By now you may have heard about the infamous call between President Trump and the USA Men’s Olympic Hockey team. Video of the incident, which was posted to social media, showed the USA Men’s Team laughing at a “joke” the President made about the US Women’s Team. The USA Men’s Hockey Team was made up entirely of NHL players, who are all seeing fallout from the incident. Since the video went viral, a number of the Men’s team have been asked about the situation in interviews.
Around the same time, the NHL posted a picture of Dylan Strome and his two-year-old daughter on their social media account. The post celebrated Strome as a “girl dad,” but has since been taken down. While the post was active, Strome and his family received criticism for the USA Men’s Hockey Team’s reaction to the President’s “joke”, despite the fact that Strome is Canadian and did not even play in the Olympics. [1]
NHL Players, like almost all professional sports players, are subject to a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with the NHL. Under the CBA, the NHL has the ability to use an NHL player’s Name, Image, and Likeness for various purposes.[2] The CBA does mention players families in a couple of different locations. First, the CBA prohibits the player from using a family member to bet.[3] Second, the CBA provides for family members of players to get certain travel benefits for things like the All-Star Game and NHL Awards.[4] Similarly, there are also moving allowances stated in the CBA for players’ families.
What the CBA does not permit is allowing the NHL to use the name, image or likeness of a player’s family member without their consent. Therefore, the NHL did not have the authority to post the picture of Dylan Strome and his daughter without first getting their consent. It was clear that the NHL did not have the consent of the family based on the reaction from Tayler Strome, Dylan Strome’s wife. Around the time that the post was deleted, Tayler Strome took to social media to express her disdain for the whole situation. She expressed being disgusted with how people were speaking about her family, especially her two-year-old daughter, and highlighted the fact that the family did not choose to be involved. [5]
The NHL’s actions raise a larger question about whether the NHL has the right to use images of players with their families. The CBA is silent on social media posts involving a player’s family members. With the CBA being silent on the issue, it would stand to reason that the league could not make the post without obtaining permission from the player. However, while the CBA is silent, no player has filed a grievanceon this basis before, so there is no determinative decision on how this situation should be handled in the future.
[1] https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/dylan-strome-wife-fires-back-135141569.html
[2] https://media.nhl.com/site/vasset/public/attachments/2025/07/19116/NHLPA-NHL-MOU-June-27-2025.pdf
[3] Id.
[4]Id.
[5] https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/dylan-strome-wife-fires-back-135141569.html
Julia Hoffmann is a third year law student at the University of Buffalo School of Law. Originally from the West Coast, she has always had an interest in the cross section between the law and sports. Julia is a huge fan of hockey, and watches all things women's sports.
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