Before the Columbus Blue Jackets and Detroit Red Wings played in the 2025 Navy Federal Credit Union Stadium Series on Saturday, 60 military veterans took the ice themselves.
For the fifth straight year, the Navy Federal Credit Union Veterans Showcase took place, this time at the Chiller Ice Rink in Easton, Ohio.
It’s a one-of-a-kind hockey invitational featuring four military Veteran hockey teams from across the nation. They were on the field during the third period for an in-stadium shout out and got to hang with the Stanley Cup during Friday night’s formal dinner.
The Kids Hockey Club from Virginia, the Marines Ice Hockey from North Carolina, the Guardians Hockey Club from California and the Chattahoochee Valley Warriors from Georgia.
They were paired with an NHL alumni player from the Blue Jackets (Brandon Dubinsky, James Wisniewski) and Red Wings (Justin Abdelkader, Jimmy Howard) with each Veterans Showcase team as honorary coaches on Friday --- from the games on the ice to the formal dinner -- allowing the players to engage with the NHL alumni players in a unique manner.
Navy Federal and the NHL held an exclusive “Chalk Talk” at Nationwide Arena on Saturday. NHL Network reporter Lauren Gardner moderated a Q&A discussion with former Blue Jackets players Chris Clark and Jean-Luc Grand-Pierre.
“You have a group of individuals that signed the dotted line to volunteer service to the country, and then on top of that, there are even a select few who play hockey. So to have both of them in the same area, the same building, that’s really special,” Zachary Small of the Chattahoochee Valley Warriors told WCMH TV in Columbus.
