Last week, the NHL posted a story, "Right wing trio adds to the NHL's expanding diversity," (http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=406830), which features three newer black players in the NHL, including our Chris Stewart.

Three right wings from Toronto, two of them teenage friends, are making an impact with NHL teams and beyond this season. On the ice, they have earned their share of shifts. Plus, as black players, they are adding diversity to the NHL, boosting the number of minority players in the League to 31. Additionally, 17 minority players who have appeared on NHL rosters at one time currently are playing in the American Hockey League or ECHL.

The players who hail from Toronto -- the Los Angeles Kings' Wayne Simmonds, the Colorado Avalanche's Chris Stewart and the Nashville Predators' Joel Ward -- are enjoying their first full seasons in the NHL.

...(Continued)....

Ward, Simmonds and Stewart are the latest additions to the NHL's growing minority population. Of the 48 current or recent NHL minority players, 29 are black, seven aboriginal, seven Asian, three Hispanic, one Inuit and one South Asian. Thirty-eight blacks have played NHL hockey since Willie O'Ree became the first in 1958.