Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

NHL preparing to ensure that first openly gay player can focus on the game

06/29/2016 at 10:59pm EDT

The Chicago Tribune's Chris Hine spoke with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and the You Can Play Project's Patrick Burke about the inevitable moment that the NHL welcomes an openly gay player to the fold:

The NHL is preparing. It backed up its words of encouragement with action in that direction in April when it suspended former Blackhawks forward Andrew Shaw for a playoff game after Shaw was caught on camera directing a homophobic slur at an official. Bettman said he was hoping to send a message to the rest of the league that his office would not tolerate the use of that word.

"You want to eliminate the use of the word, but the fact is, what you do in response to set the right tone in terms of what's acceptable is more important than the word itself," Bettman said. "So making clear, in a strong, clear prompt way that this is not acceptable I hope transcends the use of the word itself. I mean, the word is symbolic and the suspension was symbolic, but what I'm hoping the suspension relayed to people was that type of belief, that kind of culture is not acceptable in the NHL."

Bettman said he has not heard from any closeted players in the league, but Burke said the You Can Play Project has heard from some. As for the theories about why no former or current players are out, one holds water with Burke.

"I do think there's some validity to the idea that hockey is a sport where anything that distracts from the team concept is seen as a negative and that there may be an incorrect perception that a player coming out would be stepping out of the team-first narrative," Burke said.

But even then, Burke countered, a player coming out could actually be beneficial to a team.

"An athlete who's wasting time and energy and mental health and well-being hiding himself in the closet isn't bringing his entire individual self to the team," Burke said. "The idea this would somehow distract from or be a negative from a team concept is fundamentally at odds with the truth of the situation."

Continued, and the NHL has promoted its "Hockey Is For Everyone" diversity project since the 90's. I certainly hope that when the statistical impossibility becomes possible, NHL fans will ask a simple question: "Yeah, but can he play?"

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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

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