For 13 seasons, Georges Laraque was one of the toughest fighters in the National Hockey League. Georges, the son of Haitian immigrants, opens up about his fears and anxieties when squaring off against opponents, the racism he faced as a child playing hockey in Montreal, and what he’s done post-hockey, as a business owner and radio host.
THE RELUCTANT FIGHTER: GEORGES LARAQUE
CLIP: Georges Laraque
When I played junior hockey and the coach told me that if you want to play in NHL, you're going to have to fight. I started to fight in junior hockey because I wanted to be drafted by a team in the NHL. So I knew with my size, I would have to add fighting to my game to make it to the NHL.
TINA Pittaway:
That’s former hockey player Georges Laraque.
Look up videos of Georges online, and you’ll find page after page showing clips of him pummelling opponents... including some of the toughest guys in the National Hockey League, where he played for 13 seasons.
Fighting helped get him to the NHL, and it kept him there far longer than the average player.
But that doesn’t mean he liked it.
We’ll meet Georges.... hockey player, public speaker, sports talk-show host, activist, and longtime vegan...
Coming up, on Countless Journeys.
THEME MUSIC, THEN FADE UNDER
TINA:
Welcome to Countless Journeys, from the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21. I’m Tina Pittaway.
This season we have been bringing you stories about sports and the season just wouldn’t be complete without hockey taking center stage – or center ice to be more accurate.
Philip Moscovitch, who hosts the French-language counterpart to Countless Journeys, had the chance to speak with one of the more fascinating men to play the game in recent years… Georges Laroque.
Philip joins me now. Hi Philip.
PHILIP:
Hi Tina. Good to be here.
TINA:
Now, I’m going to confess that I grew up with a British father who knew nothing about hockey, and I don’t know a whole lot more than he did.
So, tell me a bit about Georges Laraque, and what makes him stand out.
PHILIP:
Well, Georges is the son of Haitian immigrants. He was born in Montreal in 1976, and when he was growing up there were very few Black players in the NHL. The NHL is still pretty white, but it was worse then.
TINA:
Sure.
PHILIP:
Georges if you see him is a big guy, he’s got a big smile… but he knew from an early age that if he was going to make it to the NHL, it wasn’t going to be on the strength of his goal-scoring. He was going to have to fight.
So, he became a tough guy. He wrote an autobiography and he titled it “The NHL’s Unlikeliest Tough Guy”.
TINA:
And what made him an unlikely tough guy?
PHILIP:
Well Georges was a bright kid, did great in school. Even got into one of the most prestigious French high schools in Quebec.
But he did deliberately flunk out after a year, because they didn’t have a very good hockey program, and he had his eyes set on being an athlete.
TINA:
OK so he was strategic from the get-go.
PHILIP:
Yes, and also, what’s unusual is he’s talked openly about his anxieties, and his fears, and being vulnerable. And he fought because he had to, not because he wanted to, and he tried to be honourable about it, like he would regularly wish his opponents luck before a fight.
TINA:
That’s amazing. So, who did he play for in the NHL?
PHILIP:
Georges played 13 seasons, for the Edmonton Oilers, a team that was at the time the Phoenix Coyotes, the Pittsburgh Penguins, and the Montreal Canadiens. And he went to the playoffs 8 out of those 13 years, including two trips to the Stanley Cup finals. So, pretty remarkable when you keep in mind that the average NHL career is under 5 years. And he retired in 2010.
TINA:
What’s he gone on to do since then?
PHILIP:
Georges has owned various businesses, and he does a lot of charity work… He was a panellist on CBC’s Canada Reads a few years back. And he co-hosts a sports radio talk show in Montreal. So a very busy guy.
He’s also a vegan which is really important to him. He became a vegan while he was still in the NHL, and promoting a vegan diet is one of his great passions. He even owned a chain of vegan raw food restaurants for a while.
TINA:
Oh, so he was a restaurateur for a while. He doesn’t have them anymore?
PHILIP:
He doesn’t. He told me that he’s happy he did it, but he didn’t love the daily hassles of the restaurant business.
Now I said Georges has a daily radio show, so he sat down to speak with me in studio, after he’d wrapped up his radio show for the day.
We talked about his early days in hockey, the racism he faced and how it motivated him, his successful business career… and also why he really, really didn’t want to play for the Montreal Canadiens.
And I began our conversation by asking him how he began to play hockey for the first time as a kid.
GEORGES LARAQUE
I was born in Montreal, and when you're born in Montreal, every kid plays hockey on the street. So just like every kid, and especially at school, I started to play hockey on the street with all the other kids, and it's cool, because that's what we do, especially in the Montreal region, right? So that's how I started getting into hockey. My parents were not. But just like all the other kids, we started playing on the streets every day and in different parks. So that’s how I got to love hockey.
Philip:
And were your parents supportive? Did they want you playing?
GEORGES LARAQUE:
My parents, they were not supportive of hockey because of the racism. Because back then, if you go back a long time ago, there wasn't many Black people playing hockey. So, I got called the N-word a lot while I was playing. They didn't think it was a good environment for me to play in as a kid. Because no kid that plays sports for fun should endure racism. And they knew if I played soccer or another sport where there was more representation, that would be easier for me. But me, the way that I was when I was a kid, if somebody told me that I couldn't do something, that's what I wanted to do. I never wanted to stop something because of criticism or because of racism or anything. I loved the hockey. And even though people would call me anything, my goal was to prove them wrong and make it to the NHL. So I didn't care. So I told my parents that I didn't want to quit, and that I was going to play in the NHL regardless of all the insults that I was getting.
Philip:
The racism you faced on the ice… what age are we talking about? Did it start when your family lived in Sorel-Tracy, about an hour from Montreal?
GEORGES LARAQUE:
When I was living in that town, we were the only Black family that was there. And yeah, in school and everything, I had really good grades and I was good in school and all the sports, everything that we did. But in hockey, the thing is, in my minor hockey, I was the fastest, I was the best, I was scoring tonnes of goals, and people were jealous. They didn't like that. And I was the only Black kid. So because of that, and the culture of hockey — yelling in the stands, and all of the other teams try to insult you. My parents, because they didn't want me to play, they didn't come to the games. So, because they didn't come, the parents, they could say whatever they want. I'm alone! You get this little seven, eight-year-old kid that is playing and his parents are not even there because they don't want me to play. So, they're like, ‘Go on your own.’ So, I ride my bicycle to go to the rink — alone. So, if my parents are not there, you could imagine the insults that I was getting in the stands. So that's why. It's just that they didn't like that this Black kid was the best player on the ice, scoring all these goals. I could do a slapshot at such a young age, that people were so jealous of this. I remember even getting called a “savage” because I would do a slapshot and the puck would go close to the goalie's head. But it's a slapshot! You know, playing hockey. So, all these things that I had to endure…
Philip:
I was going to ask you if you think you succeeded despite the racism, but maybe it’s in part because of it. Because you needed to show the people yelling those horrible things at you.
GEORGES LARAQUE
You know what? They made me stronger. It made me strong and it gave me the strength to pursue through, and to go through everything. Because after making it to the NHL, with all the insults and everything I had to go through, today I know I could push on, I could go through anything. Because that was the biggest obstacle of my life, to make it despite everything that I had endured as a kid playing hockey. So that's why to me, there's nothing that could bother me.
And at one point, you had to make a choice between football and hockey. Why did you stick with hockey despite everything?
GEORGES LARAQUE
When I was 15 years old, I had to make a choice between… like, I had an opportunity to make a career in soccer and American football and hockey. And hockey is not even my favourite sport. It's third. My favourite sport is soccer, then it's football, then it is hockey. The only reason why I picked hockey is because of all the insults that I went through as a kid. I figured that I had a mission to prove my parents and all the insults wrong. I had to pick the sport everybody thought I was not going to make. And also, in my mind — because I knew I was going to be a professional athlete when I was a kid — you know, when you talk about sending something into the universe and putting in all the sacrifices to make it happen… So, I was like, if I pick those other two sports, I'm going to be just another one of these Afro-Americans that makes it in a sport that has a majority of Afro-Americans and I'm not going to be a role model. So, I had to pick hockey also, not just because of the insults, but also because there were not a lot of Black people playing hockey, and I wanted to be one of them. To inspire the young kids that also want to pursue hockey and don't have many role models to look up to. So that's also, that's the biggest reason why I picked hockey.
Philip:
In 1995, you went to Edmonton for the NHL entry draft, and you’ve said that you were worried the Canadiens might draft you. They were your hometown team, a storied franchise… Why didn’t you want to play for them?
GEORGES LARAQUE
Well, the thing is the reason I didn't want to play in Montreal is… when I started, because I saw all the people that were from Montreal when I played in the NHL, the scrutiny around them, how much pressure they had when they were here, it’s too much. And when you're a rookie, to play and deal with all that pressure, when you don't even make it yet, it was too much, and I didn't want that pressure.
Remember, as a tough guy, it's different. It's different than all the other players, because you play in Montreal, you're a rookie, you're a tough guy. You lose, and you get booed. And the media's on you, and it makes the fans get on you. And it's too much pressure to start, because I didn't know when I was going to start in the NHL, that I was going to be one of the toughest guys in the NHL, right? I didn't know that it was going to turn out like that. So having that pressure in Montreal — look at how they treated Brashear. Brashear was the toughest guy in the league. They booed him out of the team. Like, they booed him out and he was so tough. I would come in now as a rookie after him… after what happened to him… So, I didn't want that.
Philip:
So, you held your breath, the Habs didn’t pick you, and then the Edmonton Oilers selected you in the second round. And I’ve seen the photos of you when you’re up there at the draft posing with Glenn Sather the Oilers’ legendary General Manager and first-round pick Steve Kelly… And I’m just wondering what did that feel like for you? Did it feel like the culmination of what you’d worked for? Or did you have a feeling that this was just the start?
GEORGES LARAQUE
Yeah. To be drafted in the second round by the Oilers was awesome. But at the same time, I knew I was still far from the NHL. When you’re drafted, it doesn't mean you're going to play in the NHL, and I knew that. When you're drafted, it means that a team owns your rights, but you still have to make that team. So, I was still far away from the NHL. Being drafted is a start. But so many people take it for granted, being drafted and it's going to be easy. It's not easy. Because then the work starts. Because now you go to training camp and I don't go to a training camp with junior kids. I go to the NHL with men, and I'm a kid. So, I have to make my place. Nobody's like, ‘Oh, this kid, we're going to give him a spot.’ No, those guys, they're fighting to keep their spot. So, I'll have to disrupt that and make it. It's hard, and that's what I had to do. So, I was happy, but at the same time I was nervous because I knew that now that I was drafted, I had to become a man, and a man fast. Otherwise, I was never going to play in the NHL.
Philip:
Yeah, I mean it’s true right? Steve Kelly was drafted ahead of you, but never really made it, and you had a very successful career. You said you were a kid, a guy who made his name in junior partly by fighting, and now you’re lining up against some pretty big guys. What was that like for you?
GEORGES LARAQUE
Yeah, no, it's crazy. My first year, you know, playing a couple exhibition games, and I was — I don't know if I would have stayed all year, but I would've started the season because I did good in exhibition games. But I'll never forget that face-off in front of Dave Brown. And I remember looking at videos of Dave Brown. He broke the face of Stu Grimson. And my first exhibition game I had no visor. And I was like, oh my God, if I fight, this guy could break my face. So, I was so scared. And I'll never forget that I fought somebody else on that team, when I was playing against the San Jose farm team.
And then when the exhibition game was done, when Ron Lowe, the coach, said he was thinking of having me start the season because I did good, and I said, ‘No, no. I think it's better if I go back to junior to improve my skill.’ I never said it’s because I was afraid, but that was in my mind. I was like, man, I don't know how I'm going to do this. Because as a kid, it was pretty intimidating to go in there and having to fight these guys. So yes, I refused to start. I didn't want to start the season, but I just didn't say the reason why.
You can never be too prepared to play in the NHL. And again, the role that I had, to be more mature physically, to get there, it was a very good thing to do. Because it's different. Because remember, I'm a kid. Fighting men is not the same. So going back to junior another year was a good thing physically to do, to get ready to play with men.
PHILIP
You know I have a friend whose brother was a tough guy in the NHL for many years, and when I told him I was going to be speaking with you, this is what he said.
He described you as a most honourable fighter who would ever so politely ask the other guy if he wanted to go, and then would wish the other guy good luck without a hint of arrogance. Would you say that’s accurate?
GEORGES LARAQUE
Ya I always did that because I didn't like it. I didn't like fighting. I did it because that's what I had to do to be there. But again, the guy against me didn't do anything. How could you have anger to fight someone in the NHL that didn't do anything? You know, it's your job. You just go out there, and the guy is like, he has a family, he has kids, you don't want to kill anyone. Because, you know, at the end of the day, like everybody, people live, right? So, I never wanted to kill someone. So, I’d always ask the guy if he was okay, even after the fight. You know, I stopped punching a guy when he was down.
I’d stop. When somebody was in a bad position, I'd stop. There's many videos, fighting videos. You look. When a guy was down, I stopped. The referees loved me for that. The people that I was fighting against loved me for that, because there's so much respect. There's a code to go with that. And I've always lived by that code.
PHILIP:
So how did you manage to keep fighting if you hated it?
GEORGES LARAQUE
Fighting in the NHL, fighting against men, like legitimately true heavyweights, it is scary and there is fear. You could die doing that. And I hated it. I did that because that's what I had to do to be there. But the way that I approached it was like, if you hate something, if you hate fighting, be the best at it so you don't have to do it as much. And that's exactly what happened. I became the best at it, so people feared me and I didn't have to do it as much.
Philip:
It’s almost a paradox, right? You have to get really good at fighting so you don’t have to fight.
GEORGES LARAQUE
Yeah, yeah.
Philip:
Now, in 2004-2005 the NHL locked out its players. A lot of guys went to play in Europe, I actually remember going to see a game in Switzerland that was full of NHL guys at that time.
You didn’t want to go to Europe because you didn’t want to take away someone’s job. But then a Swedish team came calling for the playoffs, and of course players aren’t paid in the playoffs, so you weren’t taking food off anyone’s table. So, tell me about that experience, about playing in Sweden.
GEORGES LARAQUE
A guy like me, you don't want to not play hockey for a full year and go back to NHL after. So, what I did is I joined a team in Stockholm, AIK, in the playoffs because I didn't want to take somebody's job in the regular season. So, I joined in the playoffs, because in the playoffs you don't take anybody's job. And when I came into the playoffs, you know, this Olympic ice, it was weird because there's no fighting in Sweden. So, I was wondering how I was going to do. I ended up scoring a goal a game in the playoffs and I won the MVP and we won, we won the playoffs. It was so fun. It was the first time that I was playing the role of a goal scorer on the first line. In the NHL obviously, I wasn't that. So, it was fun. I loved it. I loved playing in Sweden, visiting the country and I did so good that year that many years later when AIK celebrated their 125th anniversary, they invited me, and then I got honoured by the fans. It was unbelievable. The fact that a tough guy in the NHL had that much impact in Sweden and I was remembered, so I loved it.
PHILIP:
You jokingly referred to yourself at one point as a 250-pound Black Wayne Gretzky when you played in Sweden right?
GEORGES LARAQUE
Yeah, I used that all the time. I always said that as a joke and stuff. And you know what's funny is when AIK signed me, because they were one of the most historical teams in Sweden, I was getting ripped in the media in Sweden. They're like, ‘Why did they sign a tough guy to help this team in the playoffs? That's a bad signing,’ and all that stuff. They were criticizing me. So, when I got there and I see my face all over the papers, and I was asking the players, “What does it say?” And they're like, ‘Georges, you don't want to know.’ Why? They're like, ‘Yeah, it's not good, it’s bad.’ I said, ‘What did I do?’ And then people didn't want to tell me why. They're like, ‘Well, they don't think the team did a good thing signing you.’ I couldn't believe it! And then when we won and I got MVP, they all apologized. And they said it was one of the best signings in history. I was so popular, and they couldn't believe it, and they changed their word. And I was one of the most popular players that came to play here. It was unreal. The beginning was weird, but the ending was fantastic.
PHILIP:
Speaking of endings, you didn’t want to play for the Montreal Canadiens at the start of your career, but you did wind up in the bleu blanc rouge for your last couple of seasons. How did you feel about the team at that point?
GEORGES LARAQUE
When I went back to Montreal, my career was different because now I knew the game, I knew how to deal with the media, so I didn't care. To me it was OK and I could deal with anything. But before that, when you're a rookie, it's so hard to make it in the NHL, so you don't want the media to distract you and all these things, right?
But when I was established as one of the best ones — to come here, there was not the same pressure. So, I was more ready. I knew how to deal with the media, so then after that it was fine. I was hurt the year before, when I was with Pittsburgh and we made it to the Stanley Cup final. We lost in six against Detroit and I played lots. So, it's just that, unfortunately, when I got hurt was when I played for my own town. So, I only played 60 games in two years. But it doesn't change the fact that, you know, I played 13 years in the NHL, part of my career that I had. And there's way more positive than negative, you know? Everybody wants to play forever, and there is always an end. And 13 years in the NHL is way above average.
PHILIP:
A lot of NHL tough guys – you know this all too well - really struggled with alcohol, drugs, addictions. But you seemed to come through it more or less unscathed. How did you manage that?
GEORGES LARAQUE
A lot of guys that fought, because of the anxiety fighting gives, a lot of them took alcohol, took drugs, or even steroids, they took bad stuff to numb their emotion because of the anxiety hockey gives you. But me, I never did any of that stuff. I didn't like that stuff, and I knew it wasn't healthy.
Other people, they did it with drugs. I never did, so I never drank, didn't do drugs, didn't use steroids. When you get older, and you don't do those bad habits, you're much healthier than someone that did, combined with the hits to the head. And this is something that I rarely got. I rarely got hit, too. Never got a concussion in a fight. So, because of all that, that's why today I'm very healthy. And unfortunately for a lot of my peers, it's not the case.
PHILIP:
I want to ask you about your charity work. When the terrible earthquake hit Haiti in 2010, you went down there after the team released you, to the country your parents were from. What was that like for you?
GEORGES LARAQUE
When the earthquake happened in Haiti… Both my parents were born there, so I knew I had to do something. So, what I did is I became an ambassador for World Vision, and with the NHL and the NHLPA raised a couple of million, and then went back to Haiti to help rebuild the Grace Children's Hospital that crashed in Port-au-Prince. And I went back there with Dan Hamhuis, I went there with P.K. Subban, to raise awareness, to raise money and stuff, to rebuild that hospital. So, yeah, I went back there four times.
There's another time I went back to Haiti with Pamela Anderson to raise awareness for the hospital. So I went a few times, to help out, to raise money to help that country — and because my parents were born there and I went twice as a kid, I felt that I was in a position to be able to do something good. And I did, and I was very proud of it.
PHILIP:
Yeah, I’m sure, like justifiably proud, right?
And the other thing I want to ask you about is you do a lot of public speaking on veganism. So, I want to know why that is so important to you and why you became a vegan?
GEORGES LARAQUE
In 2009, I watched a documentary called Earthlings, Joaquin Phoenix does the narration of it. And I watched it because a friend of mine was telling me to watch it, and I didn't want to watch it, because I was like, there's nothing that I could watch that can make me stop eating meat. And my friend was insisting to me to watch it, to watch it. So, I watched it, just so she could leave me alone. It's an hour and a half documentary, I cried for an hour when I watched it. I couldn't believe… I didn't know any of this. I didn't know how much animals had to suffer to end up on our plates, how bad it was for the environment and for our health. So, after I saw it, that was it. I decided to become vegan, not knowing if it was going be good for me or not. And I had another year in the NHL too, when I was vegan, but I didn't care. I decided be vegan, I went to see a vegan nutritionist. she told me what to do, what I could eat and what I could do, and it changed my life.
I did so many, and I still do today, so many public speaking about veganism, because people are so surprised at the fact that I'm vegan. So, I talk about it for hours, try to inspire people to be healthier, and explain to them about the health. Because when you do a public talk about veganism, you don't talk about how animals suffer. People don't care, because they don't kill it. You don't think about the environment, because people always say it's no big deal, it's a hoax, talking about environment. I talk about how it's impacting their health. And when I do that, I have their attention. So yeah, so ever since, I've never went back and I'm going to stay vegan for life.
PHILIP:
I asked you before about drugs and alcohol and maybe this is a related question. But some players have a hard time finding their footing after their hockey career ends, they’ve played hockey their whole lives, they don’t know what to do.
And you seemed to transition quite easily. You’ve become this beloved figure in Montreal – you’ve owned several businesses or been an investor in several businesses.
A kombucha company and a chain of vegan raw food restaurants… I never ate at them, but my wife did. And now your involved with MapHydration… Which makes sports drinks. And it just kinda seems amazing to me - you seem to bring the same energy to all this that you did to hockey.
GEORGES LARAQUE
I’m a businessman now. I do a lot of things, I love it. I'm hyperactive, so I work all the time. I love working. I love getting involved in business and that's what I do. and because of my energy, just like when I was playing hockey, when I do something, I do it 100%. Pretty much everything I do is thriving, is doing good, and I love it.
MUSIC
TINA:
That was Georges Laraque. Hockey player, businessman, vegan.
And if you speak French, give a listen to Episode 3 of our French podcast, D’Innombrables voyages. You’ll hear more from Georges Laraque and his brother Jules, who also played hockey at a high level... but whose post-playing career has been very different.
If you enjoyed this story you might like to dip into the Countless Journeys archives, and listen to one of our sports stories from a few years ago. Like our episode “Canadian Dreams” from Season 1, featuring Belgian sled dog racer Gaetan Pierrard, who moved from Belgium to the Yukon, where he has 14 dogs.
CLIP: Gaetan Pierrard
Here Bonny – she’s very affectionate eh. And Minnie – is a crazy hyper little female. Which is the speed in the team… Sally – come on Sally.
TINA PITTAWAY
Here he is, talking about his first sled-dog race, the Yukon Quest.
CLIP: Gaetan Pierrard
It takes probably 12 or 13 days to run it, but it took me years to prepare. When I started to immigrate and came to Canada in August 2007, it was my goal. So it’s only nine years later that I’m running it… SO it’s not only the 12 days, it’s like 10 years before. Just all the thinking.
When I was in Belgium, I was dreaming about the Yukon Quest already. So it’s a dream in the making that is so long, you’re not giving it up. It’s chaos. You know what I mean.
TINA:
And if you aren’t already following us on your favourite podcast app, be sure to hit like and subscribe so you never miss an episode.
Thanks for listening to Countless Journeys brought to you by the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, at the Halifax Seaport.
This season of Countless Journeys is presented by Air Canada. Canada’s airline for welcoming newcomers home.
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