Nate Leslie (back row, fifth from left) is taking another load of donated hockey gear to Mongolia to help grow the game. This photo shows him during his 2015 trip with players in Ulaanbaatar. (Karin Larsen)

Mongolia is generally not considered a hockey power.

The country, as of 2018, is not ranked by the sport’s top body in either men’s or women’s play. It had to withdraw from a 2011 tournament due to a lack of funds and equipment. And according to reference page Elite Prospects, no Mongolian player has ever been drafted by a North American team.

But Vancouver hockey coach Nate Leslie is hoping to help grow the game in the landlocked Asian nation by collecting donations of used gear in Canada and shipping it over.

“If anything is grassroots, it’s hockey in Mongolia,” Leslie told On The Coast host Gloria Macarenko. “Seven rinks, all outdoor, all natural ice.

“I equate it to hockey in the Prairies 70 or 80 years ago: making their own equipment, sharpening their skates with old grinding stones, taping old sticks together.”

Leslie made a similar trip in 2015, which was the subject of a documentary. In that trip, he took several bags full of hockey gear.

This year, he’s hoping to fill a 20-foot (six-metre) shipping container with pads, skates, sticks and more. The container will be taken overseas by a mining company.

‘It was quite overwhelming’

Leslie said while the game is young in Mongolia, enthusiasm can be surprisingly strong.

On his last trip, a game at a village rink that was supposed to draw 20 kids wound up with 100 in attendance.

“In some of those villages, kind of what we think of hockey in this country, the rink is sort of the centrepiece of the community,” he said. “It was quite overwhelming, actually, to see how curious they were and how appreciative they were.”

Leslie said he wants to build on that enthusiasm with more gear for the kids.

Donations are already coming in strong from minor hockey associations in Campbell River, Port Alberni and the Thompson Okanagan. The Richmond Oval and Alien Sports on Vancouver Island are also donors.

“I think we’re going to double the number of kids playing in the whole country just with this container of gear,” he said.

Leslie will be collecting donations from the public Saturday morning at Kits Arena in Vancouver.