Sports Mentoring delegate from Iceland inspired by time at NHL

NEW YORK -- Helga Margret Hoskuldsdottir is a small-town farm girl from South Iceland. She moved to Reykjavík, Iceland's capital and largest city, at the age of 16, lived in Madrid for a year working as an au pair, and graduated from the University of Iceland with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and a master's in media and communications at the London School of Economics.

All roads led the 29-year-old to New York City as the NHL delegate for the 2026 U.S. Department of State Global Sports Mentoring Program. The program's purpose is to empower women and girls through sports and offers women from across the world an opportunity to embed with American sports properties while they create an action plan to implement when returning home. 

This is the 13th year of the NHL's participation, mentoring 14 different women in collaboration with the U.S. State Department, the University of Tennessee and espnW.

She's also naturally attracted to red, among the bold, bright colors she wears in the field.

"I'm very passionate about doing things well, doing right, and always been pretty secure in myself and know what I can do," she said. "So, I think that confidence has essentially led me to the place I am in today.

"I think that's why I gravitate toward red sometimes."

Hoskuldsdottir is a sports anchor, studio host, reporter and head of social media for RUV Sports of the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service, and host of the quiz show "Gettu betur" (Guess Better) between January and March. The fit at the NHL proved natural, a three-week mentorship taking her through day-to-day business operations, the NHL Network Studios in Secaucus, New Jersey, and Madison Square Garden to see the New York Rangers defeat the St. Louis Blues 3-1 on Nov. 3. That first impression was nailed months before leaving her partner, Bergur, and 2-year-old daughter, Lea, for a chance at long-term gain for her generation and that of her offspring.

"We started getting to know Helga in August through Zoom calls," said Susan Cohig, executive vice president, club business affairs at the NHL. "She jumped right in and was really excited to embrace the opportunity."

Helga described her experience living on a farm near Selfoss, about an hour south of Reykjavík, with four younger siblings, cutting grass and herding sheep among other chores. She was then told the story of Brady Martin, the No. 5 pick by the Nashville Predators in the 2025 NHL Draft who grew up on a 300-acre farm in Belwood, Ontario. Martin woke up at 6 a.m. to clean pens, feed and milk cows and care for some of the 60,000 chickens. The night before the draft, he was back on the farm rounding up cows, simply because it's what you do.

On the farm, Hoskuldsdottir learned what it means to work hard and smart -- and being bored is a good thing.

"You don't always have to be doing something, and you don't always have to be doing something that is super fun, or that you love," she said. "Sometimes you have to do things that you don't love, or almost nearly hate, but there are things to be done."

The final segment of the program saw Hoskuldsdottir leave New York to present her action plan in Washington DC: creating social storytelling verticals to put women on par with the men. Iceland is bidding to qualify for the 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup. The men's team drew more viewership four games into its 2026 UEFA Nations League schedule than the women's qualifying victories against Croatia (4-0 and 5-0) on Oct. 9 and 13. She noticed the appetite for the women's game is in the United States -- the Professional Women's Hockey League set U.S. attendance records in just its third season -- so why not Iceland?

"That's what I want to keep focusing on," she said. "We've had a lot of big tournaments in the past couple of years. It's still usually the men's game that rate higher and have more people at, so what I think we need to do more of is telling the women's stories. That has to be the next step. We have to push so much harder to get them out there than we have to do with the men.”

She's taken off after learning the art of imperfection. During high school, she attempted to push through her drama course and a difficult assignment of playing two different characters with opposite personalities in two separate scenes. At the end of the course, she was finally ready to ask for help, something her teacher hoped for throughout the semester.

Hoskuldsdottir was reassured it was OK. She took that into adulthood and motherhood.

"That really, really stuck with me," she said. "You don't always have to pound through all the walls yourselves."