All-Star event shines national spotlight on NHL mascots

When the competitors made their way to the ice and the puck finally dropped in Columbus, it marked the end of a nearly three-year process for the NHL.

For Bailey, Stinger and their colleagues — it was showtime.

Before the Saturday night skills competition of All-Star Weekend, the league put its spotlight on team mascots for a game that was part of the inaugural NHL Mascot Showdown. It’s the first time the league has featured all 26 of its team mascots in such a fashion, with the characters competing in the on-ice game, as well as a variety of games and events such as a dance-off, tug-of-war and dodgeball.

But the game also marked the league’s unofficial rollout of a collection of mascot merchandise and a new push to highlight team mascots to fans. It’s a project that’s been spearheaded over those three years by Dave McCarthy, the NHL’s vice president of consumer products marketing.

Team mascots line up ahead of the inaugural NHL Mascot Showdown. Photo by: IAN THOMAS / STAFF

“Select teams have always taken great advantage of their mascots, but only locally,” McCarthy said. “Our mascots are well-known across the league, so we made it a goal to create something where you could be a fan of Spartacat whether you lived in Ottawa or New York, or anywhere else for that matter.”

To get to the point where Bailey (Los Angeles), Stinger (Columbus) and their friends could be broadly marketed, the league faced a number of hurdles. First, there were a number of intellectual property rights issues that the league’s legal team had to address. For example, the league’s first mascot, Harvey the Hound, was originally created by a Calgary resident. The rights to the mascot were previously purchased by the Flames, but the league had to practice due diligence to ensure it wouldn’t infringe on any other existing copyrights. The NHL also had to create a style guide for all mascots and the merchandise across the league, so that each was accurately depicted, and so it could more easily sell the rights to licensees. Lastly, the league approached its licensees to see what sort of items could be created.

Inside the Fan Fair event at All-Star Weekend, the 26 participating mascots — the Rangers, Flyers and Oilers do not have mascots, while the Red Wings have a mascot that is not costumed — had a separate “clubhouse” area next to the general merchandise shop where each posed for pictures and signed autographs when they weren’t already interacting with fans in other parts of the event. That area also housed the new mascot-branded items,

The mascot merchandise is part of a new push to bring greater awareness to NHL team mascots across the league.

which included pillow-pet depictions of each mascot, ministicks, pucks, pennants, blankets and other pieces of apparel for children.

One of the most important items, McCarthy said, was a children’s book that helped introduce each mascot and tell a part of the character’s backstory.

“The mascots appeal to all ages, and we want to offer items for everyone,” McCarthy said. “But we also know it’s a huge attraction to a younger demographic that we hope are the next generation of hockey fans.”

McCarthy said this mascot merchandise push has “a lot of runway for growth” and that the products will be incrementally rolled out online, across team stores, and in

retail shops such as Kohl’s and Toys R Us.

While he declined to project a dollar amount that the effort could add to the NHL’s overall revenue, he did note that there might be showcase opportunities for the mascots beyond the league’s tentpole events.

“We’re still in the infancy of this whole program, but if you look at the interest that Disney gets when its characters appear on ice, I think the NHL could do that as well in the future,” he said. “But for now, our goal is to hopefully have fans leave events like this not only with a favorite team and player, but a favorite mascot as well.”