Catan Is Coming to the NHL — and Bringing a German Handball Star Along For the Ride

Somewhere between “settle an island” and “check the boards,” Catan has apparently decided its next expansion isn’t a card set — it’s a hockey rink. The Ottawa Senators just announced a season-long partnership with the board game, complete with arena advertising, concourse activations, social media giveaways, and a full “Catan Night” on November 23rd when the Senators host the Calgary Flames. Per Senators VP of marketing Peter Shier, Ottawa will be “the only Canadian professional sports franchise, and the only NHL team, to host a Catan-themed game this year” — which is either a very specific bragging right or the start of a trend, depending on how this goes.

And that’s the tame half of the announcement. Catan also just signed German handball star Juri Knorr as a brand ambassador, under the slogan “Mein Spiel nach dem Spiel” — “My Game After The Game.” The campaign puts Knorr on branded retail displays, sells Catan-branded adidas handball shirts (a sentence I did not expect to type this week), and runs a QR-code contest where winners get to actually sit down and play Catan with him. It’s timed ahead of the 2027 Handball World Championship in Germany, and Knorr says the game “has been with me since my childhood” and gives him balance away from competitive sport — which, fine, that tracks better than the jersey does.

The push isn’t random. Catan has sold north of 50 million copies worldwide, and the company’s clearly betting that hockey fans in Ottawa and handball fans in Germany are the same people who’d happily lose a Friday night arguing over sheep trades — they just haven’t been asked yet. Whether “Catan Night” ends up meaning actual tables set up on the concourse or just a jumbotron graphic and a giveaway bin remains to be seen, but if you’re an Ottawa season-ticket holder, circle November 23rd.

If all this has you wanting to actually settle Catan instead of just reading about branded handball jerseys, the base game is still the easiest way in — four players, one island, and zero jumbotrons required.

We’ll be watching to see what “Catan Night” actually looks like in the arena — and whether any other NHL teams follow Ottawa’s lead.

Featured image: “settlers-of-catan-board-game” by Cheryl Marland, licensed BY (via Openverse). Source.