The National Hockey League openly promoted the “Team Trans Draft Tournament,” which saw a biologically female player concussed by a biological male. The format led to a massive advantage for one team, with one attendee citing an “enormous difference” in player size, according to the Post Millennial.
The tournament featuring a “Team Black” vs. “Team Pink” game included the Boston-based “Team Trans” organization, which describes itself as “New England’s first LGBTQ+ hockey club.”
A video posted by Quillette shows player #90 on Team Pink, described as a “bisexual trans woman” (biological man) shoving #91 on Team Black, who describes themselves as female-to-male (biological woman). The female player takes what appears to be a light bump onto the ice and then the boards, resulting in a concussion.
The stark difference in size accounts for the biologically male player absorbing little to no impact from the collision. Additionally, the contact would be illegal in most hockey leagues as a “hit from behind,” although the tournament did likely host a “no contact” event.
The injured player later commented on Twitter that she had an “amazing time” with a fellow player named Mason “(he/him/his).”
A rinkside attendee described the scene as displaying “an enormous difference in size between the two teams—height, weight, shoulder width, muscles—the differences were plain to even a child,” the source told Quillette, commenting that anyone “could see that this couldn’t possibly be fair, and that someone could get hurt—and someone did.”
A number of players were easily identified as large enough to stand out from the rest of the players on the ice. Four biologically male players on Team Pink were described as “head and shoulders taller than most of Team Black,” including at least one player who allegedly played in Division I hockey.
Team Pink went on to beat Team Black in the tournament final by a score of 7-1, despite holding a team meeting in the second period to decide whether or not to continue the lopsided game.
The NHL’s Twitter account promoted the event that took place November 19-20, 2022, in Middleton, Wisconsin, which was comprised of entirely transgender-identifying individuals.
“The NHL is proud to support this past weekend’s Team Trans Draft Tournament in Middleton, Wisconsin. This was the first tournament comprised entirely of transgender and nonbinary players, with around 80 folks participating! #HockeyIsForEveryone#NHLPride.”
One of the leading hockey publications, the Hockey News, gave two thumbs up to the event, ironically tagging the article with “women’s hockey.” With additional calls for more diversity, the hockey publication mentioned the NHL’s recent trans-related tweeting, describing replies to the hockey league’s comments as “bigoted.”
In response to the NHL’s promotion of the tournament, a user remarked “So, men playing a womans team?” to which the NHL replied “Trans women are women. Trans men are men. Nonbinary identity is real.”