Sharks’ Logan Couture: Speaking up was ‘an easy decision’

San Jose Sharks center Logan Couture skates during the first period of the team's NHL hockey game against the Nashville Predators in San Jose, Calif., Saturday, Nov. 9, 2019. (Jeff Chiu/AP)

As more and more athletes across the sporting world speak out against racial injustices in the wake of the death of George Floyd, San Jose Sharks captain Logan Couture said his decision to join the conversation and speak up about racism in hockey was an easy one.

“Out here in San Jose, the way this organization has been, they encourage us to speak our minds and be ourselves,” Couture said Friday during a conversation on Hockey Central. “For me, personally, it was an easy decision.”

 
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Last weekend, one day after Sharks forward Evander Kane called upon others to help create change, Couture issued a written statement on Twitter acknowledging racism in the game and thanking Kane and Akim Aliu for sharing their own stories.

In doing so, Couture is helping drive the conversation about racism in a league whose athletes don’t often use their platforms to speak out on social issues. In the days since, other prominent players have posted statements of their own and are vowing to be part of the solution.

“…When you have ethnicities other than the ones that are being affected step up and say something, that causes a real dialogue,” Kane said during an interview on Writers Bloc last Friday. “It can cause real change. And it can cause people to really open up their eyes and come together, and I think that’s the biggest thing. And we don’t have nearly enough of that, clearly.”

“I think what Evander has done with this movement, and he’s always supported the black community … I think for us, as players, out here in San Jose we can do a better job of supporting him and helping him out,” Couture said. “So that’s the main reason I made that statement.”

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