Arizona Coyotes defenceman Travis Dermott says he used rainbow-coloured tape on his stick on Saturday to continue to show support for the 2SLGBTQ+ community.
Dermott, 26, had the tape at the top of his stick for the Coyotes' home opener after the NHL decided to ban the use of it on Pride Nights — on the heels of banning specialty jerseys over the off-season, as well
“You don’t really want to go against rules that are put in place by your employer, but there’s some people who took some positive things from it,” the native of Newmarket, Ont. told Craig Morgan of PHNX_Sports. “That’s kind of what I’m looking to impact.
“You want to have everyone feel included and that’s something that I have felt passionate about for a long time in my career. It’s not like I just just jumped on this train. It’s something that I’ve felt has been lacking in the hockey community for a while. I feel like we need supporters of a movement like this; to have everyone feel included and really to beat home the idea that hockey is for everyone."
Dermott, who is on a one-year, two-way contract, was the first player to defy the NHL's rules.
The former Toronto Maple Leaf and Vancouver Canuck has never been shy about voicing his support for the 2SLGBTQ+ community, using the Pride tape on his stick consistently since at least 2021.
“I won’t lie. From the outside, it’s easy to see that I’m putting my career on the line for something," he said. "I definitely went through some emotional ups and downs that night, not regretting anything by any means, but I’d love to have maybe done a couple of steps a little different by making sure that everyone was aware of what was going on before I did it.
“I don’t want to put my teammates or my coaches or my GMs or the equipment managers in any kind of bad light when it’s their job to kind of look out for something like this happening. It was definitely something that I did just by myself and was prepared to kind of deal with whatever repercussions the league decides to push towards that. I’m not going to back off and say that this battle is won, but we’re going to find better ways to do it.”
The NHL made the decision to ban Pride tape and specialty jerseys — widely seen as a promising step, if performative, to promote inclusivity in a largely insular hockey culture — after several notable players across the league publicly opted out of participating in Pride Night activities, including Ivan Proverov and Andrei Kuzmenko.
Speaking on Sportsnet's Halford & Brough earlier this month, deputy commissioner Bill Daly explained the decision as not wanting to put players in a "difficult position."
Dermott, on Monday, said the issue is important for him.
"I’d be lying if I said I haven’t shed tears about this on multiple occasions,” he said. “So yeah, it’s something I’m definitely very passionate about.
“I’ve met a lot of people that from the outside, it looks like they have everything going right in their life and they have a smile on their face every time they talk to you. But sometimes when we get closer to people and get comfortable enough for them to open up to you, you can see that there’s some pretty dark stuff happening to some good people. It doesn’t take too many times encountering something like that for it to really change someone."
Daly told Morgan there is no timeline on when the league will make a decision to hand out any discipline.
“No timeline, no,” he said. “Will be handled in due course.”
Dermott told Morgan the Coyotes organization has supported him.
“We as an organization, first and foremost, respect and support our players’ rights to express themselves as individuals. Second, I want to be very clear that as an organization, we remain steadfast in our support of the LGBTQ+ community,” Coyotes president and CEO Xavier Gutierrez said. “We will continue with our efforts as an organization to not only support, but to celebrate that community in addition to all the other communities that we have been very focused on embracing, welcoming, extending our hands to and opening our doors.
“The players are very well aware of the rules by which they need to abide, and it is their decision, but we are very supportive of them as individuals doing so. You will see us continue to take organization-wide efforts to express our support for this community within the boundaries set forth by the NHL.”
Dermott told The Athletic on Monday night he will not use the tape for the team's next game on Tuesday.
The Coyotes are holding their Pride Night on Friday and Dermott says he's still working on his plan for that game.
