NHL agent Pettinger growing new non-profit to promote inclusivity in hockey
These days are looking pretty busy for Bayne Pettinger.
The hockey agent is in the midst of preparing two of his clients, Kelowna Rockets defenceman Ethan Mittelsteadt and Victoria Royals defenceman Seth Fryer, for the upcoming NHL Entry Draft in Las Vegas, Nev., while building a game plan for NHL free agency and development camps.
He recently opened his own boutique agency, Apollo Athletics, where he represents NHL stars like Tyson Barrie and Jamie Benn and WHL prospects like Brock Cripps (Prince Albert) and Eddy Spytz (Everett) and co-founded a non-profit organization.
Indeed, a lot has changed since Pettinger decided to come out as a gay man in 2020.
Just not in the ways he necessarily expected.
“I always feared that I wouldn’t be accepted in hockey, being a young hockey executive, because there was no one before me that was openly gay,” Pettinger said. “As I went through the process of coming out and reaching out to some of my peers in the game- media members, NHL superstars, it became more apparent to me that I could do this and that I would be accepted and celebrated in that matter.”
Growing up in Victoria, B.C., hockey was in Pettinger’s blood.
His great-uncle, Bill, won four Stanley Cups in the 1930s with Original Six squads and his uncle, Gordon, toiled in the minor professional ranks and even suited up for the Portland Buckaroos.
His brother, Matt, left the NCAA to join the Calgary Hitmen after a breakout performance at the 2000 IIHF World Junior Championship and played nearly a decade in the NHL.
Bayne also played for the Victoria Cougars at the junior B level and quickly decided to follow his hockey path down the executive route.
After getting in the door at Hockey Canada as a business intern at just 18 years old, Pettinger worked his way up as a Team Manager for several of Canada’s National Teams.
His impressive resume includes seven gold medals at the Olympic Games, IIHF World Championship, World Cup, IIHF World Junior Championship and IIHF World U18 Championship.
And that’s just the first-place finishes.
Learning more about hockey’s superstars- many of whom are among his closest friends- Pettinger discovered a passion for player representation and pursued a new position at top hockey agency CAA, led by J.P. Barry and Pat Brisson.
At each stop, he’s received nothing but support from friends, family, colleagues and clients.
In an article with Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic, Pettinger even detailed encouraging texts he received from the likes of Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby and how Barrie and his now-wife, Emma, helped him map out his public coming-out four years ago.
As he navigates new chapters in his life, he’s heartened to see more people within the game step up as allies to drown out lingering negativity when it comes to team pride nights and the NHL’s short-lived ban on Pride Tape.
“We focus, I think, a bit too much on the media, on the negative voice, and not the positivity of the players that spoke up on the revolt against Pride Tape,” Pettinger added. “We see the power of allyship. If Connor McDavid and Zach Hyman and Tyson Barrie and Morgan Rielly and Scott Laughton and these guys don’t speak up and say, ‘Hey, this is wrong’. Maybe a thing like tape is still banned, right? It sends a message to those who don’t have a voice that, hey, you are welcome here.”
Pettinger no longer walks into a room fretting about who knows or who might not know- after all, as he posited in an essay for Hockey Canada, if he was a banker or in any other line of work, his orientation would hardly be a talking point.
But he recognizes that other people may still be living with the weight of hiding a part of themselves.
That’s why Pettinger and his friend, former professional goaltender and 2SLGBTQIA+ advocate Brock McGillis, founded the Alphabet Sports Collective, a non-profit dedicated to creating inclusive spaces in hockey through education, advocacy and support for members of the hockey community from players to volunteers and officials.
“We want to create resources and membership so that we can get those that don’t think that they belong in our great game of hockey the reassurance and support that they do,” Pettinger explained. “That’s through lived experiences. That’s through our ambassador program, which has NHL superstars, media members. With our funding, we will pay for counselling or connection to mental health experts that are needed.
We want to create that space and have a bit of a community feel and empower the queer community to sit on boards, to be involved, have that queer voice on boards of directors, on councils… So that we can help advise those high-ranking organizations like Hockey Canada, the Western Hockey League, the Ontario Hockey League, CSSHL, and have that voice and perspective and really be an ear and a resource.”
Alphabet Sports Collective is set to reveal its first Executive Director, additional ambassadors and new programming in the fall of 2024.
“I wish I would have done it sooner,” Pettinger reflects. “That’s what I try to pass on through Alphabet, through everything. It can be okay, and the big bad hockey world isn’t that big and bad.”
