Coyotes relax gameday dress code; could other teams follow?

As it stands right now, the NHL is the only one of the big four leagues in North America to have strict game day dress codes included in the players' collective bargaining agreement. Suits are a must on NHL game days, but one team plans to change that.

According to ESPN, the Arizona Coyotes will completely relax their dress code for 2021-22, a concept implemented by Alex Meruelo Jr, the team's chief brand officer. Players were allowed to wear whatever they wanted while playing in the bubble in 2019-20, but all teams reverted back to the regular rules last season, except the Coyotes.

"[Meruelo] is very open to the idea of going to the game and growing our fan base and anything we can do to be a little unique and different, they're always open to trying different things," Coyotes defenseman Jakob Chychrun told ESPN. "To be the first team to go no dress code was awesome. The guys loved it. I think it's great to be able to show a bit of your personality and your closet other than just your suits. I had fun with it. I enjoyed it. I'm glad it's something we'll continue to do."

ESPN surveyed all teams in advance of the upcoming season to see if anyone else would be allowing players to wear anything other than suits. Only Arizona said yes. According to ESPN, The Columbus Blue Jackets and Nashville Predators have plans for players to wear team-issued track suits to games this season. Other teams have done away with the tie requirement, only stipulating a suit. However, Arizona is the only team to tell players they can wear what they want.

"I wish there was no dress code for games and stuff," Toronto's Auston Matthews told ESPN in a recent interview. "I don't mind wearing a suit, but it gets old, I guess. It gets old pretty quick. I think it'd be fun to wear different things and be able to express yourself, similar to what the NBA does or even the NFL a little bit. I just wear what makes me happy outside of the rink and even in the rink. But when it comes to games, obviously we have a certain attire that we have to meet. Hopefully it's not too much longer we'll be doing that."

Source: ESPN

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