There will be a day, a historic day, when there will be an openly gay player in the National Hockey League.
A big part of that day will belong to Brendan Burke.
Fifteen months ago, the 20-year-old student-manager of the Miami University (Ohio) hockey team publicly declared his homosexuality, supported and embraced by his family, which includes dad Brian, the president and general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, and his team.
A year ago Saturday, after just a couple of months of living in a new world unburdened by his secret, Brendan Burke died in a car crash on a snowy highway in Indiana.
It's hard to imagine the courage it took for a 20-year-old kid in the macho world of hockey to go public with the secret, to be at the leading edge in declaring his sexuality in an unfriendly culture.
It's a decision with which at least a couple of current NHLers have struggled, according to gay Olympic swimming champion Mark Tewksbury, who counselled the players.
Patrick Burke, a scout for the Philadelphia Flyers and a law student, marvelled at his brother Brendan's decision to come out.
"How many 20-year-olds are the first to do anything?" Patrick said. (Brian Burke deferred to Patrick for an interview on the anniversary of Brendan's death.)
"To be that comfortable with themselves and confident and courageous to try to lead the charge for, in a lot of ways, a controversial issue ... I mean, how many 20-year-olds are willing to do anything like that? How many 30- or 40-year-olds are willing to do anything like that?
"Him being the first, we had no sense of what the risks might be, what the ups and downs might be. It was just kind of one of those things where this could help people, so he was going to do it."
So, a year after Brendan Burke's death, are we any closer to seeing the first openly gay player in the NHL?
His goal was to at least start the discussion, to show other gay people in hockey they were not alone, to make straight people understand their game was shared. He achieved his goal.
"He felt like the time had come for people to talk about it," Patrick said.
"He knew he wasn't an NHL player. He knew he wasn't going to change everything by himself. He's in a family that loves and supports him, he's with a hockey team that loves and supports him and there are people out there who aren't (loved and supported). Those people deserve and need to feel safe."
Is the NHL ready for an openly gay player? It would be naive to think there isn't more than one.
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