NHL Team Bans ‘Fortnite’ on Road Trip Games

Fortnite may be taking over the world, but one place where it won’t be taking over is the Vancouver Canucks’ locker room during road trips.

Based on this report from Deadspin, the “veterans” for the National Hockey League team have imposed a ban on all video games on the road. “No more Fortnite,” said Bo Horvat, speaking with TSN 1040.

He explained, “In my opinion, there’s better ways to spend time on the road, whether it’s hanging with the guys in the room or going to a movie with the guys. There’s a lot of cool cities we visit and to be cooped up in your room all night, playing Fortnite, is a waste of your time.”

But not everyone believes it’s such a “waste.” In fact, Scott Billeck, who works with the Winnipeg Jets, recently fired off a reply on Twitter, noting that something else is to blame. You can see the response below:

And he followed up with this reply as well:

There has been previous talk as to how Fortnite addiction can get in the way of sports performance. Per the Deadspin article, a podcast discussion with Jeff Marek back in May had him saying that one top prospect, who went unnamed, was probably not “going to make it to the NHL and it’s because of a video game addiction.” And it reportedly got to the point that the player went to counseling over it.

Whatever the case, some believe that this is a bit on the harsh side, but with the Canucks starting a new season this week, we’ll see if the Fortnite ban has any effect on their play. One thing’s for sure — they won’t be down on any of the new victory dances.

Fortnite is available now for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, PC, and mobile devices.