Are there any openly gay nhl players

When I moved to Kelowna at 14 to improve my stock for the Bantam draft, moved away from home with a different group of guys, that was around the time when I started to realize I may be a bit different in terms of my sexuality.

I started to get more and more comfortable with it as I as I aged into my teens. I never had interest in playing the other positions. So that's what made me more of a defenseman than a forward. In Julyhe became the first drafted-and-signed NHL player to come out, and his life has transformed since that moment.

The Edmonton native was taken in the third round (#73 overall) of the NHL Draft by Nashville. They’ve had two openly gay active players () When Luke Prokop came out inhe became the NHL’s first openly queer prospect player. So it was just natural that I would get into the sport.

The NHL stands alone among the Big 4 men's pro team sports with no out gay players, active or retired, in history. THN: Did you know you were gay at a young age, or is it something you came to realize later in your teens? No openly gay player has ever skated in the NHL.

The league says it is welcoming to gay players, but its ban on Pride jerseys says otherwise. I was questioning a lot of things at the time. I didn't really know a whole ton about it. My brother is two years older than me. What's changed about strange world gay character hockey career day to day?

He was a Nashville Predators draft pick with nowhere to play, as the pandemic had delayed the start of the WHL season. But there is hope. What is Prokop up to now, and how does he feel about the response since he came out?

A year later, truly everything has changed for Prokop, 19, who now plays for the Edmonton Oil Kings. Ever since the Olympics in Vancouver was when I started really to focus on his game and see a lot of similarities between me and him.

I try to emulate a lot of his playing style and put it into my game. From a young age, it was more my dad who realized that I tended to stay back a little bit more than trying to rush off and get a bunch of goals. THN: Did you always know you were going to be a defenseman, or did you ever think about playing any other position?

Around maybe 12, 13, I started to realize I was a pretty good hockey player and maybe I could create something out of it. He was at home — and weighing whether to tell the world he was gay. He played from a very young age, my dad played, both my grandparents played from a decently young age.

On Sunday, Prokop, 23, will serve as the Grand Marshal in Milwaukee’s Pride Parade, an event expected to draw thousands of people. A year ago, defenseman Luke Prokop was lost. Edmonton Oil Kings blueliner Prokop, the first player under NHL contract to come out, caught up with the Hockey News to chronicle how his life has changed since he shared his story with the world.

Inhe became the first openly gay player under contract with an NHL team. When I look back at my childhood, hockey was always a staple. You may recall that Prokop became the first openly gay player in the NHL when he came out in While he technically hasn't played an NHL game, he was under NHL contract with the Nashville Predators when he made his announcement on social media.

THN: Given the documented history of homophobia in hockey culture, were you ever hesitant to keep playing when you were in your closeted years?