There is no denying that we are currently skating through the absolute peak of hockey romance culture. From screen adaptations of Heated Rivalry taking over our feeds to books like Icebreaker and Fake Skating dominating the bestseller charts, the sport is enjoying massive literary popularity.
Obviously, the National Hockey League wanted a slice of the pie. However, instead of scoring an easy marketing goal, their new 'Hot for Hockey' campaign has managed to skate face-first into the boards.
Led by new CMO Sean Eggert, the league has rolled out a series of 60-to-90-second audio shorts on Spotify to recap real-life league news in the style of romance novels. They even hired actual romance authors to narrate tracks complete with dramatic, soft-piano backing music. The audiobooks do not feature any actual romance between real players—instead, they just 'wink' at the genre. In one clip, titled Jack of Hearts, a narrator breathes that Las Vegas is 'thirsty for more' of Jack Eichel. Based on the backlash from the female audience, it seems more like these odd audiobooks are thirsty for a reality check.
Puck-ering Up or Dumbing It Down?
Unsurprisingly, female hockey fans are not swooning; they are cringing. The campaign has been widely slammed as condescending and deeply infantilising. For decades, women in sports spaces have fought the tired, sexist stereotype that we only look at the ice because some players might be cute. Now that sounds like fiction.
By reducing gameplay to a cheesy, corporate-sanctioned fanfiction script, the NHL is actively validating that exact bias. As one Reddit user on r/Fauxmoi perfectly summarised, 'They genuinely think women are stupid. There's just no other way to read this beyond abysmal choice. Kicking rapists and abusers out of the league? NAH, they're gonna do bullshit pandering instead.' It screams that the league does not believe women can comprehend a power play unless it is wrapped in a velvet-bound cover.
The backlash was instant, with fans branding it 'appalling'. The criticism goes far deeper than just second-hand embarrassment, though. Mixing real-life athletes with fictional romantic tropes raises major red flags regarding player safety and parasocial boundaries. Remember in 2023, when the wife of Seattle Kraken centre Alex Wennberg had to publicly ask BookTok creators to stop sexually harassing her husband online after lines between reality and fiction blurred?
The Summer I Turned Gritty (And Immediately Regretted It)
The online community is heavily side-eyeing the bizarre narrative directions of the campaign, particularly an installment titled The Summer I Turned Gritty, featuring Trevor Zegras. The transcript tracks 'Philly's pretty boy' getting a whole lot 'grittier'. While some still digitally grimaced at the absurdity, others admitted it made them 'audibly cackle'.
Beyond the odd mascot fanfiction, authors within the community are calling foul. Writer Emily Rath reportedly revealed on Threads that romance authors pitched for the campaign, adding that the league's pitch deck openly mocked the genre with 'tongue-in-cheek' jokes and AI-generated art.
Shooting Their Shot and Missing the Plot
This tone-deafness lands at a time when the NHL is already skating on thin ice with the female audience. For instance, the deeply controversial decision to allow players acquitted of sexual assault to reportedly sign multi-million-dollar contracts makes it glaringly obvious where the league's priorities lie. As another fan pointed out, 'Actually they're acquiring more rapists and abusers by the day... They think rape isn't that big of a deal, which tells you everything you need to know about their level of respect for women and girls.'
According to Cosmopolitan and Yahoo Sports, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman has allegedly shrugged off the criticism, citing 'overwhelming data' on new fans acquired through book trends.
Just because the players signed off on a bit of 'playful' fun doesn't mean the execution isn't entirely ice-cold. If the NHL truly wanted to welcome romance readers, they could have hosted genuine, community-led stadium theme nights. Instead, they chose to make a mockery of what they think women love.
Given the caricature-like premise of 'Hot for Hockey', it's quite obvious that these men probably never even touched a book that most women like reading. Otherwise, they would not have missed the net this blindly. Thanks to the contributions of 'Hot for Hockey', it's painfully easy to see why the reception was cold. It isn't hard to see now why most women prefer to read about the hockey players on the page rather than watching those on the actual ice, is it?
