Inglasco

Lore & Background

InGlasCo was founded in 1976 by Denis S. Drolet as a die-cut fibreglass company; the name is a portmanteau of 'industrial glass fibre components.' In 1980, the company entered the hockey puck business. While Inglasco designed and marketed its pucks, it contracted out manufacturing to Vegum a.s. in Dolné Vestenice, Slovakia, and Soucy Barron Inc. in St-Jerome, Quebec. The company hired ex-NHL player Sean McKenna as vice-president for sales and marketing.

Prior to the 1991–92 NHL season, individual teams were responsible for providing pucks for their home games, and as long as a puck met the league's physical specifications, a team could use any puck it wished. For the 1991–92 season, the league's 75th anniversary, NHL manager of retail and licensing Fred Scalera decided the league should have an official puck. Scalera polled teams on which puck they wanted, and the overwhelming choice was Inglasco. Although most teams were already using Inglasco, some had been using Viceroy pucks.

Denis Drolet was the son of Sherwood Hockey founder Léo Paul Drolet. In late 1994, Denis Drolet formed Groupe Drolet Inc. and reacquired Sherwood-Drolet from Figgie International, placing Inglasco's operations within the group. During the 2004–05 NHL lockout, Inglasco laid off around 25 of its 40 employees, but rehired all of them by summer 2005. After Sherwood-Drolet filed for bankruptcy in May 2008, Carpe Diem Growth Capital acquired it and Inglasco. In 2014, Gracious Living Corporation acquired Sherwood and Inglasco from Carpe Diem; Gracious Living sold Sherwood in 2018 but retained ownership of Inglasco. The company is based in the original Sherwood factory in Sherbrooke.

Reader's Guide

Inglasco's significance lies in its role as the official puck supplier of the National Hockey League since the 1991–92 season, a position it has held continuously. The company's pucks had already been used in the league since the early 1980s, and when the NHL decided to standardize its puck for the league's 75th anniversary, Inglasco was the overwhelming choice of teams. This made Inglasco the first and only official puck of the NHL, aligning the league with other major professional sports that had an official ball. The company's history is intertwined with Sherwood-Drolet, as Denis Drolet was the son of Sherwood's founder and later reacquired Sherwood, placing both brands under Groupe Drolet Inc. After Sherwood's bankruptcy in 2008, Inglasco was acquired alongside Sherwood by Carpe Diem Growth Capital, and later by Gracious Living Corporation, which retained Inglasco after selling Sherwood in 2018. Inglasco continues to operate from the original Sherwood factory in Sherbrooke, Quebec, and also produces water bottles, mini sticks, hockey bags, and novelties.