NHL Announces Teams Will No Longer Wear Specialty Jerseys

The NHL made an announcement to inform teams they will no longer be wearing special jerseys for pregame warmups during themed nights next season. This comes after several players from around the league decided not to wear rainbow-colored Pride jerseys during warm ups in 2022-23.

From the sounds of it, the NHL's board of governors agreed with Gary Bettman's proposal as the NHL Commissioner sees the refusals overshadowing the team and the league's effort in hosting their Pride nights and being inclusive to the community. All 32 teams across the NHL held Pride or Hockey is for Everyone themed nights.

This also means teams won't be wearing any warmup jerseys for Military night, and hockey fights cancer themed games. Look for the players to sign a collection of themed jerseys and sell them off auction style to help raise money for charities.

In 22-23, the NHL had seven players who decided not to take part in the pregame warmups for a variety of different reasons. Ivan Provorov, a Russian blueliner was the first in January as he stated his Russian Orthodox religious beliefs as his reason, which was backed by Flyers head coach John Tortorella. Philadelphia traded Provorov to the Columbus Blue Jackets a few weeks ago and cited the denial had nothing to do with the trade.

The NHL's commissioner had this to say on the topic:

All 32 of our clubs did Pride nights, some do heritage nights, everybody does Hockey Fights Cancer, some do military nights, all of those nights will continue. The only difference will be that we’re not going to be changing jerseys for warmups because that’s just become more of a distraction from the essence and purpose of what these nights are.

Photo credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports