Luke Prokop sheds light on his groundbreaking journey in hockey

Luke Prokop remembers knowing at age 14 that he was “a little different” from the other boys on his hockey team. But the talented big player from Edmonton kept it a secret for years.

At the time, he wanted to fit in, not stand out. Prokop’s goal was to play in the NHL, and he couldn’t see at the time how he could make that a reality while showing his true self.

It is one of the moving anecdotes he shares The hockey playera new documentary that follows Prokop, who came out in 2021 as the first openly gay player under an NHL contract. He was only 19 at the time and had just been drafted into the league when he suddenly took on an unexpected role as a pioneer.

“I looked back on the first time I came out in public and saw how many people it influenced and inspired,” Prokop told The Globe and Mail, ahead of the film’s VIP screenings this past week in San Francisco, Edmonton and Toronto.

“Being able to help someone who may be in a similar situation was the main motivation for me in making this documentary.”

The 80-minute film is the most candid and in-depth portrayal of his story, including emotional interviews with Prokop and his family, plus behind-the-scenes footage collected from his hockey life over three years. The document has two storylines. It puts inclusivity in sports under a microscope; while also showing how difficult it is for a prospect – openly gay or not – to crack an NHL roster and make a career there.

The Upper Canada Films documentary is produced by Taylor Prestidge and directed by Jacqueline Doorey. The film will debut publicly on June 29 and will stream worldwide on Prime Video and Apple TV. In Canada it also airs on OUTtv.

“To see the highs and lows of what it takes to make it, in addition to having the weight of the world as a pioneer in the community,” Prestidge said. “It’s really something exceptional.”

The Nashville Predators selected Prokop 73rd overall in 2020. Today, the 6-foot-1, 224-pound defenseman is 24 years old and has since been on seven teams, from the WHL to the ECHL and AHL. Currently, Prokop is still trying to land his first full-time spot in the NHL with the Bakersfield Condors, the AHL affiliate of the Edmonton Oilers.

He talks about what it was like to come out to family in 2020 at the age of 18, including the concerns he had about telling his father. The following year, the people he consulted before announcing it on his social media channels, and the flood of responses that followed, were almost all positive. He describes the flood of supportive calls and texts from NHL players and global celebrities.

But as the film shows, five years after he publicly came out, Prokop remains the only openly gay man playing professional hockey in North America.

“That’s kind of surprising to me, and there’s a side of me that understands why someone might not want to come out. It comes with a lot of responsibility and attention that some people wouldn’t feel comfortable with,” Prokop said.

“But if a player really wants to come out and try to understand whether it would be positive or not, they can just look at that one Instagram post I had and see how much support I got.”

In the film you see Prokop as a pioneer, but also as a player who looks and acts like all the other guys in the locker room.

“I think conversations about what it is to support a gay hockey player, to work with a gay hockey player, to have a gay hockey player as a son or a friend,” said Doorey, the director. “A lot of those conversations have never happened before, at least at the level Luke plays at”

Filmmakers interviewed his NHL clubs, their farm teams, Prokop’s teammates, coaches and friends, plus LGBTQ expert voices community and allies, including Mark Tewksbury, Brock McGillis and Brian Burke.

Jacob Tierney, director of the TV series, also speaks out about hockey culture in the documentary Heated rivalry. In reality, The hockey player filmmakers say they benefited greatly from the timing and enormous popularity of Tierney’s fictional show about the secret love affair between two rival professional hockey players.

Prestidge says he initially struggled to get sponsors and brands to invest in the film about Prokop and that the film would not be completed. But after that Heated rivalry came out in late 2025 and demonstrated significant mainstream appeal for gay hockey stories, attitudes changed.

“At first, people felt like Luke’s story – even though it was strong – felt like it just didn’t resonate with them, whatever the reason,” Prestidge said. ‘And that was only then Heated rivalry it emerged that suddenly some of them came back and said, “Hey, can we continue that conversation?”

Prokop has received many interview requests to talk about Heated rivalry. Although he laughs because viewers in his documentary don’t get to see steamy love scenes like in the hit series, they both inspire dialogue.

Prokop says all his hockey teams were in favor of the documentary crews being present.

“My teammates were all great about it,” Prokop said. “I got made fun of a little bit because I was a movie star, but other than that it was really good.”