Pride Month spotlight: Kraken practice rink set to host tournament

This June, the NHL and the NHL Players' Association's joint Hockey Is For Everyone initiative will celebrate Pride Month. All 32 NHL Clubs, alumni, and current players will participate in pride events, including parades, across North America. As part of Pride Month, NHL.com will share stories about the LGBTQI+ hockey community. Today, a look at the Seattle Pride Classic hockey tournament.

Joey Gale wasn't shy about what he said he expects from the second annual Seattle Pride Classic presented by Symetra.

"The goal for this year was we really wanted to create the most premier LGBTQ hockey tournament in the country," said Gale, vice president and co-founder of Seattle Pride Hockey Association. "And we think we're well on our way to achieving that."

More than 140 players from the Pacific Northwest and as far away as the Midwest and California will skate on 10 teams competing in two conferences during the tournament at the Kraken Community Iceplex, the Seattle Kraken's practice facility, on Saturday and Sunday.

The event sold out within hours and there's a waiting list for players eager to participate, Gale said.

"I think people that come by as spectators are going to see how inclusive and welcoming the environment will be, but also the sense of community," said Steven Thompson, SPHA's president and co-treasurer. "Joey and I produce it out of the love for the community and for the love of the game and wanting to grow the game, bring more people into the game from all different walks of life. This singular event is great to show that hockey is for everyone, and anybody is welcome."

The Kraken are among the organizations and businesses supporting the event. Team broadcaster and radio play-by-play announcer Everett Fitzhugh will call the championship game on Sunday.

"We see this as an opportunity for our fans and just the larger Seattle Community to feel included in our hockey community," said Kyle Boyd, the Kraken's director of youth and hockey development. "I think that's what the SPHA, the work that they're doing, is really focused on is ultimately inclusion. And we get to build our hockey community right now in real time and for everyone to feel like they can join in and be a part of it, participate, play, watch, cheer, learn a little bit about our organization, our players, but ultimately feel like they have a place in the game."

The coronavirus pandemic put a crimp in the inaugural Pride Classic last year, forcing organizers to scale back plans to 56 players and four teams. Social mixers and large gatherings weren't allowed due to pandemic-related government restrictions.

This year, 146 participants will skate on 10 teams. More than half of the players this year identify as LGBTQ+ whereas a quarter identified that way last year.

"So we're really excited, obviously, that we've created this space for queer people, for queer hockey players, to show up and have fun," Gayle said.

Former defenseman Andrew Ference, the NHL's director of social impact, growth and fan development, and forward Kurtis Gabriel, an LGBTQ+ ally who scored a game-winning goal for the New Jersey Devils against the Montreal Canadiens on Feb. 25, 2019, with rainbow-colored Pride Tape wrapped atop his stick in a game broadcast across Canada, will be guest players.

Like last year, the classic aims to educate by naming the after key cultural, political and sports figures in the LGBTQ+ struggle. Team Luke Prokop is named after the 20-year-old Nashville Predators defenseman prospect who became the first player under contract to an NHL team to come out as gay.

Team Harvey Milk honors the late San Francisco Board of Supervisors and the first openly gay elected official in California, who was assassinated Nov. 27, 1978.

Team Marsha P. Johnson recognizes Johnson, a gay liberation activist and pivotal figure in the Stonewall riots in New York in 1969. Team Cox is for Laverne Cox, who rose to fame for her role on the award-winning show, "Orange is the New Black."

Team Edie Windsor pays homage to a gay rights activist who filed a case that led to a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2013 that recognized same-sex marriage for the first time.

Team Stephanie Byers recognizes Kansas' first openly transgender state representative, who was elected in Nov. 2020.

Team Billie Jean King is named after the tennis great, who became one of professional sports' earliest and most prominent openly gay athletes and a pioneer who helped lead the drive for equal prize money in tennis and equal treatment of women.

Team Layshia Clarendon recognizes the WNBA's first openly non-binary player; Team Sue Bird honors the point guard for the WNBA Seattle Storm and a five-time Olympic gold medalist; Team Ru Paul is named after the popular drag queen, model and television judge.

"We as an organization have three kind of guiding pillars that we like to focus on and try to use as our North Star as we do what we do, and one of those three is education," Gale said. "We saw last year that we have a ton of allies who show up … who may have no idea or basic level of understanding of what it means to be gay or what LGBTQ stands for or really who any of these people are. So, we wanted to build in that piece of education."

Photos via Brian Liesse