The Dallas Stars released their promotional schedule for this season without a Pride Night on it, ending a run of at least five consecutive years in which the club had held one. A compilation by Outsports, an LGBTQ sports site that forms part of Vox Media’s SB Nation network, lists them as the only NHL team with no Pride or inclusion event scheduled.
In the March slot where last season’s Pride Night sat, the Stars will instead host “Hockey Unites Us: Women in Sports Night” against Carolina on March 23.
Club spokesman Joe Calvillo explained the thinking in a statement.
“The new Hockey Unites Us Night allows our organization a chance to use our platform to celebrate and support a different underrepresented community each season,” Calvillo said.
The team declined to comment further on why it had not scheduled both.
The Stars’ Pride Night by the numbers:
| Category | Total |
|---|---|
| Consecutive seasons with one before this | at least 5 |
| NHL teams without one last season | 3 |
| Stars home games this season | 41 |
Does the NHL require teams to host Pride Night?
Each club decides for itself which causes and communities to build its theme nights around, with nothing in the league’s rules compelling any particular one. The Stars have scheduled events this season honoring Black history, Hockey Fights Cancer, Noche Mexicana, the military, first responders and teachers.
Dallas is not the first to go this way either. Rob Rossi of The Athletic reported that the Carolina Hurricanes, Los Angeles Kings and Utah Mammoth all went without a Pride Night last season. The Kings are bringing theirs back this year and Carolina has a Hockey Is For Everyone night on the calendar for March.
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The Boston Bruins have never held a dedicated Pride Night, instead folding the LGBTQ community into a broader Hockey Is For Everyone event they have run since 2017-18.
The league’s own involvement has narrowed over time. All 32 clubs held a Pride or Hockey Is For Everyone night in 2022-23, but after several players declined to wear rainbow warmup jerseys, citing religious reasons, and others raised concerns about Russian anti-gay legislation affecting their teammates, the NHL banned themed warmup jerseys entirely from 2023-24. Gary Bettman said at the time that the jerseys had become a distraction and that the nights themselves would continue.
The Stars have not indicated whether the decision is permanent, and said nothing about future seasons.
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