{"id":436263,"date":"2026-01-27T10:40:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T10:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/436263\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T10:40:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T10:40:14","slug":"prepared-to-welcome-anyone-that-would-come-out-canadiens-captain-nick-suzuki-on-queer-players","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/436263\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Prepared to welcome anyone that would come out\u2019: Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki on queer players"},"content":{"rendered":"

Montreal Canadiens<\/a> captain Nick Suzuki says his team is prepared to openly welcome any player who might come out as LGBTQ2, amid growing attention sparked by the popular Canadian television series Heated Rivalry.<\/p>\n

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Suzuki made his comments Sunday evening on the Quebec French-language talk show Tout le monde en parle. He appeared alongside fellow Habs players Juraj Slafkovsky, Alexandre Texier and Oliver Kapanen ahead of the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympic Winter Games in Italy next month.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019ve heard about [the series] \u2014 I think we all have,\u201d Suzuki said when asked about the show, which tells the secret love stories of several professional hockey players who are either gay or bisexual.<\/p>\n

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The fear of being outed and their career being affected is a major theme of the show.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt has taken the world by storm and brought a lot of new audience members to hockey, which has been awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tMontreal Canadiens\u2019 Nick Suzuki, left, and Juraj Slafkovsky, during training camp in Brossard, Que., Thursday, Sept. 18, 2025.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tTHE CANADIAN PRESS IMAGES\/Graham Hughes\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Suzuki said while NHL players publicly coming out is not something he or his teammates have experience with, \u201cAs a team, I think we are well-prepared to welcome anyone that would come out.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added his teammates are a very open group and always accepting of each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat wouldn\u2019t change if someone came out and was on our team or another team,\u201d the 26-year-old London, Ont., native said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do Pride nights to support,\u201d Texier said in French. \u201cIt\u2019s important, not just in sport, but in life in general. As hockey players, as Montreal Canadiens\u2019 players, we would accept it. There\u2019s no taboo,\u201d the French player said.<\/p>\n

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As is explored in the tv series, being openly gay, bisexual, queer or otherwise has long been taboo in the hockey world \u2014 but there have been efforts in recent years to make the sport more open with Pride nights and initiatives like You Can Play<\/a>, which promotes LGBTQ2 inclusion in athletics.<\/p>\n

Speaking by phone on Monday, Montreal Canadiens vice-president of communications Chantal Machab\u00e9e reiterated the message.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are an inclusive team, we welcome everyone,\u201d Machab\u00e9e told Global News.<\/p>\n

Many sports in recent years, including women\u2019s hockey, have embraced athletes who have come out \u2014 but an openly gay player has yet to play in the NHL.<\/p>\n

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In December, an NHL representative said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, \u201cThere are so many ways to get hooked on hockey and, in the NHL\u2019s 108-year history, this might be the most unique driver for creating new fans.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSee you all at the rink,\u201d the representative added.<\/p>\n

Later in January, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman voiced his support for the television series, telling reporters he watched all six episodes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI binged it in one night,\u201d Bettman said.<\/p>\n

All four Canadiens players who appeared on the talk show will represent their respective countries at the Olympic Games: Suzuki for Canada, Slafkovsky for Slovakia, Texier for France and Kapanen for Finland.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Montreal Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki says his team is prepared to openly welcome any player who might come…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436264,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[49,48,26937,140293,129790,10099,41685,82,181208],"class_list":["post-436263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-habs","tag-heated-rivalry","tag-montreal-canadians","tag-nick-suzuki","tag-perspectives","tag-sports","tag-you-can-play"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}