- The NHL’s first STREET tournament in Latin America and the Caribbean hits San Juan on Saturday
- Puerto Rico has been without a working ice rink since Hurricane Maria wrecked the Aguadilla arena in 2017
- Read below for what the league and Puerto Rico’s national team coach said about the plan
The NHL is dropping its youth street hockey program into San Juan on Saturday, and the league is not treating it as a one-off.
Jeff Scott, the NHL’s group vice president of community development and industry growth, spelled out what the league wants from the first NHL STREET tournament staged in Latin America and the Caribbean.
“The real opportunity is establishing hockey as a sport that can take root and thrive in communities where it traditionally hasn’t existed. Puerto Rico has the chance to become a model for how ball hockey can drive participation growth throughout the Caribbean and Latin America.”
Kids ages 6 to 16 will fill Parque Dr. José Celso Barbosa. The tournament headlines Fiesta de Hockey, a three-day Puerto Rico Ice Hockey Association celebration that opened Thursday.
Lee M.J. Elias, who coaches Puerto Rico’s national teams, told NHL.com’s William Douglas what the league showing up means to a program still building from scratch.
“This is big-time. NHL STREET is the quintessential growth program for the league. Them doing this and then supporting this shows not just their support of what we’re trying to build, but international support as well.”
Take a look at the NHL’s own film on the island’s hockey scene:
PRIHA started in 2020 with Puerto Rican heritage players scattered across North America and became an IIHF associate member in September 2022. Results came fast.
Puerto Rico’s men went 5-0-0 to win the 2025 Development Cup in Andorra, and the women took the 2025 IIHF Women’s 3X3 Series in Buenos Aires after a silver medal in Sao Paulo the year before. Both programs own titles at the Amerigol LATAM Cup running in Florida this week.
What the island does not have is ice. The Aguadilla Ice Skating Arena, the only ice facility in the Caribbean when it opened in 2005, took damage from Hurricane Maria in 2017 and never reopened.
San Juan’s Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot can make ice, but it is a large multiuse building. It hosted the only NHL game ever played in the Caribbean, an exhibition the Rangers won 3-2 over the Panthers on Sept. 23, 2006.
So PRIHA built what it could, opening an indoor dek and inline facility earlier this year and launching Liga Boricua. President Scott Vargas explained why a building of their own mattered.
“That is our headquarters, the rink that we built there, right? What we wanted to do is make sure that we were able to interact with the broader community.”
Three schools got the association’s Palos en Manos floor hockey program in 2025, each handed 20 sticks, 20 balls, two goals, a curriculum and a liaison to answer questions.
Here is what the NHL STREET championships look like stateside:
Elias tied all of it to two goals, a rink on the island and a spot at the world championships.
“The island is the source. So it’s of vital importance to make sure that the island is not just experiencing the game, but being involved in the game and growing the game.”
