Early NHL Playoff Exits Fuel Hockey’s ‘Golf Season’

BusinessSportsMoneyEarly NHL Playoff Exits Fuel Hockey’s ‘Golf Season’ByMike Dojc,Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Mike Dojc is a South Carolina-based journalist who covers golf. Follow AuthorApr 27, 2026, 07:06am EDTApr 27, 2026, 07:07am EDT--:-- / --:--This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.A Fox Harb’r Resort ad in Toronto’s PATH leans into hockey’s long-running “golf season” joke.Fox Har'brJoe Pavelski, who racked up 1,068 points over an 18-season NHL career with San Jose and Dallas, didn’t wait long to find his next win. A year after hanging up his skates, he captured the 2025 American Century Championship, the Super Bowl of the celebrity golf circuit, with a walk-off eagle on 18. To a casual sports fan who may only cursorily glance at previous winners, it looked sudden. But the W was a long time coming. The four-time all-star forward had racked up eight top-10 finishes there before, including three runner-up showings. The difference this time could easily have been more time to focus on golf with his hockey life in the rearview.With the NHL playoffs now underway, a reality lurks beneath the surface for every team on the outside. As leagues expand and a smaller fraction play on, the sting of an early exit has been blunted because now they’ve got more time to be somewhere else and that is often the first tee of a swank golf course.Early playoff exits extend hockey’s “golf season,” creating new opportunities as players head to the course, while resorts increasingly lean into the trend.Resorts Turn Early Exits Into Tee TimesFox Harb’r, a golf resort in Nova Scotia, leaned into the concept with a billboard campaign in Toronto’s downtown pedestrian tunnel system, targeting beleaguered Maple Leafs fans whose team missed the postseason for the first time in nine years. The ads pair course glamour shots with pithy copy like “a short season just means...