{"id":462693,"date":"2026-02-06T17:36:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T17:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/462693\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T17:36:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T17:36:08","slug":"olympic-hockey-players-are-making-content-for-nhl-pwhl-in-milan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/462693\/","title":{"rendered":"Olympic Hockey Players Are Making Content for NHL, PWHL in Milan"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tMILAN \u2014 Shortly after the U.S. women\u2019s hockey team landed in Milan late last week, captain Hilary Knight took to TikTok<\/a> to give her followers a tour of the Olympic Village rooms. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the two-minute video<\/a>, Knight shows her Team USA<\/a> merch, her Olympics<\/a> pins, her bed, her bathroom and even her adopted house plant. The post was boosted by the official accounts for the PWHL and the Seattle Torrent, her current team, and now has nearly 110,00 views.<\/p>\n

\n\tKnight is one of many hockey players juggling multiple jobs at the Olympics. In addition to the pursuit of medals and national glory, both the PWHL and NHL<\/a> have asked their stars to spend a bit more time creating content. The two leagues are hoping to use their players\u2019 stardom and their unique access inside the sports world\u2019s most restricted media zone to help grow the professional game.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019ve talked to players already,\u201d NHL chief content officer Steve Mayer said in an interview. \u201cWe\u2019re going to talk to them when they come to New York, we\u2019re going to talk to them when they\u2019re boarding the airplane, and we\u2019re going to remind them during the tournament how important it is to the show the world what\u2019s going on [at the Olympics].\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe proactive, detailed encouragement by professional leagues to turn athletes into content creators sharply underlines changing dynamics in the overall sports and media landscape, and at the Olympics themselves. To protect the companies that spend billions for exclusive storytelling rights to the Games, the Olympics has restrictive rules about what, where and how outside companies (whether they are media outlets, corporations or hockey leagues) can discuss the Olympics. While there are rules for athletes too, their access gives them unique freedoms. Sportico wrote earlier this week<\/a> about the broader emergence of Olympians as social media sensations.<\/p>\n

\n\tHockey players, however, are team sport Winter Olympians who play professionally in leagues looking to capitalize on the millions of global viewers that might stumble onto the sport over the next two weeks. No longer do those professional leagues view the Olympics as taking the spotlight away from their season; rather, they want to leverage any social media boost the Winter Games affords their players, for the leagues\u2019 benefit.<\/p>\n

\n\tAmy Scheer, executive vice president of business operations at the PWHL, told Sportico that the league held meetings with U.S. and Canadian players late last year, giving them pointers for how to show up on Instagram<\/a> and TikTok and drive engagement to the league. Among the league\u2019s specific recommendations: film tours of the dining hall, their rooms in the athlete\u2019s village, and pin trading. In addition to Knight\u2019s room tour, the league recently reposted a TikTok from Czechia forward Krist\u00fdna Kaltounkov\u00e1, who plays for the PWHL\u2019s New York Sirens, unboxing a gear bag<\/a> that has more than 233,000 views.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhat\u2019s the opportunity for you here today going to the Olympics?\u201d Scheer said she asked players at the meetings, held during the USA-Canada Rivalry Series. \u201cHow do you build your brand? How do you turn these folks into PWHL fans, and how does it allow us to build our brand to grow the league?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBefore Friday\u2019s Opening Ceremony even took place, the PWHL said its players competing in Milan had already added 80,000 new followers across Instagram and TikTok.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor the NHL, whose players are back in the Games for the first time since 2014, the instructions have been similar to those in the PWHL. The league has shared a one-sheet guide with players that shows how to best capture mobile-optimized video, Mayer said. It is also interested in featuring whoever has joined the NHL stars for their time in Italy.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen the players are outside of the IOC\u2019s restricted areas, we believe we\u2019ll get a significant amount of content from players, their families, their wives and girlfriends,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve built relationships with a lot of those players and their families for that purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tScheer said she pointed PWHL players to the example of Team USA Rugby star Ilona Maher, whose charismatic TikToks from the 2024 Summer Olympics turned the bronze medalist into an overnight household name. \u201cWhat she did in Paris was so unbelievable,\u201d Scheer said.<\/p>\n

\n\tTo be sure, there are limits to how much leagues can lean on players for social media engagement. \u201cThe players have a lot more access and the ability to post things that, as a for profit league, we cannot,\u201d Scheer said. As a result, the PWHL has asked players to collaborate with the league on some social media posts, and it supplied athletes with a list of other news outlets that will be present in Milan to tag. After the U.S. beat Czechia in their opening game on Thursday, thanks in part to two goals from Hayley Scamurra, the PWHL, Scamurra and the Montreal Victoire collaborated on an Insta<\/a>g<\/a>ram post<\/a> celebrating the win.<\/p>\n

\n\tSpecifically off limits for league collaborations, however, are posts from players that contain video or mention athlete sponsors.<\/p>\n

\n\tUltimately, Scheer said that the PWHL wants to make the content creation lift \u201cas easy for them as possible,\u201d and has offered to provide editing services to the players.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019re trying to get players to be cameramen for us and video producers for us,\u201d Mayer said, \u201dbecause that\u2019s really valuable for us.\u201d<\/p>\n