NHL scraps Pride Night warmups for 2023-24

According to a report from Sportsnet NHL insider Elliotte Friedman, the NHL has decided it will NOT promote 'specialty jerseys' for pre-game warmups next season. This means that Pride Night, Military Appreciation Night and Hockey Fights Cancer Night jerseys will all be shelved for the 2023-24 campaign.

More from Bettman:

"I've suggested that it would be appropriate for clubs not to change their jerseys in warmups because it's become a distraction and taking away from the fact that all of our clubs, in some form or another, host nights in honor of various groups or causes and we'd like to continue so that they get the appropriate attention that they deserve and that they don't serve as a distraction. In the final analysis, all of the efforts and emphasis on the importance of these various causes have been undermined by the distraction in terms of 'which teams, which players' this way we're keeping the focus on the game and the focus on these causes."

Gary Bettman

Interestingly enough, the NHL is not ending things like Pride Night or Military Appreciation Night, rather though its simply removing the pre-game warmup jerseys from its players.

More from Bettman on this:

"Absolutely, every night stays. 32 of our clubs did Pride Nights, some did Heritage Night... some did Military Nights... all of those nights will continue. The only will be is that we're not going change jerseys for warmup because that's just become more of a distraction from the essence of what these nights are."

Gary Bettman

Honestly... I've been calling for this for years.

Personally, the NHL's various Pride Nights and its highlighting of the LGBTQ+ community doesn't offend me near as much as its coziness with the US Military. The sooner we get camo-themed jerseys out of the NHL, the better.