When Travis Dermott takes the ice in Los Angeles on Tuesday night, he plans to do so without the strip of Pride tape that pushed the Arizona Coyotes defender in the middle of one of the The most controversial topics in the NHL this weekend.
“I think the one match probably ruffled enough feathers and got enough attention,” Dermott said. Athleticism on Monday evening.
However, it is not a question of silencing or dissuading the 26-year-old young man.
Not exactly.
Some 48 hours after skating in defiance of a new NHL rule that prohibits players from displaying “cause messages” on their equipment by wrapping Pride tape around the shaft of his Warrior bat As of Saturday afternoon, Dermott had not even been contacted directly by officials of the league.
However, given the chance to assess the immense media coverage and attention his act of LGBTQ+ allyship received and with some time to reflect on how it may have put members of the organization in Coyotes in a difficult position, he thought his point had indeed been made. .
And that there are still other ways for him to continue to succeed.
“The war is not over. Certainly not, under any circumstances,” Dermott said. “You don’t want to completely back down and shut your mouth when something like this happens, but you have to find the right game plan to attack it.
“Where you support your organization and don’t make it look bad, and you don’t want to step on the league’s toes and really start a fight with them, but still tell them I think that stuff is important.”
Dermott did not consult management, the coaching staff or any of his peers before wrapping the rainbow ribbon around the shaft of his stick shortly before a 2-1 victory against the Anaheim Ducks at Mullett Arena.
It’s a practice he’s done regularly since his AHL days, and the only reason it took until Arizona’s fifth game of the season for him to use the tape again was because he was waiting for a new delivery after misplacing its previous batch during an offseason. move from Vancouver.
Dermott was aware of the NHL’s new regulations, but felt it was important to continue to show his support for a cause and community he cares about.
“None of the players actually saw me put it on my stick,” Dermott said. “It was kind of just a, ‘All right, I’m doing this, and we’re going to deal with the consequences and move forward, and hopefully I’ll have a positive impact on some people who needed this positive impact.’ ‘”
While it’s not surprising that Dermott would come forward in the name of supporting the LGBTQ+ community given his long history of doing so – “I had someone close to me who is a part of that community who wasn’t “I’m not entirely comfortable doing it, and yet in fact I’m not,” he said – which makes it all the more remarkable that he did it at one point where he is fighting to re-establish himself in the league.
Dermott was limited to just 11 games with the Canucks last season due to ongoing concussion issues and is now playing on a two-way contract that would allow him to be paid at a reduced rate if the Coyotes choose to send him to AHL Tucson.
In his skates, it would have been much easier to do nothing given the current climate at NHL headquarters.
So why did he become the first player to defy a rule that caused considerable consternation in dressing rooms across the continent?
“It’s easy to forget that it’s a battle if it’s not happening in front of you,” Dermott said. “If you don’t see it every day, if it’s swept under the rug, if it’s just hidden from the naked eye, it’s easy to forget that there is a group of people who don’t feel out of place because the majority of people feel like they belong.
“Once you stop thinking about that, I think that’s where it gets dangerous.”
Dermott openly admits he felt some anxiety following Saturday’s game. He never imagined the reaction would be so large and widespread. That started to dissipate when it became clear the Coyotes were willing to stand by him.
“The reaction I have received is complete support from my team,” Dermott said.
He noted that he apologized to the equipment staff for using the Pride tape without telling them.
“They’re the ones who are supposed to make sure all of our equipment is up to spec and legal and everything else,” he said. “I felt a little bit like I had betrayed those guys. … But I think at the same time, they’re very good at understanding and they know that I wasn’t being malicious towards them.
The challenge now is to find ways to continue to support Pride initiatives within the context of the new NHL rules.
The Coyotes are set to host their Pride Night on Friday – the first team to do so since the league clarified its rules in an Oct. 9 memo distributed to teams – and Dermott is still working on his own plans to mark the occasion.
“My Instagram will probably be more active from now on,” he said. “I’m going to actively find ways now to not shut up completely and … not piss off the league and (comply) with their rules.
“But yes, I’m still here. The fight is not over. We will continue to talk about it. And if the league doesn’t want it to be on league time, we’ll find other ways.
Like many of his peers, Dermott was emotional when he found out the NHL was banning cause-related messages this season. The decision was made at the June Board of Governors meeting after a handful of players made headlines last season by refusing to join their teammates and wear Pride sweaters during warmups.
“You can see the league is taking away our voice,” Dermott said. ” We can not talk. We no longer have this expression. I feel like that’s a valid way of thinking, and it’s easy to see things that way. Many people do this and I’m sure it will continue.
“It’s such a fine line where the league wants to look good and the league wants to support all these things, but you also don’t want all the negativity that can come from someone not supporting it and you don’t want forcing people who don’t support something to support something, and I completely understand that point of view.
“I can step back and see that, hands down, no problem. But at the same time, you would like players to still be able to express themselves if they want to. You still wish you had that.
Dermott speaks passionately about the people he’s met in the LGBTQ+ community since he first publicly supported the cause. Through heart-to-heart conversations, he learned that sometimes it’s the more extroverted personalities in a room who privately benefit from seeing an NHL player “with a strip of duct tape on his stick.”
“I don’t hear a lot of people really spending time with the LGBTQ community and feeling alienated from them,” Dermott said. “You just become more comfortable with things like that and you learn that these are people too – completely normal people who have essentially exactly the same life as you, so why would we treat them differently just because of who they are? interested or not interested?
“It just seems crazy to me.”
And for many others, it seems. Dermott was overwhelmed by the outpouring of support that followed his decision on Saturday. He estimates that the tone of these messages was “99.99% positive”.
“As athletes, we have a great platform to spread love, and I think if we’re not spreading that love, then what are we doing?”
(Photo: Zac BonDurant / Getty Images)
