”

Aho and Svechnikov offered a different viewpoint, though. Aho said being thrust into an environment in which he had to learn English gave him the motivation to quickly learn the language. He also said he looked at learning English much like when he first arrived in the NHL: The goal is to get better as a player, so why not add learning English to that plan in the hopes of becoming a more complete player and person?

“I think it’s a bad thing, for sure,” Svechnikov said. “When you come here and you don’t speak any English, you want to have a translator for sure. But I feel like you are not going to learn English as fast as you can because you are only going to speak Russian. Maybe it’s a bad thing. Maybe it’s a good thing. But when I was in the USHL at 16, there wasn’t any Russians on the team. I was by myself. I was only speaking English and that helped me out a lot.”

Donskoi said he feels it should be up to the players to determine if they want a translator.

Contemplating the idea of a translator program made Hertl think about his experience. He admitted to struggling with English during school despite being a strong student in other subjects. He said speaking in a one-on-one setting was never a problem. But the idea of speaking in a larger group was something that left him “sweating.” Much of it came from the fear of saying “dumb things” around teammates.

But now? He wears a letter for the Sharks, is constantly featured on camera and was the team’s representative for NHL Media Days in Chicago last September.

“If you have someone who translates all the time for you, you will never learn the language,” Hertl said. “Maybe use somebody a little to get you settled but I think you may get farther talking to teammates in person. Say somebody says something, you need someone to translate. Say you have Czech buddies or guys from the same country. I know guys hate it because we are talking in our language and they don’t understand us. I think it is cool when you learn and can talk for yourself.”

(Top photo: Danny Murphy / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)