Trevor Zegras goes five-hole for Flyers’ shootout winner (0:18)Trevor Zegras goes between the legs to score the lone goal in the shootout for the Flyers vs. the Blues. (0:18)
When the Philadelphia Flyers take the ice for warm-ups on Thursday night against the St. Louis Blues, it will feature both a heartwarming and history-making little detail that the players will be wearing.
Philly has partnered with SkateSkins, a company that creates customizable skate accessories, to show off custom designs made by Flyers players and young cancer patients as part of the club’s work in support of Hockey Fights Cancer.
Listino said that Trevor Zegras was the quickest on the draw as the first player to raise his hand for the initiative. He was paired with 19-year-old Juliette, who has grade-4 glioblastoma multiforme. Their design was inspired by her tattoos.
Center Sean Couturier and defenseman Travis Sanheim have been long-time advocates for Hockey Fights Cancer initiatives.
Couturier was paired with a 14-year-old named Emile, battling craniopharyngioma, who is from Trois-Rivieres, Quebec, close to where Couturier lives in the summertime.
Sanheim was partnered with 15-year-old George, battling cutaneous t-cell lymphoma, whose favorite player is, in fact, Travis Sanheim. The defenseman admitted he isn’t the most artistic, and was happy to pass off the drawing duties.
“I kind of left it up to George for the most part,” Sanheim explained. “Just allowed him to get creative with it. [I] threw out some ideas here and there, but I wanted him to kind of really enjoy it and and have most of the responsibility of designing it, and then getting the chance to wear it and for him to kind of see it firsthand.”
Forward Noah Cates was paired with 10-year-old Rachel, who is battling acute myeloid leukemia, and is post bone marrow transplant.
Design day was not only a highlight for the kids, but it certainly left a mark on the players as well.
Listino added that forward Travis Konecny and his kid, Frankie, put the initials “BAMF” on their design. “Frankie started to write it and Travis followed, they had a good laugh.”
The Flyers are the first organization to adopt SkateSkins at the team level, where every player will be wearing them during warmups.
“This is our second year of a Hockey Fights Cancer partnership that we have through the NHL, and this will be the first time that they’re being worn on NHL ice,” SkateSkins founder Matt Keeler told ESPN. “This is a pretty big milestone moment, and yeah, for us, the Flyers really just wanted to be the first team to wear it, and I think they have some pretty cool ideas of what they want to do for the future down the road. They had reached out to us, and had player involvement right away.”
“I love being the first [team] to do this,” Listino said. “It also shows our team is definitely one-for-all. And I think this also shows that one person’s like, ‘this is really important to me.’ And I think most people would say cancer has impacted their life in some way or another. So, for everyone to jump on board very quickly for this initiative was really, really exciting.”
The players that didn’t participate in the custom design event will be wearing a Hockey Fights Cancer design created by SkateSkins, which includes a variation of the familiar placard where players can write the name of who they are honoring.
Keeler said that players even ordered extras of the final SkateSkins designs so they could gift a pair of skates to the kids they were paired with featuring their artwork.
The NHL approved the use of SkateSkins during warmups prior to the start of this season. Players like Auston Matthews and Clayton Keller have been supportive of the brand in the past, and players have worn SkateSkins in other leagues like the AHL and Canadian junior leagues. Listino said that the Flyers would leave the door open for players to continue to create SkateSkins designs for causes or forms of expression that is meaningful to them.
Hockey Fights Cancer is a joint initiative of the NHL and NHL Players Association, in partnership with the V Foundation for Cancer Research, and is in its 27th season.
Trevor Zegras goes five-hole for Flyers’ shootout winner (0:18)Trevor Zegras goes between the legs to score the lone goal in the shootout for the Flyers vs. the Blues. (0:18)
Trevor Zegras goes between the legs to score the lone goal in the shootout for the Flyers vs. the Blues. (0:18)