NHL Global Fan Tour huge hit among kids, families in Prague

PRAGUE -- The NHL has turned the Galerie Harfa into a hockey carnival, minus the rides.

The League has brought the NHL Global Fan Tour to Prague this week and spread its 18 activations around the first and second levels of the shopping mall located next to O2 Arena, giving fans of every age a unique opportunity to engage with the game around the 2024 NHL Global Series Czechia presented by Fastenal.

The Fan Tour was open Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. local time, closing an hour before the Buffalo Sabres and New Jersey Devils got the 2024-25 NHL regular season started by playing at O2 Arena (1 p.m. ET; MSGSN, NHLN, MSG-B, SN).

It is open again Saturday from 10-4 local time, shutting down just as the Sabres and Devils play the second of two games in the Global Series Czechia (10 a.m. ET; MSGSN, NHLN, MSG-B, SN).

"I think for us as a league, what really helps is we're providing more entertainment for the fans," said Mark Black, the NHL's vice president of international operations and international strategy. "You can go to the game but there's more than just the game that you can come out to. It allows us to educate about what's important from the NHL and the players. There's often hockey knowledge but it's not always NHL knowledge, so it's a great way for us to combine the two and make it a longer event for the families."

The Global Fan Tour is in its sixth year, having traveled to 35 cities across eight countries, hosting more than 275,000 fans along the way.

Each game or activity is located inside its own tent with NHL Global Fan tour branding.

The tour features staples such as hardest shot, accuracy shooting, mini hockey rinks and bubble hockey.

There is the Youth Fitness Zone, with some of the testing that prospects go through at the League's annual Draft Combine. Fans can test their scores against the scores of NHL players.

There is a hockey-themed cornhole game. A mini goalie stick is blocking the hole, so instead of being able to slide the bean bag up the board you have to shoot it in.

There is a hat trick challenge, an activation that both teaches fans about the hat trick but also allows them to throw hats and try to land them on sticks.

The E-Gaming tent here had EA Sports NHL '25, which was released Friday in Czechia.

NHL Sense Arena, the League's new virtual reality tool to test goalie skills and shooting skills, is upstairs, next to the bubble hockey table.

The League is also handing out posters of Devils forward Ondrej Palat, Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin and Boston Bruins forward David Pastrnak.

"The kids love it," Black said. "It's a connection to the NHL."

The NHL has permanent Fan Tour activation tents and equipment in Czechia, Finland, Sweden and Australia and with help from local activation thanks to companies such as Perinvest Group in Prague, they can be used throughout the season in cities across the country.

"We obviously only play our games in Europe at the start of the year so this allows us throughout the season to also be doing events, and that's really important," Black said. "It allows us flexibility to bring an NHL event to a smaller town that is never going to be able to host an NHL game just because of logistics."

There were more than 400 local school kids at the Fan Tour on Friday morning. Adam Saffer, a former player in the Ontario Hockey League and Czech Extraliga who is the project manager for NHL events for Perinvest Group, said they try to attract at least 1,000 kids per event.

"We are allowed to talk to the schools, cities and local clubs where we go with the Global Fan Tour," Saffer said. "We ask them to let the kids go out even if they have school. We ask them to come try things out. We started in the smaller amount and now we are around 18-20 activations.

"The kids love it. Most of them have never held a stick in their life and that's why we have staffing from junior players from local hockey teams so they can teach the kids how to hold a stick and be relevant to those kids."