NHL players to have option to use tape for social causes

The NHL, NHLPA, and NHL Player Inclusion Coalition have agreed that players will be able to represent social causes with stick tape this season, including games and practices, the NHL confirmed Tuesday.

This issue has been a hot-button topic since the NHL banned all pre-game tributes ahead of this season.

First reported by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the NHL confirmed the reversal in an X post just before 11 a.m. While saying the return of stick tape can occur, the NHL did not comment on the league’s ban of social cause warn-up jerseys.

Arizona Coyotes defenceman Travis Dermott is the first player known to have disobeyed the ban when he put rainbow tape on his stick for a game Saturday against the Anaheim Ducks.

The NHL made the decision to ban Pride tape and specialty jerseys — widely seen as a promising step, if performative, to promote inclusivity in a largely insular hockey culture — after several notable players across the league publicly opted out of participating in Pride Night activities, including Ivan Provorov and Andrei Kuzmenko.

Speaking on Sportsnet’s Halford & Brough earlier this month, deputy commissioner Bill Daly explained the decision as not wanting to put players in a “difficult position.”

“We don’t want the situation where some players, or a large majority of players, use a certain cause messaging that other players don’t want to utilize and that puts those other players in a difficult position. We don’t want to put them in that difficult position,” Daly said.

Commissioner Gary Bettman also said in June that the discourse surrounding Pride Nights had become a “distraction” for players. The ban on themed jerseys to commemorate special causes also included for Hockey Fights Cancer, Black History Month and Military Appreciation Night.

Canada-based You Can Play’s Pride Tape says it is “very grateful to everyone who believes hockey should be a safe, inclusive, and welcoming space for all.”

“We are extremely happy that NHL players will now have the option to voluntarily represent important social causes with their stick tape throughout [the] season,” the organization said on X.

The organization previously told CityNews that the NHL ban on Pride tape overshadows positive steps taken to make hockey more inclusive.

Kurt Weaver, COO of the You Can Play project, explained earlier this month that it’s important to have the colourful visibility on the game’s biggest stages.

“It’s the biggest visibility point we have, which is the on-ice product. Even though visits to the community centre were happening, and money’s been raised and given to local community organizations and lots of other great work, the big visibility comes during the broadcast during the game, during what’s happening on ice,” he said.

“It makes people wonder, ‘Is this sport for me?’ because the actual product where it matters is the time that we’re not seeing that visibility happen.”

–With files from Greg Bowman