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By Sam Laskaris
Windspeaker.com Contributor
RANKIN INLET, Nunavut
Jordin Tootoo, the first Inuk to play in the National Hockey League, is among those offering their support for a tournament honouring his late brother.
The inaugural Terence Tootoo Memorial will be staged March 8 to 12 in the Nunavut hamlet of Rankin Inlet.
The late Tootoo, who was three years older than his brother, committed suicide at the age of 22 back in the summer of 2002. He had played one season of minor pro hockey in the East Coast Hockey League.
The Rankin Inlet Senior Men’s Hockey League is organizing the tournament. For the past 15 years officials from the league had run a tournament called the Avataq Cup.
That tourney was named in honour of four local men who died in 2000 when a ship named Avataq sank. Tournament organizers started contemplating a name change last year.
“The wife of the owner of the ship kindly asked if we could rename it,” said Troy Aksalnik, one of the tournament organizers.
Aksalnik, who was born two days before Jordin Tootoo and still considers the NHLer his best friend, came up with the idea of renaming the tournament and honouring Terence Tootoo.
“At first I was having second thoughts,” he said. “Some people don’t like to memorialize someone who has committed suicide. But people can think what they want. This is our friend and we want an event to remember him.”
Jordin Tootoo, who is in his 14th pro season and is now a member of the Chicago Blackhawks, was fully supportive of the name change.
And so too are the Tootoo parents, Rose and Barney, who still live in Rankin Inlet.
“We agreed almost immediately,” Rose Tootoo said. “Once in a while we had talked about how we should start something.”
Plus it was fairly easy to say yes to Aksalnik – an individual Rose Tootoo is rather fond of.
“Troy is my son from another mother,” she said, adding Aksalnik would spend long stretches at her home while her sons were growing up.
“His mother travelled a lot and he would stay in our house.”
Rose Tootoo and her husband will be attending the tournament, including the opening ceremonies.
She had hoped the tournament would be staged a couple of weeks later.
“I was hoping it would happen around the end of the month,” she said. “Terence’s birthday was on March 28. For now though we’re grateful something is starting.”
The event will feature 10 teams. Competitors will be ages 16 and up. One of the participating clubs will be alumni from the OCN Blizzard, a Junior A squad from the the Pas in Manitoba.
Rose Tootoo was ecstatic when she heard the one of the squads entering would be comprised of former Blizzard players who were her son’s teammates.
“I was so touched,” she said. “Terence played there for four years. We would talk about it and say if we ever had a tournament it would be nice if we had some of these guys. Lo and behold it’s happening.”
Because of his commitments with the Blackhawks, Jordin Tootoo will be unable to attend this year’s tournament.
Aksalnik has remained close with the pro player, who before joining Chicago this season had NHL stops with the Nashville Predators, Detroit Red Wings and New Jersey Devils.
The NHLer is the godfather for Aksalnik’s 10-year-old daughter Kylie. Aksalnik also has a three-year-old son Jordin, named in honour of his best friend.
Jordin Tootoo is now 34. It remains to be seen how much longer he will play in the NHL. Earlier this week he agreed to a one-year contract extension with the Blackhawks.
Aksalnik added he believes Tootoo will eventually become a co-director of the tournament once his NHL playing days are over.
“We’re hoping it will be a success and it will be called (Terence Tootoo Memorial) for years and years,” Aksalnik said.
As for this year, Jordin Tootoo is lending his support to the tournament with some rather generous gifts. He shipped organizers nine autographed Blackhawks’ jerseys, which will be raffled off during the five-day tourney.
Three of the jerseys sport Tootoo’s signature. The other autographed jerseys are from captain Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Marian Hossa, Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook and Corey Crawford.
Organizers are still deciding on how to best raffle off the Blackhawks’ jerseys. Aksalnik said they might end up offering two or three per day.
“With such big names on those jerseys, we’re hoping to get at least $800 per jersey,” he said.
Corinne Pilakapsi, who lives in Tankin Inlet and is Jordin’s and Terence’s sister, is also offering her support to the tournament. She is making parkas with the tournament logo on them that are also expected to be raffled off.