Sheng Peng
Krystof Hrabik has been reinstated.
The AHL announced today that Hrabik, who had served 28 games of a 30-game suspension, will be eligible to return to the San Jose Barracuda.
Hrabik was suspended for making a racist gesture toward Tucson’s Boko Imama in a Jan. 12 Barracuda-Roadrunners game. Imama is African-Canadian.
According to the AHL’s press release, the league shortened Hrabik’s suspension “following an evaluation of his progress in an education and training program conducted in conjunction with the National Hockey League’s Player Inclusion Committee.”
As for Boko Imama, this was not the first time that he’s dealt with racism in an AHL game. In Jan. 2020, Imama was verbally attacked by the Bakersfield Condors’ Brandon Manning.
Shortly after Hrabik’s suspension, Boko Imama tweeted out, “Enough is enough.” That statement inspired a fundraising T-shirt that all Roadrunners players and staff wore in the last weekend of February, all proceeds going to the Hockey Diversity Alliance.
The Mercury News reported that Hrabik will not immediately re-join the Barracuda. He will train on his own, pending a possible re-assignment to an ECHL team.
It is San Jose Hockey Now’s understanding that Hrabik, whose contract with the Barracuda expires at the end of this season, will not be returning to the San Jose Sharks organization – that includes the Barracuda – this year and in the future.
Hrabik signed with the San Jose Barracuda in Oct. 2019 after two seasons with the Tri-City Americans. He’s skated for the Barracuda and the ECHL’s Orlando Solar Bears and Allen Americans since then.