Our Terms & Conditions | Our Privacy Policy
Winners of the 2025 NHL/NHLPA Hockey Innovation Competition pose with the Stanley Cup at the Hockey … [+] Hall of Fame in Toronto.
Courtesy: NHL
Built in 1885, the Great Hall at Toronto’s Hockey Hall of Fame is home to the Stanley Cup and all other major NHL trophies, as well as the plaques honoring all 437 of the Hall’s inductees. On Jan. 29, six groups of students from three post-secondary institutions took center stage in hockey’s most hallowed spa. They were the finalists for the 2024-25 NHL/NHLPA Industry Growth Fund Hockey Innovation Competition, presenting pitches on how to increase participation and fandom for the future growth of hockey.
Each presentation was five minutes long, followed by questions from a five-member judges’ panel made up of representatives from the NHL, the NHL Players’ Association and corporate partners Canadian Tire and Kruger Products.
“Being able to bring them there and going through that that process of presenting their story in front of everybody in that setting, I think is a great opportunity” said Chris Campoli, a divisional player rep for the NHL Players’ Association, of the event. “It’s something that they’ll remember and cherish, and so will we.”
The final six teams were selected from a field of 63 applicants from 13 colleges and universities across Ontario. Their challenge was to come up with ideas to make the NHL brand more relevant through immersive experiences with current fans and new audiences who currently do not have a relationship with the league and hockey.
Over two months, participating groups honed their ideas for submission while matched up with business mentors. The judges were looking for ideas that were innovative and could realistically be executed.
They were thrilled with the final results.
“To me, the winning was the process,” said Rob Knesaurek the NHL’s senior vice president of youth development and industry growth. “Everyone did put time and effort and sweat energy into this, and any one of those people on stage is a winner.”
The winning presentation was ‘NHL Champions Quest,’ masterminded by third-year commerce students Sophie Potter, Julia Lowther, Gray Yates, Caroline MacLeod and Alexandra Lindsay from the University of Guelph.
With the help of mentor Gabrielle Turi, the NHL’s manager of fan engagement, the students proposed a re-imaging the league’s existing mobile museum as a platform to engage with elementary-age students — sparking their interest in the sport at an early age while also gaining touchpoint moments with teachers and parents.
“They came with a really strong idea,” Campoli said. “One that, quite frankly, we have been kicking around and talking about, how we move forward with the museum. They had some great ideas around how we could get there. It was feasible, It was targeted, and that’s what excited us. We thought it could be implemented.”
“What we thought what they did well is, they made an event and met kids where they’re at,” Knesaurek added.
The runner-up prize went to Joshua Mastandrea, Ryan Mee and Hunter Sutherland, third-year students in sports management at Humber Polytechnic. Their presentation, ‘NHL x Disney,’ aimed to target young fans through familiar characters, leveraging an existing partnership between the league and The Walt Disney Company, the parent organization of one of its U.S. national broadcast rightsholders, ABC/ESPN.
“This is another one where we’re reaching a group that’s not a typical hockey fan,” Campoli said. “And it’s easily implemented, as we’ve got a partner that’s able to do this. Disney is as creative as it gets.”
“Thirty or forty years ago, if we wanted to watch TV, it was generally going to be what your parents were watching,” Knesaurek added. “Often, you would centralize the family around watching a TV show, which which probably doesn’t exist as much anymore. I thought that was a good sweet spot — how do you get the parents who might be engaged hockey fans to bring their children and show interest? It’s better to have them connect to something they’re familiar with, rather than trying to stick them in front of something that they’re unaware of.”
Other ideas championed by the finalists included tapping into technology including virtual reality and videogames, championing mental health initiatives and building community through fundraising.
Each member of the winning team receives a $2,500 scholarship as well as tickets to a Toronto Maple Leafs game and a VIP behind-the-scenes experience. The runners-up will each receive at $500 scholarship and tickets to a Maple Leafs game.
The door is also open for the students to work further on the winning ideas.
“We’re all about good collaboration and not assuming that our parties, both the NHL and the NHLPA, have all the answers to these complicated issues,” Knesaurek said. “It would be prudent on our behalf to make sure that we we extend the communication and try and build something out.”
Perhaps even more importantly, the finalists have made valuable industry contacts and gone through a process that will make a strong resume item when they start their post-college job search.
“A student that has a chance to connect with a big brand, that gets to showcase their ability, their learnings — it was tough for us to pick two winners,” said Knesaurek. “I was so impressed, as was Chris and all the other judges at how they delivered the message and how they got us thinking differently. We hope that we can show people that we’re interested in hearing from lots of people, not just hockey people.”
The Hockey Innovation Competition operates as part of the NHL/NHLPA Industry Growth Fund. It was launched in 2013 with the goal of supporting initiatives that help promote fan development, with an emphasis on youth.
Images are for reference only.Images and contents gathered automatic from google or 3rd party sources.All rights on the images and contents are with their legal original owners.
Aggregated From –
Comments are closed.