NHL teams won’t wear special jerseys for pregame warmups during themed nights next season, the result of a handful of players refusing to use rainbow-colored Pride jerseys this past season.
They’re also expected to still design and produce jerseys to be autographed and sold to raise money, even though players won’t skate around with them on during warmups.
You Can Play, which has worked with sports and leagues — including the NHL — to help them grow more inclusive for members of the LGBTQ+ community, said 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,” the organization said in a statement. “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.
“You know what our goals, our values and our intentions are across the league, whether it’s at the league level or at the club level,” Bettman said at the time. “But we also have to respect some individual choice, and some people are more comfortable embracing themselves in causes than others. And part of being diverse and welcoming is understanding those differences.”
Seven players, citing various reasons, decided not to take part in pregame warmups when their teams donned Pride jerseys before games. A few teams also decided not to have players wear them after planning to do so.
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