SEATTLE — Warren Foegele stepped off the ice at Climate Pledge Arena, celebrating alongside his new teammates. He had joined the Senators just two days earlier, acquired ahead of the NHL trade deadline. And now, after scoring the decisive goal in a 7-4 win over the host Kraken on March 7, the winger was ready to finally catch his breath.

But first, he walked over to a Sportsnet reporter outside the Senators’ dressing room for a postgame interview on “Hockey Night in Canada.” As he arrived, a producer handed Foegele a white gym towel emblazoned with the show’s logo on both ends. The winger immediately draped it over his shoulders, ensuring the logos were visible on-camera.

“I want to make sure my mom sees it,” Foegele said.

For decades, NHL players such as Foegele have longed to get their hands on this otherwise ordinary piece of cloth. Sized at 24 inches by 52 inches, made of 100 percent cotton, the “Hockey Night in Canada” towel represents the fulfillment of a common dream: a live interview on the nationally iconic Saturday night game broadcast, whether at intermission or postgame, beamed to family, friends and fans across the country.

“There’s not a lot of ‘Hockey Night in Canada’ I haven’t watched,” veteran Senators forward Claude Giroux said. “So, being able to have that interview … it’s definitely something special.”

Over his 19-year career, Giroux has accumulated so many towels that he’s actually tossed back several on the spot. Some of his contemporaries would be thrilled to catch one.

Last month, for instance, the towels came up in a text thread with another 2026 trade deadline acquisition, Islanders forward Brayden Schenn, and two of his former Blues teammates, Jake Neighbours and Joel Hofer.

“They always talk about the towels,” Schenn said. “And Jake says if he doesn’t get one in his career, he’s going to have to take one of mine. But he’ll definitely get one.”

That is no guarantee, though — especially since American teams appear on “Hockey Night in Canada” far less often than their Canadian counterparts. As a result, the plush tokens have become sacred sources of pride around the league.

Even foreign-born players such as Jake Sanderson understand the allure. Sanderson, who grew up in the United States, remembers getting his first after scoring an overtime winner against the Vancouver Canucks last season.

“The logo on the towel looks pretty cool,” Sanderson said.

Hurricanes forward Taylor Hall has misplaced many of his towels from the start of his career, when he played for Edmonton. But he took care to save the one that he received at a March road game in Calgary, as a memento for his two sons.

“Those kinds of things are things that I want to keep and take home,” Hall said.

As John Shannon rose up the ranks at “Hockey Night in Canada,” from production runner in 1977 to executive producer, he noticed other forms of branded paraphernalia given to players.

In previous Stanley Cup playoffs, players would find hats adorned with the HNIC logo in their dressing room stalls. Some players would receive sunglasses and even mini-sticks postgame, as was the case during the 1983 Stanley Cup Final with the New York Islanders and Edmonton Oilers. But none evolved into collector’s items like the towel.

Shannon remembers NHL players receiving towels during HNIC intermission and postgame interviews as far back as the 1982 Cup Final between the Islanders and Vancouver Canucks. The following decade, the show struck a deal with a linen company, Wabasso, to produce branded towels featuring the former’s logo and the latter’s name.

“We took a great deal of pride in even how the guy wore the towel around his neck, and how it was placed around his neck,” Shannon said. “Our floor director, the original guy, way back then in the late ‘90s, was a guy named Peter Rutherford. He would literally dress the towel around the guy’s neck.”

Upon becoming executive producer in 1994, however, Shannon put an end to the sponsored towels; instead, by the 1995-96 NHL season, players began receiving the plain white towels with the “Hockey Night in Canada” logo still seen today. The sole change is the logo itself: the baby blue, minimalist puck and stick logo transitioned to its present-day version in 1998.

“I’ve always loved logoed memorabilia,” Shannon said. “This, to me, was just a logical extension of all the stuff we had done for years. The fact that I had gone from being a producer to being in charge, I didn’t have to ask anybody’s permission to do it.”

Thus, a legendary linen was born. Scott Oake, the longtime “Hockey Night in Canada” broadcaster who recently announced his retirement at the end of the 2025-26 playoffs, said that some players have even resorted to directly asking him for an interview so they can score a towel.

“I’ve had players ask me to sign the towel,” Oake added. “I’ll do it reluctantly because I feel it soils the Holy Grail.”

To Shannon, the towel is a symbol of the show’s legacy, reminiscent of its one-time slogan when he was executive producer: “The tradition continues.”

Said Shannon, “And I think it speaks to the tradition of what Saturday night hockey is all about. It was families watching the game together, families coming home from a hockey game or coming home from a day out and watching the game together, and then seeing a player interview, and there’s the towel.

“Brayden Schenn was barely alive when we started this whole thing. And so from that perspective, it’s something he’s seen all his life.”

Ottawa Senators forward Warren Foegele speaks to Sportsnet’s Faizal Khamisa after his Sens’ debut against Seattle in early March. (Julian McKenzie for The Athletic)

For Schenn, a native of Saskatoon, Sask., who has suited up for four American teams in his 17 NHL seasons, the towels are “sacred” items that should only go to players. However, “Hockey Night in Canada” once sold them to the public and fans have since put theirs up for sale on eBay. To his chagrin, Schenn also remembered once hearing about a golf tournament that tried to collect towels as giveaways for participants.

“That’s an absolute no-no,” Schenn said.

As for what players who collect the towels actually do with them, the answer can wildly vary. Islanders forward Bo Horvat kept a few from his days with the Canucks. Many of them went to his father, Tim.

“He’s the collector of them all,” Horvat said. “He could probably make a bathrobe out of them now.”

Avalanche forward Nazem Kadri also gave a towel to his father; in turn, Sam Kadri framed it for the family’s lake house. Sam fondly recalled watching Nazem’s postgame interview on a March 2013 edition of “Hockey Night in Canada,” after his son scored a hat trick with the Maple Leafs.

“Having your son do it, it’s just so surreal,” Sam said. “To this day, to be honest with you, I’ve got to pinch myself to make sure that this is happening.

“You’ve definitely made it. If you’re getting interviewed, usually after the game, you’ve had a pretty good game. It’s just that stamp of approval.”

In addition to a stamp of approval, the souvenir can become an eye-catching accessory: According to Flames forward Ryan Lomberg, a former teammate of Kadri’s in Calgary, Kadri also carries a towel in his golf bag.

“That’s a pretty good idea,” Lomberg said. “So, I’ll probably be carrying one this summer at some point on my golf bag, too.”

Minnesota Wild forward Nick Foligno keeps up to six towels on a rack in his offseason home gym. Some are a little faded, but all evoke good memories.

“I pretend to do interviews in the summer with them,” joked Foligno, a 19-year veteran who spent his first five seasons in Ottawa.

For some players, though, there is such a thing as too much swag.

“The first one I ever got, I’ve got it hung up in my house,” Senators forward Drake Batherson said. “I’ve got one to wash my car with, and the other few are just hanging around my garage.”

Even the league’s newest generation is learning to cherish the relics. Earlier this season, after scoring twice against the Maple Leafs in his HNIC debut, including the overtime winner, Islanders super-rookie Matthew Schaefer was chosen for the postgame interview. The 18-year-old smiled from ear to ear, his face broadcast all across Canada.

“First off,” Schaefer told Sportsnet broadcaster Kyle Bukauskas, “pretty happy I got my towel.”

That towel now occupies a precious spot in Schaefer’s gameday stall at the Islanders’ arena. The towel that Foegele earned in Seattle, meanwhile, went to his new home in Ottawa. At season’s end, the Senators forward plans to give it to his parents.

“Watching ‘Hockey Night in Canada’ was so much fun, and a big part of my childhood,” Foegele said. “I think anytime you play in those games, it means a little bit more.”

— Joe Smith contributed to this report.