Multiple NHL Players Will Reportedly Still Use Pride Tape, Defy NHL & Recognize Specialty Nights After NHL's New Ban

The NHL banned the use of Pride Tape earlier this week, as first reported by OutSports.

Players are speaking out after news broke that the NHL has banned the use of Pride Tape in practices, warmups and games, and the plan is for multiple skaters to defy the new ruling.

NHL agent Allan Walsh wrote on X on Wednesday that many players plan show their support for special initiatives like Pride regardless of the ban. Other specialty nights include Hockey Fights Cancer, Indigenous People's Night, Black History Month and more.

Philadelphia Flyers forward Scott Laughton is among those players, telling PHLY Sports' Charlie O'Connor that he still plans to use it.

"You'll probably see me with the pride tape on that night anyway. If they want to say something, they can," Laughton said to O'Connor.

Connor McDavid, Zach Hyman and Brad Marchand are among the players who have already voiced their disappointment with the league's ban on Pride Tape, which was first reported by OutSports.

The ban comes after the NHL also elected to do away with event-specific warmup jerseys for specialty nights after a handful of players boycotted wearing Pride jerseys last season. Ivan Provorov and James Reimer skipped warmups for their respective clubs on Pride Night to avoid wearing the sweaters, and the Chicago Blackhawks and Minnesota Wild also cancelled plans to wear Pride jerseys.

At the end of 2022-23, Gary Bettman announced that teams were no longer allowed to wear any kind of special warmup jersey, from Pride to St. Patrick's Day, saying that it created a "distraction" with regard to the players who elected to boycott.

Now, Pride Tape can't be used on sticks, even though most teams, including the Washington Capitals, would make it optional for players to wrap their sticks with the tape or not on Pride Night.