Merrill has long been an active member in LGBQT+ communities. He’s manned the Wild float in the Twin Cities Pride parade, officiated various LGBQT+ hockey games “in a tutu” and even worked other pride events in full drag.
This initiative takes those efforts a step further.
“Hockey is a sport that teaches us so many great life lessons about working together as a team,” Merrill said. “I genuinely believe we’re creating better human beings because of this game of hockey. So, if we continue to break down barriers that hockey players are one specific mold, or that you have to be a certain type of person or look a certain way or be a certain thing to be a hockey player, we’re going to be better for it as a sport and as humans.
“I look to the future and hope that we watch the 4 Nations Face-Off in 25 years, and we see a plethora of different races and sexualities, whatever it might be. That we just see a true representation of the world in hockey.”
The NHL Player Inclusion Coalition is a group of current and former NHL Players and women’s professional hockey players who work to advance equality and inclusion in the sport of hockey on and off the ice. Coalition members are advisers, ambassadors and catalysts in the growing movement for inclusion across the hockey community. Since 2020, members have led and contributed to initiatives that accelerate social change through and within hockey.
The Player’s Inclusion Coalition will hit $250,000 in community grant donations with Merrill’s $15,000 grant for Hockey’s Beauty Club.
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