Washington, D.C., November 18, 2025 — Everfi, the National Hockey League (NHL®), and the National Hockey League Players’ Association (NHLPA) today announced the launch of Future Goals™: Hockey Careers Beyond the Ice. This announcement celebrates 12 years of the NHL and NHLPA supporting teachers and schools by creating custom online courses that use hockey to make learning engaging and exciting for students. Through the strategic partnership with Everfi, the NHLPA and NHL have brought STEM education and career exploration to more than 5 million students across 10,000 schools in the U.S. and Canada. The investment of over $28 million into schools, teachers and students is funded by the NHL and NHLPA’s Industry Growth Fund, a joint initiative committed to supporting local communities through hockey.
Since launching Future Goals in 2014, the strategic partnership has used the excitement of hockey to bring STEM learning and career exploration to life for middle school students across the NHL’s 32 markets. The program’s original interactive digital course, Future Goals: Hockey Scholar, generated millions of hours of learning. Now, Hockey Careers Beyond the Ice shifts the focus from STEM fundamentals to career exploration and readiness, introducing students to the diverse professionals who make professional hockey possible.
Through four 20-minute interactive lessons, students in grades 6-9 take on real-world challenges across four key areas of professional hockey operations:
- Facilities Operations: Diagnose and solve ice quality issues before game time
- Player Performance: Analyze injuries and develop treatment plans to keep athletes at peak performance
- Fan Engagement: Develop strategies to boost attendance and energize fans through marketing and social media
- Business Intelligence: Ensure financial health by analyzing ticket sales, merchandise revenue, and corporate sponsorships.
“For over a decade, Future Goals has engaged and inspired students to look at hockey through a different lens, and we couldn’t be prouder to introduce a new course that highlights the many diverse career opportunities within the sports industry,” said Aliya Meaney, Sr. Director, Community Development & Industry Growth, NHL. “With the addition of modules in sports science, business operations, marketing, and technology, we’re excited to challenge the next generation of hockey fans both on and off the ice.”
“The expansion of our program with Everfi is extremely exciting as it will now offer a complete picture of the game on and off the ice,” said Chris Campoli, Divisional Player Representative, NHLPA. “Hockey players, like students today, have all had a teacher or coach make an incredible impact on who they are or who they become. Through our work with Future Goals, we’re extremely proud to offer more creative ways for that connection to happen.”
"Future Goals inspires students to see how their passion for hockey can open doors to exciting careers—not just on the ice, but in science labs, training rooms, and marketing departments. This new course takes that even further, giving students hands-on experience navigating real challenges that professionals face every day,” said Ray Martinez, CEO, Everfi. “We're proud to expand this partnership with the NHL and NHLPA and continue inspiring the next generation of sports industry leaders."
Aligned with the National Career Clusters® Framework, Common Career Technical Core (CCTC) Career Ready Practices, and Canadian Provincial Curriculum expectations, Hockey Careers Beyond the Ice is available to teachers in the U.S. and Canada at no cost. The course includes implementation guides, offline learning resources, student discussion prompts, and built-in pre- and post-lesson assessments with automatic grading to help educators track student learning gains. If you’re interested in bringing Future Goals: Hockey Careers Beyond the Ice to your school or district, please visit https://futuregoals.nhl.com/.
