NHL teams for pregame warmups during themed nights next season, the result of a this past season and causing unwelcome distractions.
The league鈥檚 Board of Governors agreed Thursday with Commissioner Gary Bettman鈥檚 view that the refusals overshadowed teams鈥� efforts in hosting Pride nights that in some cases included auctioning off the warmup jerseys. All 32 teams held Pride or Hockey is for Everyone night.
Bettman, following the Board of Governors meeting in New York, said he suggested teams stop having special warmup jerseys because themed nights were being undermined by chatter over certain players declining to participate.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 just become more of a distraction from really the essence of what the purpose of these nights are,鈥� Bettman said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e keeping the focus on the game. And on these specialty nights, we鈥檙e going to be focused on the cause.鈥�
Teams will still celebrate Pride and other theme nights, including military appreciation and Hockey Fights Cancer. They鈥檙e also expected to still design and produce jerseys to be autographed and sold to raise money, even though players won鈥檛 skate around with them on during warmups.
You Can Play, which has worked with sports and leagues 鈥� including the NHL 鈥� to help them grow more inclusive for members of the LGBTQ+ community, said it was 鈥渃oncerned and disappointed鈥� by the decision.
鈥淭oday鈥檚 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,鈥� the organization said in a statement. 鈥淭he 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.鈥�
Bettman of the situations at NHL All-Star Weekend in February, saying tolerance of varying viewpoints was part of being 鈥渙pen, welcoming and inclusive.鈥�
鈥淵ou know what our goals, our values and our intentions are across the league, whether it鈥檚 at the league level or at the club level,鈥� Bettman said at the time. 鈥淏ut 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.鈥�
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.
then with Philadelphia, was the first in January. Provorov cited his Russian Orthodox religion and was
a goaltender for San Jose, and , who are Canadian, also cited religious beliefs. Russian players , Denis Gurianov of Montreal and also opted out of their teams鈥� Pride night warmups.
Lyubushkin cited an anti-gay Kremlin law as his reason, which was also why Pride night jerseys. The New York Rangers and Minnesota Wild earlier opted against the jerseys after previously advertising they would have them.
Sergei Bobrovsky, who is Russian, took part in warmups the night the Staal brothers declined and in the aftermath of several countrymen deciding not to wear Pride jerseys.
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