The Minnesota Wild’s Pride Night: Getting Better Every Year

The Minnesota Wild will host their fourth annual Pride Night on March 13, featuring some special guests — and it’s not just the visiting New York Rangers.

Four-time WNBA champion, four-time WNBA Coach of the Year, two-time WNBA Executive of the Year and Olympic gold medal-winning Team USA head coach Cheryl Reeve will be at Xcel Energy Center to make the “Let’s Play Hockey” call and kick off Pride Night 2025, according to Wayne Petersen, Minnesota Wild Senior Director, Community Relations & Hockey Partnerships.

Along with Reeve, Pride Night will feature Emma Dufalt and Brandon McCauley as the game’s Community Heroes, Petersen says. Dufault and McCauley are co-chairs of the Wild’s Pride Employee Resource Group.

The Wild’s Pride ERG has been around for a couple of years and has already become the Wild ERG with the most members, according to Petersen. The group includes both LGBTQ+ community members and allies, and meets about every two months to discuss how the Wild can best serve the LGBTQ+ community, both within the organization and in the Twin Cities community.

The relationships the Wild have built with LGBTQ+ community organizations will be on display at Pride Night, with several organizations having tables on the Xcel concourse, Petersen says. Those organizations include Team Trans, Stonewall Sports, Twin Cities Queer Hockey Association, Twin Cities Quorum and Twin Cities Pride.

Petersen highlights the strength of the Wild’s relationship with Twin Cities Pride in particular.

“When we publicly announced our DEI mission, this was shortly after George Floyd was killed, we wanted to identify five DEI partners,” Petersen says. “Twin Cities Pride, in my opinion, had to be one of the five, and they are. Of the five, we work just as closely with them, if not more, than the others.”

That relationship includes offering ice time, suites and tickets to Twin Cities Pride, as well as adopting LGBTQ+ families during the holidays, according to Peterson.  Piper Otto, the youngest daughter of Twin Cities Pride Executive Director Andi Otto, will even be the Pride flag-bearer for 2025 Pride Night.

In addition to their work with Twin Cities Pride throughout the year, the Wild also participate in the annual Pride Parade. Wild defenseman Jon Merrill returned to the Twin Cities during the Wild’s offseason to join the parade, and that’s just the start of what he and his family do to support the LGBTQ+ community in the Twin Cities and around the NHL.

“The fact that [Merrill] raised his hand and wanted to serve on the NHL’s Player Inclusion Committee speaks volumes,” Petersen says. “And there’s, I believe, a member of his wife’s family who’s gay, and he’s seen firsthand the obstacles, the challenges that they face in their daily lives … It doesn’t matter if you’re Black, white, straight, gay, we need to be inclusive for everybody, in life as well as in the game of hockey.”

“And so he’s been a very outspoken critic of those people who are homophobic, and he, his wife and his kids do a wonderful job of promoting the Pride community, inviting them to play, encouraging them to play the game of hockey,  [and affirming] that yes, the game of hockey is for everyone,” Petersen continues. “I know he’s a big supporter of Team Trans, TCQHA. It’s not always the easiest thing to do, but he’s done it and he’s all in, which is great to see. It’s not just showing up for a five-minute photo op and leave, he’s totally invested into this and we’re there to support him when we can.”

Jon Merrill and his wife, Jessica, have provided tickets to Pride Night games to queer youth, arranged meet-and-greets afterward, donated to Twin Cities Pride’s Rainbow Wardrobe and Jon has volunteered to referee TCQHA games, according to an article on the Wild’s website. Jon and Jessica Merrill were named Twin Cities Pride’s 2024 Allies of the Year in recognition of their efforts.

Merrill, along with his teammates, will have Pride tape available to use on their sticks on Pride Night, according to Petersen — a representation on the ice for one night of the work Merrill and the Wild have done year-round to support the LGBTQ+ community.

“[Pride Night] has gotten better every year,” Petersen says. “When you hear it directly from people of Andi Otto with Twin Cities Pride, and from people from Twin Cities Queer Hockey Association or from Team Trans, just how they feel it’s gotten, and it’s grown, and they’re happy with how things are going … we have a Pride Night once a year, but this isn’t the only time.”