The Q for Everyone | NHL agent Bayne Pettinger using voice to make hockey more inclusive

Bayne Pettinger could write a book about his time in hockey. First, as Manager of Hockey Operations for a decade with Hockey Canada and currently, as a player agent with Creative Artists Agency.

But it’s the message that he’s spreading as an openly gay man that transcends all of the above in terms of impact.

Growing up in Victoria, B.C., Pettinger was part of a long running tradition within the game. His great-uncles Gord and Eric suited up in the NHL during the Original Six days, while Bayne’s own brother Matt spent parts of ten seasons in the National League.

While gravitating towards the game came naturally to the 35-year-old, Pettinger did so while keeping his sexual orientation private. That changed in November of 2020, when he decided to come out in an interview with well-known hockey media mainstay, TSN’s Pierre LeBrun.

Since then, the outpouring of support for Pettinger, who came out to his family a decade earlier, has been plentiful. And it’s since his news came public that he has become devoted to using his voice as an agent for change within the hockey world.

With powerful allies in the hockey world such as Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby, friends from his Hockey Canada days, as well as current clients like Oilers blueliner Tyson Barrie, Pettinger brings a much-needed dynamic to the crusade to provide a place within the sport for people of all backgrounds.

Recently, Pettinger and others joined forces with well-known advocate Brock McGillis to form the Alphabet Sports Collective, a not-for-profit organization that endeavors to create a safe space within the game for members of the LGBTQ+ community.

For Pettinger, it’s an opportunity to use his unique voice and influence to make a game he has always felt safe that much safer for everybody.

With a powerful message and the ability to amplify it to a broader audience, Pettinger’s end goal is simple; to make stories about athletes of all sexual orientations in sport no story at all. In his eyes, the day this becomes an everyday, non-newsworthy occurrence is a day of celebration.