Growing the Game: Robertson Brothers Donate Equipment, Burke to Land New Role and More

Growing the Game is Ian Kennedy’s weekly feature examining the global game, how social issues impact the sport, and how hockey’s important cultural shift continues to evolve.

NHL brothers Nick Robertson of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Jason Robertson of the Dallas Stars are giving back to children of military families. The pair donated 25 sets of equipment to the United Heroes League and also hosted a two-day ice hockey clinic for the children in North Carolina on Friday and Saturday.

“Me and my brother are very excited to contribute…these kids have also been through a lot, from family being away, so just to give them a moment, a little taste of hockey and how much we love it,” Nick Robertson told TSN’s Mark Masters.

The donation was part of the Robertson’s participation in the NHLPA Goals & Dreams program.

Longtime NHL GM, team president, and league staffer Brian Burke will reportedly take a leadership role with the players’ union for the new professional women’s hockey league, according to sources.

Burke has been a longtime supporter of women’s hockey and an advocate for LGBTQ+ rights in hockey.

Last season, he served as the president of hockey operations for the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins, a role he was fired from when the Penguins missed the playoffs for the first time since 2005-06.

The QMJHL became the first major junior hockey league in Canada to automatically eject players for fighting. No longer will players be assessed a five-minute major for fighting and be eligible to return to a game. Instead, players who fight in the QMJHL next season will be “be systematically ejected from the game.”

In addition to the automatic ejection, players who are found to be the instigator of a fight will receive an automatic one-game suspension, while players found to be the aggressor of a fight will receive a minimum two-game suspension. Any additional fights by the same player will be assessed subsequent and increasing suspensions.

Both the WHL and OHL implemented rules related to fighting in recent seasons, including the OHL’s three-fight rule and the WHL’s rules to keep helmets on during fisticuffs.

Fighting has been effectively banned in leagues, including the NCAA and U Sports hockey, European leagues, and IIHF competition for decades.

Recent studies have found that hockey enforcers die younger than non-enforcers, and the majority of those deaths were directly related to CTE.

Brianna Decker and the USA Hockey Foundation announced a pair of hockey organizations set to receive financial support as the 2023 recipients of the Brianna Decker Endowment for Girls Hockey.

The selected organizations were the Marquette Junior Hockey Association (Michigan) and Utah Hockey Club (Ogden, Utah).

“We’re excited to select the Marquette Jr. Wildcats and Utah Jr. Mustangs as the recipients of this year’s grant,” said Decker in a USA Hockey release. “We are inspired by the dedication of these clubs to growing girls hockey and are excited to see the impact for years to come.”

Decker is an Olympic gold medalist, six-time World Championship gold medal winner, Clarkson Cup and Isobel Cup champion, NCAA champion and recipient of the Patty Kazmaier Award. Currently, Decker is the associate head coach at Shattuck St. Mary’s.

Hockey Canada is hosting their Summer Showcase for U-18 and Collegiate women’s teams, while USA Hockey is in the midst of their annual National Festival bringing together their senior national, collegiate, and U-18 rosters. Following the camps, USA and Canada will play three-game U-18 and Collegiate Series in Lake Placid, N.Y. Both camps featured European U-18 teams as Finland played Canada and Sweden played USA.

Meanwhile, senior national teams are travelling to China to play in the women’s Div. 1-A World Championship, which is set to run from Aug. 20 to 26 in Shenzhen, featuring teams from China, Denmark, Norway, Austria, Netherlands and Slovakia. The top two teams will earn promotion to the top division of the women’s World Championship.

Junior hockey camps are in full swing across North America in preparation for the 2023-2024 hockey season. That includes preparation for the OJHL’s Cottage Cup from Aug. 28 to 30.

“The main goal of the Cottage Cup Showcase is to give all the eight teams and multiple players an opportunity to come together in one location and display their skills, talent and character and play in a premiere level Jr. A hockey pre-season event,” said OJHL commissioner Marty Savoy in a statement.

The tournament will feature teams from the OJHL, CCHL, NOJHL, the recently promoted Leamington Flyers, who join the OJHL from the Jr. B GOJHL, and Germany’s Jungadler Mannheim U-20.