Hockey RPF/Teams

This is a list of Hockey teams and the players and pairings that are particularly popular in Hockey RPF.
=== Boston Bruins ===
One of the most popular pairing for the Bruins is Patrice Bergeron/Brad Marchand.
===Carolina Hurricanes===
The most popular pairing by far is Jeff Skinner/Eric Staal, sometimes including the other Staal brothers, most often Jordan or Jared. Eric Staal is also shipped with Cam Ward and Alexander Semin. 
===Chicago Blackhawks===
The Blackhawks, or Hawks, were probably the most popular team among Hockey RPF fans for a long time.Judging from the number of fics on AO3 (February 2014) as well as completely subjective looks at Tumblr and Twitter This changed in 2015 when the Patrick Kane rape investigation drove many fans away.
Patrick Kane/Jonathan Toews (Patrick Kane/Jonathan Toews) is the most popular pairing by far. Duncan Keith/Brent Seabrook, a defense pairing that is very close, is another popular pairing. Another one is Brandon Bollig/Andrew Shaw. Patrick Sharp (Sharpy), former resident Blackhawks dreamboat and alternate captain, often appears as a side character, often as the team prankster and a confidant/advice-giver/friendly muck-raker to Kane and/or Toews. 
*The Chicago Blackhawks Sing-Along Holiday Album As described by Thefourthvine:
::This video has: Hockey players looking like absolute idiots. A serious failure to take into account their actual abilities. Unfortunate clothing. A dance that will haunt your dreams. Terrible in-jokes. Terrible jokes, period. Plus, this video is probably the only time you'll ever see Jonathan Toews smile when not in the presence of the Stanley Cup. [...] Here, you can meet most of the team, and also rest comfortably assured that no matter how ridiculous things get in the future, you've already witnessed the absolute nadir of sense and reason. Also, you will discover that either there's a secret musical aptitude test in the Combine, or the Blackhawks just got lucky in terms of scoring a completely tone-deaf roster.
* My Little Blackhawk: Hockey is Magic. Inspired by Patrick Kane donning a unicorn head in post-Stanley Cup revelry (which he later denied), this blog depicts Blackhawks and occasionally other hockey players as My Little Ponies.
* Picspam/Primer: The Chicago Blackhawks by panfix
===Dallas Stars===
There was comparatively little fic written about the Stars before Tyler Seguin got traded to Dallas in July 2013. Since then, Tyler Seguin/Jamie Benn has become a pairing, with Jordie Benn, Jason Demers, and Valeri Nichushkin as the most common supporting cast. 
===Edmonton Oilers===
Until the Oilers drafted Connor McDavid in 2015, the biggest Oilers pairing was Taylor Hall/Jordan Eberle, often in a threesome with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and affectionately known as the "kid line". Sam Gagner and Nail Yakupov often appeared in supporting roles. As of August 2017, only Nugent-Hopkins remains on the team. Since 2015, the most popular pairings involving the Oilers generally include Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl.
===Los Angeles Kings===
Popular pairings are Jeff Carter/Mike Richards and later Tanner Pearson/Tyler Toffoli(/Martin Jones.) Drew Doughty appears as comic relief.
===Montréal Canadiens===
Popular pairings are PK Subban/Carey Price and Alexander Galchenyuk/Brendan Gallagher(/Brandon Prust.)
=== New Jersey Devils ===
One of the most popular pairing for the Devils is Nico Hischier/Jack Hughes (b. 2001).
=== New York Islanders ===
Popular players that are written about are Mathew Barzal, Anthony Beauvillier, Matt Martin and Anders Lee.
===Philadelphia Flyers===
Claude Giroux/Danny Brière was the most popular Flyers pairing, and continued after Danny was traded to the Canadiens. Luke and Brayden Schenn and Sean Couturier also appear frequently. 
The Flyers often play the villains in stories about the Penguins (their teams have a fierce rivalry) or Jeff Carter/Mike Richards (because of the trade.) Ilya Bryzgalov became known league-wide for his unique phrases during his time as the Flyer's goaltender, and as such he sometimes appears in the background of other stories. 
More recently the pairing Travis Konecny/Nolan Patric has gotten quite popular
===Pittsburgh Penguins ===
The Penguins, or Pens, are probably the second most popular team among Hockey RPF fans. Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, their two-star centers, are the most popular players and Sidney Crosby/Evgeni Malkin is the biggest pairing. Another one was Paul Martin/James Neal (who have both since left the team.) There are also some fics set several years ago about former star player (now co-owner) Mario Lemieux and former star player Jaromir Jagr. Rookies Beau Bennett and Olli Maatta were growing popular until Bennett left the team in 2016.
===Toronto Maple Leafs===
There was a time when fics about Phil Kessel and Tyler Bozak were really popular amongst Leafs fandom, those fics would involve a lot of pining and/or obliviousness. After rookie Auston Matthews joined the team in 2016, fans quickly took to shipping him with Mitch Marner which brought a big uproar of new fanfiction on the team.
In early 2018, Leafs fandom had a new ship emerging thanks mainly to Nylander's contract negotiations going down to the wire, the pairing of right winger William Nylander and newly appointed GM, Kyle Dubas (2018-2023) was forged, someone in the Leafs fandom stating that, "Kyle really flew to Switzerland to tell Willy how important he is to the team." The first ficThe first fic including Leafs GM Kyle Dubas is sold my soul to a three piece by anonymous including Dubas in a slash sense was published 6 days after Dubas was appointed as GM of the team. Fics on Dubas/Nylander have never avoided the discussion of how taboo the relationship would be as a player/GM pairing. Writers have never been afraid to write about how much Kyle's position as GM could change Willy's career, and yet in fiction Dubas does his best not to let his personal relationship with William get in the way of being his boss. Many fics have Willy come out to Kyle before anyone else on the team since Kyle is trusted so much as well as being dubbed "The Players GM " by both players and fans.
Since then Dubas has been a staple of Leafs fanfiction being paired with other players as well as current Leafs head coach (as of 2019) Sheldon Keefe after being longtime head coach for the Toronto Marlies.
On July 1, 2018, John Tavares signed with the Leafs for a 7-year contract. It was a coming home for Tavares as he was a Leafs fan growing up. But in fandom, it was assumed that Tavares was coming to Toronto to play hockey with Marner. In smaller parts of Leafs fandom, it's known, that one of the ways that they got Tavares to sign with the team was a video of Marner (playing) to try to convince Tavares to come play for the team. It's very much "Two Toronto boys, Mitch being his younger energetic lovable self and JT just being there so steady and sure and absolutely infatuated with him." Quote taken from here.
===Vancouver Canucks===
Popular players are Alexander Burrows, Ryan Kesler, Maxim Lapierre, Kevin Bieksa...
Twitter and Tumblr love to follow the almost-canonical romance between the goaltenders Roberto Luongo and Eddie Lack, but so far there is little fic about them. Luongo (who has since been traded to Florida) is also shipped with his former back-up goaltender Cory Schneider.
===Washington Capitals===
The Capital's captain, Alexander Ovechkin, is the most popular character of the team. He is shipped with various others, notably alternate captain Nicklas Backstrom, and often appears as a side character in Sid/Geno fic. After the 2014 Road to the Winter Classic series the rookie pairing, Tom Wilson/Mike Latta emerged.
===2015 Draft Class===
The 2015 rookie draft class got a lot of fannish attention, especially Connor McDavid, Jack Eichel, Dylan Strome, and Mitch Marner. Popular pairings are McDavid/Eichel, McDavid/Strome, and Strome/Marner.
===2017 Draft Class===
Although not as popular as 2015's, the 2017 rookie draft class drew attention on AO3 and most notably on Tumblr for the pairing Nolan Patrick/Nico Hischier. Many fans on Tumblr have quoted the way Nolan looks at Nico as reasoning.
===Varying teams===
* Jeff Carter/Mike Richards 
* Tyler Seguin/various
* Claude Giroux/Danny Brière
* Jeff Skinner/Eric Staal
=== Non-NHL ===
Popular female hockey players to write fic about are Amanda Kessel, Hilary Knight, and Julie Chu.
There is a big overlap with the small fandom of the hockey movie "Goon".
====Les Canadiennes====
On November 13 2017, Julie Chu and Caroline Ouellette announced on social media the birth of their daughter, Liv Chu-Ouellette. Julie and Caroline are teammates on Les Canadiennes and former rival captains on their respective national teams.
==Notes==
Category:Hockey RPF