The league’s Board of Governors agreed Thursday with Commissioner Gary Bettman that the denials dwarfed teams’ efforts to hold pride parties, which in some cases included selling the uniforms worn during warm-ups. The 32 teams organized “Pride or Hockey for All” evenings.

Teams will continue to celebrate Pride and other themed nights, including “Military Appreciation” and “Hockey Fights Cancer.” They are also expected to continue to design and produce jerseys that will be signed and sold to raise funds, although players will no longer wear these jerseys during warm-up.

You Can Play, which has worked with several leagues — including the NHL — to help them make members of the LGBTQ+ community more inclusive, said it was “concerned and disappointed” with the decision.

“Today’s decision means that over 95% of players who have chosen to wear a Pride jersey to support the community will no longer have the opportunity to do so. Efforts to make locker rooms, boardrooms and arenas more safe, diverse and inclusive must be continuous and focused, and we will continue to work with our NHL partners, including teams, players, agents and the Players Association, to ensure this essential work . »

Seven players skipped the pre-game warm-up for various reasons, as their team donned Pride jerseys before games. Some teams have also chosen not to allow their players to wear these shirts despite their intention.

Ivan Provorov, a Russian defender then playing in Philadelphia, was the first to do so in January. Provorov invoked his Russian Orthodox religion and was defended by coach John Tortorella.

San Jose goaltender James Reimer and Canadian Florida Panthers brothers Eric and Marc Staal also cited their religious beliefs. Buffalo’s Russia players Ilya Lyubushkin, Denis Gurianov (Montreal) and Andrei Kuzmenko (Vancouver) also skipped their team’s warm-up drills.

Lyubushkin cited a Kremlin anti-gay law as the reason why the Chicago Blackhawks also decided not to wear Pride jerseys. The New York Rangers and Minnesota Wild also refrained from wearing these jerseys after announcing they would wear them.

Bettman said in an interview with Sportsnet after the governors’ meeting in New York that he had suggested teams stop wearing special pre-match jerseys because of theme nights citing talk of certain players refusing to attend.

“It distracted from the core purpose of these parties,” Bettman said. We focus on sports. And on these special evenings we focus on the cause. »