- The Pacific Cup returns to Vancouver this weekend after an eight-year absence
- Every roster spot sold out in 22 hours, with goalie slots gone in the first 10 minutes
- Read below for how February’s NHL Unites Pride Cup helped restart the tournament
The Pacific Cup sold out in less than a day.
Vancouver’s Cutting Edges are relaunching their LGBTQ+ hockey tournament this weekend after an eight-year gap, and the response settled any question about whether people still wanted it. Every slot was gone in 22 hours. The goalie spots went in the first 10 minutes.
Cutting Edges president Kyle McCarthy told NHL.com the club had a hunch it would go that way.
“We had a member who felt that there’s an appetite out there. And sure enough, there was.”
More than 128 players on eight teams across two divisions will play at Scotia Barn in Burnaby, roughly eight miles outside Vancouver, on July 31 and Aug. 1. Some are flying in from as far as France and Nicaragua.
That weekend lines up with Vancouver Pride. The Cutting Edges march in the parade on Aug. 2 and have asked everyone who played to come along in their tournament jerseys.
“Our tournament games are on Friday and Saturday, and we’ve done that so we as an organization still participate in the parade on Sunday. We’re encouraging them to wear their home jerseys because we think it’s a really unique opportunity that can showcase kind of the queer hockey community around the world.”
Here’s the tournament announcement:
McCarthy points to February’s NHL Unites Pride Cup in Surrey, British Columbia, as the spark. That two-day event put the Cutting Edges and the Seattle Pride Hockey Association on a real stage, with former NHLers Andrew Ference, Bill Ranford, Corey Hirsch, Dave Tomlinson, Dave Babych and Jyrki Lumme taking part. Both organizations came away with $25,000 donations from the league.
“Pride Cup was a big spark for us. That’s when we started hearing from some people asking, ‘When are you guys going host a tournament so we can all come and see Vancouver?’ Everybody who played there wanted more.”
The league has been busy on this front lately, having also thrown its weight behind the Shoulder Check Showcase charity game.
Membership has climbed from three teams when McCarthy joined in 2023 to four the year after, and the Cutting Edges are up to six for the coming season. He hands some of that credit to “Heated Rivalry,” the hockey series with gay leads that has pulled fresh attention toward queer hockey.
Take a look at the jerseys the teams will wear this weekend:
Vancouver journalists Daniel Gawthrop and Kevin Griffin founded the club in 1994 ahead of Gay Games IV in New York City. There were never enough openly gay players locally to fill a league of their own, so they entered mainstream beer leagues instead, and they still play there today.
“We play against the everyday beer league team, which is a little bit different than some of the other queer (hockey) organizations do. One of the things I find that’s powerful is the visibility that we get to have in the community.”
Games start Friday night at Scotia Barn and the finals go Saturday afternoon, two days before the parade steps off downtown.
