NHL bans special Pride warm-up jerseys next season

The autographed Pride jerseys are typically auctioned off to raise money for LGBTQ+ charities

By DAWN ENNIS

NEW YORK — The National Hockey League’s Board of Governors agreed at a meeting Thursday that players will no longer wear special rainbow-colored Pride-themed jerseys during warm-ups next season.

Pride Nights and “Hockey Is For Everyone” celebrations will continue to be held when the puck drops on the 2023-2024 season in October, reported Sportsnet, which broke the story. The specially-designed jerseys will continue to be manufactured and sold, and players will still have the option to autograph or even model them. The autographed Pride jerseys are typically auctioned off to raise money for LGBTQ+ charities in each team’s hometown.

But from now on, no pro hockey player will be wearing those rainbow jerseys during warm-ups.

The change was prompted by NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman s recommendation, which he signaled was coming in a March interview with CTV News: “This is one issue where players for a variety of reasons may not feel comfortable wearing the uniform as a form of endorsement,” said Bettman.

A grand total of seven NHL players, out of 1,123, decided to skip pregame warmups on Pride Nights when their teammates wore the special rainbow-themed jerseys before games, starting with Ivan Provorov, as the Los Angeles Blade reported in January.

At that time, the Russian defenseman played for the Philadelphia Flyers, and claimed a religious exemption based on his Russian Orthodox faith. Provorov’s decision was defended by coach John Tortorella.

He was followed by James Reimer, a goaltender for the San Jose Sharks, and Canadian brothers Eric and Marc Staal of the Florida Panthers, who also cited their religious beliefs for not participating. Canada is home to the vast majority of NHL players, followed by American, Swedish and Russian athletes.

Russian players Ilya Lyubushkin of the Buffalo Sabres, De- nis Gurianov of the Montreal Canadiens and Andrei Kuzmenko of the Vancouver Canucks also refused to take part in the warmups wearing Pride-themed jerseys. to ban Pride warm-up jerseys.

Bettman, who this year celebrated three decades as NHL commissioner, defended his decision using the oldest homophobic trope in LGBTQ+ sports: That anything or anyone queer in sports is a “distraction.”

“It’s become a distraction and taking away from the fact that all of our clubs in some form or another, host nights in honor of various groups or causes, and we’d rather they continue to get the appropriate attention they deserve, and not be a distraction.”

Sportsnet reporter Elliotte Friedman reminded Bettman, “It s Pride Month right now,” and asked him directly to address that.

“Those are legitimate concerns,” replied Bettman. “We’re keeping the focus on the game. And on these specialty nights, we re going to be focused on the cause.”

Lyubushkin said he would not participate for fear of violating an anti-LGBTQ+ Russian law, which was also why the Chicago Blackhawks decided against Pride night jerseys. Then, despite promoting that players would wear the jerseys during warm-ups, the New York Rangers and Minnesota Wild scrapped those plans.

One notable Russian exception this past season was Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, who took part in warmups on the same night the Staal brothers from Canada declined and stood apart from his comrades who decided they would not wear Pride jerseys.

“I think it’s something that we’re going to have to evaluate in the offseason,” Bettman told CTV news in March.

And so, it came to pass that the head of the NHL met with his league’s governors — during Pride Month — and agreed

The You Can Play Project, the nonprofit advocacy organization that works to erase homophobia in sports and support the inclusion of LGBTQ+ fans as well as athletes, said in a statement to the Associated Press that it was “concerned and disappointed” by the decision.

“Today’s decision means that the over 95% of players who chose to wear a Pride jersey to support the community will now not get an opportunity to do so,” said the organization. “The work to make locker rooms, board rooms and arenas safer, more diverse, and more inclusive needs to be ongoing and purposeful, and we will continue to work with our partners at the NHL, including individual teams, players, agents and the NHLPA to ensure this critical work continues.”

It was not clear as of press time if the NHL ban on Pride warm-up jerseys would also apply to rainbow-colored Pride Tape, which many hockey players applied to their sticks for warm-ups in prior seasons as another show of support for the LGBTQ+ community.