Free hockey museum celebrating trailblazers pops up in Ice District for the day

A pop-up hockey museum travelling across North America opened in Edmonton on Saturday. 

The United by Hockey Mobile Museum is part of the NHL’s "Hockey Is For Everyone" initiative, which aims to foster positive change and inclusivity. 

“Each year we challenge ourselves to create new opportunities to celebrate the diversity within our game,” Jeff Scott, the league's vice president of community development and growth, said in a statement. 

“Our re-envisioned, professionally curated United by Hockey Mobile Museum showcases many of the individuals who have blazed new trails."

The free, 840-square-foot display – featuring historical components, a simulation broadcast booth, and hockey card collections, including Dean Barnes' BIPOC collection – was hosted in the Ice District Plaza. 

"We were just walking around, found it, and thought it would be cool for the kids to see it," one mother, whose family went to watch the Oil Kings play Saturday afternoon, told CTV News Edmonton. 

"I think it's really neat. It's cool for the kids to see what hockey was before now."

Both her son and daughter called the exhibit "cool." 

"I was announcing Sarah Nurse doing shooting a goal," her daughter giggled. 

"It was fun." 

A family uses the simulation sports broadcast booth at the United by Hockey Mobile Museum in Edmonton on March 25, 2023.

Another passerby noted that the museum was "very well done."

The museum is being hosted by 32 markets in total.  

It will be open in Ice District on Sunday until 8 p.m., when the Edmonton Oilers game starts. 

With files from CTV News Edmonton's John Hanson