Bring Players Weekend To the NHL

These truly are the dog days of summer. I’m only here because I don’t have a cabin to go to.  

There isn’t much to write about in Minnesota on the Wild at the moment. It’s pretty quiet around here. The frenzy that was the draft and free agency is now over. A few straggling restricted free agents have yet to sign across the league, but we are essentially in cruise control from now until training camp in September.

It’s been a summer of stagnation for the Wild, mostly due to the ill-timed extensions general manager Bill Guerin handed out in preseason last year to numerous vets. Those moves left us with minimal updates this offseason, and we've mostly spent our time offering wishful thinking or complaining about roster construction.

Let’s mix it up a bit and have some fun, shall we? And yes, I realize that’s an odd word to use when discussing the NHL – fun. Often, the league gets in the way of fun. And its players' culture rarely deviates from a “team first” mentality. Hockey culture usually suppresses the great personalities many players possess.

It’s time the NHL looked to its brothers of summer in the MLB for some inspiration. From 2017 to 2019, Major League Baseball decided to implement its “Players Weekend." For an entire weekend in the middle of the season, players were allowed to pick their favorite nickname and have it replace their more formal surname on their jersey. And some of the results were downright fantastic.

Kyle Seager of the Seattle Mariners simply put “Corey’s Brother” on his nameplate, a comedic nod to his younger and much more popular brother, who was also in the MLB.

Andrew Triggs of the Oakland A’s was a little more creative, donning the name “Triggonometry” for the entire weekend. Chicago Cubs’ Carl Edwards Jr. went the obvious route, “Carl’s Jr.” but that doesn’t make it any less funny.

Conversely, it also gave us insight into the least creative players. For instance, Garrett Richards of the Los Angeles Angels simply added more R’s to his name for some reason and made it “Garrrrrett” for the weekend. Unless there’s an inside joke I’m missing, that’s what you call missing the mark.

All that is to point out how much buzz it generated over an otherwise normal weekend of baseball games. Twitter was populated with pictures galore as fans scrambled to send out examples of their favorite ones. There were lists of the top 100 names and even some pundits breaking down their least favorite nicknames.

For one weekend, baseball was deemed cool and grabbed the attention of sports fans. It’s an idea the NHL should look to replicate.

We already mentioned how hockey's culture tends to put players into cookie-cutter responses when the lights and cameras are on. What if, instead of attempting to see that personality express itself in front of mics and cameras, the NHL allowed them to do so on their jerseys?  

With one caveat: each player’s nickname is voted upon by his teammates. Why? Because like we said, NHL players are inherently boring, and most nicknames in the NHL involve simply dropping a letter or two and pluralizing it. Think Brock Faber. He has a great personality, but if it were up to him, his nickname would likely be “Fabes.”

Now if you let his teammates decide? Things could get juicy!

If only this weekend promo had been put in place this last year! Can you imagine the number of ways Brandon Duhaime’s teammates could have embarrassed him?

Because if you leave it up to the NHL player himself, most will choose a generic nickname so as not to draw too much attention away from the team and to themselves. This weird dichotomy has been entrenched in the NHL world for decades now.

But giving a player’s teammates the chance to embarrass and take shots at their teammate on live TV is an opportunity too good to pass up.

All of that doesn’t even begin to mention the true reason the NHL should try this: jersey sales. Revenue speaks volumes in the league, and printing hundreds of Pittsburgh No. 87 "The Kid" jerseys would surely sell like hotcakes.

I can already picture walking through the concourses of the soon-to-be-renamed Xcel Energy Center. Perhaps the most popular might be Forest Green No. 97 ‘Kirill The Thrill’ jerseys. However, right behind it could be jerseys with a giant No. 17 on the back, and in bold letters above, "MOOSE" is emblazoned.

While the vets and superstars might be let down easily, you can bet the young pups won’t be let off the hook. Perhaps we see a No. 12 Matt Boldy jersey replaced with “Alligator Arms” for his propensity to never reach for a check during a team dinner. I’m almost frightened for Filip Gustavsson if his teammates get to choose a quirky nickname for him….

Ultimately, would a jersey nickname weekend generate enough revenue to raise the cap in 2025? Probably not. But it would allow players a chance to peel back the curtain and let fans get a small peak into the fun things teammates do with (or to – looking at your Marc-Andre Fleury) each other away from the lights and cameras.