Nashville, Nexus For Jewish Hockey
Nashville has signed Dov Grumet-Morris to a two-way contract (meaning he gets paid to play in the NHL and the minors, although with a zero dropping off the paycheck as he moves down a level). Grumet-Morris wins the hockey player minority hat trick: he’s a Harvard grad, he’s a goalie, and he’s Jewish. Not the first Jewish goalie in the NHL, and not the first Ivy-matriculated goalie in the NHL (Ken Dryden, anyone), but probably the first to live in the intersection of all three circles in this Venn diagram of Jewish Hockey Geography.
This is the second flyer (not the Philly kind) that Nashville has taken on a nice Jewish boy — the last being the signing of Andrew “Bubba” Berenzweig, who played parts of four seasons with the Preds, picking up 3 goals and 7 assists in the course of 37 regular season games.
There’s no trend here (yet) as none of the young Jewish stars have had a chance to win the Stanley Cup and make kiddish in it. But I’d fly to Nashville to see that.