As NHL bans Pride tape, Nashville Predators' Ryan McDonagh tries to make sense of it
TAMPA, Fla. — Nashville Predators alternate captain Ryan McDonagh said if there's a will to take a stance, there's a way to take a stance.
McDonagh was referencing a recent league-wide memo prohibiting players from using rainbow-colored pride tape on their sticks while they are warming up, playing or practicing.
The move comes on the heels of the league doing away with all specialty jerseys players have worn during pregame warmups to show support for such things as the LGBTQ+ community, cancer awareness and military appreciation. Several players and teams opted last season not to wear pride jerseys, with some citing religious beliefs. Every Predators player wore the pregame rainbow jersey during Pride Night at Bridgestone Arena on April 4.
The Predators have the only openly gay player under NHL contract in the league, Luke Prokop.
"It's a fine line in today's world and today's sports culture," McDonagh said Tuesday before the Predators faced the Tampa Bay Lightning in their season opener at Amalie Arena. "You want to be your own self, be your own individual, represent yourself. But you also represent your company, your brand and your employer — everybody that you're working for.
"I think it's a work in progress as far as what's right and what's not. Ultimately the individual has the final say. I think that's what you found out last year with guys that made certain stances on things. That has to be continually discussed ... letting people make their own choices."
Why did NHL ban rainbow-colored pride tape?
But the NHL isn't giving its players a choice when it comes to whether or not they want to wear specialty sweaters during warmups or use pride tape during practice or a game.
McDonagh said there are other ways players can show support for causes, though. For example, the rule doesn't prohibit players from wearing supportive shirts in arenas.
"Just because I'm not given the opportunity to wear a jersey doesn't mean I can't speak out for something I believe in," he said. "One opportunity closes, another opportunity opens.
"If you feel strongly for something, there's a will and a way to support anything you want in this world."
The Predators have supported the LGBTQ+ community regularly with Pride Nights and the "Hockey is for Everyone" initiative. The franchise also has backed Prokop, a prospect in their system whom they chose in the third round of the 2020 NHL Draft.
The Predators said they plan to "move full steam ahead" with their initiatives, including continuing to make specialty jerseys and having players sign them before auctioning them for charity.
"All that stuff is going to continue," Predators executive vice president and chief marketing officer Bill Wickett said. "We'll ask the players if they'd like to participate. I don't see many reasons they're not going to receptive to it.
"They want to do some things on their own and we embrace what they want to do as well. We still see lots of opportunity within those areas."
Prokop said last season the league had taken "a step back in inclusion" after some teams and players opted not to wear pride jerseys. Prokop came out as gay publically in July 2021.
The You Can Play Project, a group that has worked with the NHL and promotes LGBTQ+ inclusion in sports, spoke out against the tape ban in a statement, according to the Associated Press.
“If Hockey is for Everyone, this is not the way forward," the statement read. "The NHL is stepping back from its longstanding commitment to inclusion, and continuing to unravel all of its one-time industry-leading work on 2SLGBTQ+ belonging."
When was NHL's first Pride Night?
The Florida Panthers were the first team to hold a Pride Night back in 2013.
Former Tennessee governor Bill Haslam, who is on track to become the Predators' majority owner in July 2025, said in July 2022 that the franchise's support of such causes would remain. Haslam signed into law in 2017 House Bill 1111, which is intended to narrow how courts interpret words such as "mother," "father," "wife" and "husband," giving it the potential to define marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman.
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"I think the Preds have a really good track record of diversity," Haslam told The Tennessean in June 2022. "And that's not going to change."
They just won't be able to show it on the ice.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: NHL Pride tape ban: Predators' Ryan McDonagh tries to make sense of it
