Wild Become Latest NHL Team to Scrap Pregame Pride Jerseys

Abraham Smith

It’s official: the NHL has a Pride problem.

Last night, The Wild held an LGBTQ Pride Night promotion that was set to include pregame rainbow-themed shirts that would later be auctioned off for charity. But just before the team went on the ice to warm up, it was reported that the pregame jerseys would not be worn after all, and the website where the jerseys were auctioned was quietly removed from the team’s website.

Beat author Michael Russo called that the Switcheroo was an “organizational decision”, which is frustratingly vague, although it seems reasonable to assume that the “organization” that planned the kits wouldn’t have scrapped them had there been no objections from the players.

This is at least the third time in the past two months that an NHL team has backed out on pre-game Pride jerseys. On Jan. 17, Flyers defenseman Ivan Provorov refused to wear the team’s Pride jersey. Ten days later, Rangers, who announced they would wear Pride jerseys before the game, decided not to. (There were also some media reports that the islanders didn’t wear rainbow jerseys at their recent Pride Night promotion, but they never planned to do that in the first place, so it’s not really an analogous situation.)

Recent opposition to Pride uniforms isn’t limited to the NHL. Last June, five Tampa Bay Rays players retired from the team’s on-field Pride varsity for religious reasons. The following month, North Carolina Courage’s Jaelene Daniels sat out the NWSL for a game instead of wearing the team’s Pride jersey, also on religious grounds.

These developments came against a backdrop of a larger cultural and legislative struggle as many US states moved to restrict transgender health care in recent months.

Despite the jersey 86ing, the Wild continued with some other aspects of their Pride Night promotion. For example, players used rainbow tape during pre-game activities:

News reports suggest the Wild also used rainbow-themed pucks during warm-up, although I couldn’t find a photo of them.

Though the players didn’t wear the pregame jersey, at least one person did: Jack Jablonski, a former Minnesota high school hockey player who has been paralyzed since 2011 and came out as gay last year. He officiated the Wilds’ traditional “Let’s Play Hockey!” Pre-game singing:

The Wild weren’t the only NHL team scheduled to wear pregame advocacy jerseys last night. In Seattle it was Women in Hockey Night with these pre-match jerseys:

And in New Jersey, the Devils had Gender Equality Night with these pregame jerseys:

To my knowledge, no Seattle or New Jersey player has refused to wear the jerseys.

can of the day

Hey look, the non-sports thing I insist on here every day is actually a sports topic today! Or at least sports Toy-themed as this is a can for model airplane, car and boat fuel. The front design is spectacular but I also love the back and side. Just sold (not to me) for $40.

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Our latest competition Winner is Andrew Miller who won a Uni Watch t-shirt, a pin, two Koozies and a magnet. Congratulations to him and thanks again to Chris Hickey for sponsoring this one. — Paul

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