Exploring hockey, history, and the skaters who stutter

The Stanley Cup, also referred to as Lord Stanley’s Cup, is the oldest trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America. The trophy was commissioned in 1892 and named after Lord Stanley of Preston, the Governor General of Canada, who donated it as an award to Canada’s top-ranking amateur ice hockey club. First awarded in 1893 to the Montreal Hockey Club, some 34 years later it would exclusively become the championship trophy of the newly aligned National Hockey League. Since then, it has been the goal of every NHL team to try to win the Stanley Cup.

Bryan Rust

The stuttering community should be aware that there have been some players who stutter on Stanley Cup winning teams. Currently, Bryan Rust continues to star for the Pittsburgh Penguins. He won Stanley Cups with the Penguins in 2016 and 2017. On May 2, 2016, he became the first rookie in NHL history to score two goals in a game seven of the Stanley Cup playoffs, helping the Penguins to victory in game seven of the semi-finals. After this publicized feat, Sports Illustrated published an article about Rust and his brother Matt, also a player in the Penguins’ minor-league system. “Born three years apart, Matt and Bryan were bonded by more than hockey. As children, both attended speech therapy to help their stutters, and found themselves subject to the same type of teasing from their peers. “It’s not the easiest thing to go through as a kid," Matt said. "We were always there for each other. That’s probably a story in itself.”

An inspiring article in the February 3, 2024 edition of the Pittsburgh-Tribune Review, “Penguins Forward Bryan Rust Speaks Up for Those Who Stutter” detailed the Michigan native’s work with The National Association of Young People Who Stutter (known as “FRIENDS”). Through his work with FRIENDS, Rust has met with many young people who stutter after Penguins’ games and given them encouragement.

Niklas Backstrom

The Washington Capitals joined the NHL as an expansion team in 1974-1975 and won their first and only Stanley Cup so far in 2018. Capitals’ star Niklas Backstrom, a native of Sweden and a person who stutters, played a pivotal role in the Capitals’ finally winning Lord Stanley’s Cup. Chosen fourth overall by the Capitals in the first round of the 2006 NHL Entry Draft, Niklas Backstrom has played his entire 17 NHL seasons with Washington, scoring 271 goals and 1,033 points in 1,105 games. In the wake of the Stanley Cup triumph, Backstrom was profiled in a Washington Post article titled “Backstory” on September 27, 2018. The article touched upon his childhood stuttering and how it has continued into adulthood. He was quoted, “….because sometimes I want to say one thing, and I know I can say it, but sometimes I start to stutter, so I have to redo the phrase. I’m not shy. I just pick my spots. Obviously, you don’t want to be in a live interview when it happens, but it is what it is.”

Gordie Lane

In terms of retired players, likely no former player who stutters achieved more Stanley Cup rings than Gord Lane, the tough defenseman for the New York Islanders in their amazing run of four consecutive Stanley Cups from 1980-1983. Gord Lane’s life and career is one of perseverance and triumph over the odds. At age 19 after playing for the New Westminster Bruins of the WCJHL, he was drafted by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the ninth round of the 1973 NHL draft in an era when ninth round picks had little if any chance of making the NHL. Never giving up, he played three seasons in the International Hockey League, a lower-tier minor league. It was an extremely difficult task for an IHL player to make the NHL in that era, but Lane was offered a tryout with the Washington Capitals and was signed to a contract. He quickly earned a reputation as the Capitals’ “enforcer,” and in his fifth season with the club was traded to the Islanders on December 7, 1979, and the rest is history.

On a team of many stars and high scorers, Lane anchored the defense for the Islanders as a defensive defenseman that was a needed contrast to the high-scoring Islanders defensemen. Lane played six seasons with the Islanders from 1979-1985 and was noted for his physical play and stay-at-home defensive style. An integral part of the Islanders’ four consecutive Stanley Cup championship teams, his keen defensive style was regularly noted in the media. The Islanders top scorer Brian Trottier has told people over the years that Gord Lane was the “unsung hero” of those four championship teams. During the 1982 Stanley Cup finals when Lane had an incredible game, an article in the sports section of Newsday reported that Islanders coach Al Arbour passed Lane in the locker room and said, “Hi, Conn,” a reference to the Conn Smythe Trophy, which is awarded to the most valuable player of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

On a few occasions during his days as an Islanders, Gord Lane addressed his stuttering in newspaper interviews, and won admirers in the process. He was one of the first pro athletes to speak openly about his stuttering and in one newspaper interview spoke about a speech therapy program he was taking and the support meetings he was attending with other people in that therapy. Lane’s going public about his stuttering during his days with the Islanders certainly made him a role model to many young hockey fans who also stuttered, not to mention admired by the hockey world for rising above his challenges to star at defense for the Islanders.

One NHL superstar who unfortunately never won a Stanley Cup is Dave Taylor, the all-star right wing for the Los Angeles Kings for 17 seasons from 1977-1994. The Levack, Ontario native was viewed as too light to play in amateur hockey in Canada so instead he took a scholarship to Clarkson College in Potsdam, New York in 1973. Unlike today, very few college players made it into the National Hockey League. Taylor set all the Clarkson scoring records and in his last year was named both an NCAA All-American and the ECAC player of the year.

After an outstanding college career, Taylor was selected in the fifteenth round as the 210th player overall. In those days, someone selected in the fifteenth round never made it into the NHL. Some say his 150 pounds deemed him an unlikely pro prospect. Taylor proved them wrong as he not only earned a spot on the Kings but had an impressive rookie year in 1977-1978 with 22 goals and 22 assists. The next season Taylor would start playing on the famed “Triple Crown Line” with perennial superstar Marcel Dionne and top goal scorer Charlie Simmer. The trio tore up the NHL for a few years.

Dave Taylor has always been open about his stuttering. He has admitted in public that he once had to drop a class in college when he found out that an oral presentation was required. Also, early in his NHL career Taylor, when interviewed after games on the radio, would often fake hyperventilation to guide him to fluency. Taylor credits his triumph over stuttering to his work with famed SLP Vivian Sheehan in Los Angeles.

On February 5, 1991, Taylor scored his 1,000 career NHL point, putting him in an elite group of NHL players throughout history. He was the first player to achieve that milestone that was a product of the U.S. college system. Dave Taylor’s number 18 was only the third number retired in Los Angeles King history. While videos of Dave Taylor’s abilities on the ice, both scoring and fighting, are available on YouTube, people who stutter will continue to be inspired by Taylor’s never-ending triumphs over the odds. His enthusiasm and dedication will never be retired.

Leo Carlsson

The Anaheim Mighty Ducks entered the NHL as an expansion franchise in 1993 and shortened their name to the “Anaheim Ducks” in 2006. The Anaheim Ducks won the Stanley Cup in 2007. In the 2023 NHL Entry Draft, Anaheim selected Leo Carlsson, a highly rated 18-year-old forward from Sweden, with the second pick in the draft. The fact that Carlsson is a person who stutters did not go unnoticed in the media. The Athletic ran an article on April 25, 2023, titled “Meet Leo Carlsson, No. 2 Draft Pick by the Ducks, Whose Stutter Is Just ‘Part of Me.” On November 10, 2023, he scored his first career NHL hat trick and gave an interview afterwards, which is available on YouTube. It is obvious by the interview that he speaks with confidence despite his stuttering. Maybe someday the name Leo Carlsson will be engraved on Lord Stanley’s Cup.

The fact that 1% of adults stutter and that the Stanley Cup has been awarded for 131 years means that there are likely more people who stuttered whose names are engraved on the Stanley Cup as well as other NHL players in the past whose stuttering was never publicized. However, with the identified NHL players in this article making it to the NHL and being heroes to young people stutter, it really does not matter whether or not they won the great Stanley Cup because they have always been champions in the eyes of the stuttering community.

From the 2024 Fall Magazine