At the start of every hockey season, staff from the Professional Hockey Players’ Association travel throughout North America to meet with players from every American Hockey League and ECHL team (58 teams combined between the two leagues) for a one-hour meeting, educating over 1600 players about the services and various programs provided to them by the PHPA as their certified, collective bargaining representative.

Perhaps the most anticipated aspect of each team meeting is when players are provided with PHPA branded items or ‘swag’.  In prior years, these player gifts have included hats, travel mugs, t-shirts, or work-out shorts.  However, this year, in addition to hats, the association provided each player with a PHPA branded puck fitted with a bottle-opener insert, produced by Athletica Sport Systems.

Known more for their superior quality in providing hockey rink board systems for many of the professional arenas in North America, Athletica Sport Systems boasts a number of divisions, providing full board systems for hockey and soccer, maintenance parts and service, and other retail items such as the laser-engraved bottle opener pucks.  Athletica has been one of the most innovative companies in the rink building industry.  

Bob Vohnoutka, Arena Services Manager for Athletica Sport Systems commented on the following progression within the industry. 

“Our company was at the forefront in bringing to market the following safety enhancements to the rink environment: SoftCap® flexible Caprail, GlassFlex™ Flexible Shielding System and the recently mandated Curved Acrylic Corner system.”

Ahead of the 2015-16 season, the AHL mandated the curved glass in their arenas, duplicating what was done in the NHL a couple years earlier.   While some AHL facilities already had the Curved Acrylic system as part of their Athletica Dasher Board system, the remaining 21 of 30 AHL rink systems were retrofitted with the new style glass this summer.

Within Athletica’s catalogue of product offerings are multiple lines of accessories and products.  Vohnoutka credits a solid partnership with Carlos Ramirez, Owner of Clear D Zone for the development of the bottle-opener pucks.

“Carlos’ first innovation was the Clear D Zone glass polish.  It was such a good product that Athletica formed a partnership to become the exclusive distributor of the product line.  Part of his research and development required him to spend months at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California which is home of the Anaheim Ducks.   During his time there he realized that there was an accumulation of game-used equipment and rink-related items such as broken sticks, sections of glass, and pieces of boards by the end of the season, and that there could be a use for them.  He was the creative force behind coming up with different ways to use these game-used products and ultimately came up with the idea for the puck bottle openers.”

The idea of inserting a stainless steel, magnetic bottle-opener into hockey pucks was born in 2015.  With a relationship already established between Athletica and Clear D Zone, it became another product offering within the Clear D Zone product line.

“We chose to have the image on the pucks laser-engraved rather than silk-screened or something of that nature because we wanted them to be durable like all of our other products.  We tested other ways to have images put on the pucks and we found that laser engraving was the most durable and gives them a distinguished look.  The actual opener is made of stainless steel as well which makes the opener itself very durable.  So above all, we really wanted to have a premier product that will last.”

When members of the PHPA player Executive Committee visited the Athletica booth during the AHL Board of Governors meeting this past June and were provided samples of the puck bottle openers, they thought a PHPA branded puck bottle-opener would be a popular item among the player Membership.  The PHPA then contacted Vohnoutka to work out the details, and since then, every PHPA Member has been provided with a PHPA branded puck-bottle opener. 

“The reaction from players as we distribute them has been phenomenal,” said Larry Landon, Executive Director of the PHPA.  “They have been very well received as it’s a unique item that we’ve never done before, and something players will hold onto for a long time.”

Vohnoutka was excited to begin working with the PHPA and get pucks in the hands of the players.  “We were thrilled to be involved with supplying the bottle-opener pucks to players represented by the PHPA. 

Click Here to order the same PHPA bottle-opener pucks that were distributed to players earlier this season. 

At the same time, we would welcome inquiries/orders for the branded puck-bottle opener from others as well.   We are happy to supply orders of any size.  We will do orders for anybody, not just people involved in the hockey community and they could be used for anything from wedding gifts to charitable events.  We want to provide unique items such as these to anybody who may be interested.”

To view the complete line of Athletica products please visit: http://www.athletica.com. Inquiries about the bottle-opener pucks can be directed to:

Bob Vohnoutka, Arena Services Manager, by phone (763-249-7416) or via email at bvohnoutka@athletica.com.