Hockey Nova Scotia is pleased to announce that the Future of Hockey Lab's Amy Walsh and Carolyn Townsend are the co-recipients of our 2024 Ken Mantin Award.

The Ken Mantin Award is named in honour of former Hockey Nova Scotia president Ken Mantin and is presented annually in recognition of an outstanding contribution to amateur hockey development in Nova Scotia.

Founded in 2021 by Carolyn Townsend and former Hockey Nova Scotia executive director Amy Walsh, the Future of Hockey Lab is a social innovation lab that partners with diverse communities to discover, test, and scale innovative ideas that transform hockey's culture and make the sport more accessible.

The motivation for the Future of Hockey Lab was inspired by the work of Hockey Nova Scotia’s Diversity & Inclusion Task Force, which resulted in feedback from hundreds of people who offered countless ideas on how to reimagine hockey. The Future of Hockey Lab aims to put these ideas into action by supporting people – inside and outside of the game – who have an interest in removing barriers from the sport. The goal of the lab is to develop innovative ideas, test them “on the ground” in hockey associations and communities, and then modify the ideas to improve uptake in specific communities and across Canada.

While the Future of Hockey Lab is still in its early days, the future looks bright as the lab continues to develop new cohorts of change-makers that will work to innovate the game and make it more welcoming and accessible for everyone.

Please join us in congratulating Amy Walsh and Carolyn Townsend on winning our 2024 Ken Mantin Award.