Skatin’ for Leighton thriving despite loss of Coyotes

SCOTTSDALE – A dunk tank, a rack of signed NHL jerseys and hundreds of children rollerblading around the concourse at Salt River Fields while numerous others walked the baseball field below. 

That scene greeted everyone who walked into the Arizona Diamondbacks spring training stadium on Sunday for the sixth annual Skatin’ for Leighton. 

With 675 tickets sold, more than $80,000 raised, and media coverage across the Valley, the courage of a 9-year-old girl continues to inspire the Valley more than five years after her death, and two years after the Coyotes’ departure. 

“When you have a kid that passes away that meant so much to the community, your biggest fear is that they’re going to be forgotten, the light’s going to fade, right?” Leighton Accardo’s father, Jeremy, said. “It’s stuff like this that keeps that light glowing even brighter so it’s incredibly important to us as a family, and I think it’s even more important to the girls.”

Leighton Accardo passed away on Nov. 24, 2020 after a valiant 18-month battle with cancer. To honor her, Valley native and former USA women’s national hockey team member Lyndsey Fry skated 96 miles across the Valley in February 2021.

Alongside a community of youth hockey enthusiasts and Accardo’s parents, Jeremy and Carly, Fry has continued to expand the event year after year, originally collaborating with the Arizona Coyotes and other organizations in the area. 

When the Coyotes relocated to Salt Lake City after the 2023-24 NHL season, there were concerns about the future of Skatin’ for Leighton and girls youth hockey in Arizona. 

“As soon as the team announced they were leaving, one of the first things (Carly) said to me was, ‘What happens to Skatin’ for Leighton?’” said Fry, who coached Leighton with the Arizona Kachinas youth hockey program. “I’m like, ‘I promise you, we’re gonna make it bigger and better. Just because the team’s leaving, that’s not going to change anything about the event.’”

Fry has kept her promise in the years since, commending “an incredible committee of people” behind the scenes who hustled to bring in the highest number of sponsors the event has ever seen this year. 

In addition to signed NHL jerseys featuring players such as Macklin Celebrini, Quinn Hughes, Jack Hughes, Auston Matthews and Alex Ovechkin, the event also received donations from former Coyotes players Lawson Crouse, Dylan Guenther and Clayton Keller, now with the Utah Mammoth, and Josh Doan, now with the Buffalo Sabres. 

Within Skatin’ for Leighton, Fry has constantly added different activities, including a dunk tank and a bouncy slide. Fry also cut her hair and donated 10 inches of it to children in need.

All the funds raised at the event go toward the Leighton Accardo Memorial Fund, which “provides financial assistance to young girls with a passion for hockey.” 

“The fundraiser doesn’t go to cancer research like a lot of fundraisers do, mostly because we wanted to make sure Leighton was remembered for what she loved, not what took her life,” Fry said. 

Before the celebration, the Kachinas, an all-girls hockey program based in Mesa that Fry co-founded, also had a year-end gathering. Matt Shott, the other co-founder of the club, faced a similar battle with cancer and passed away in 2021. 

The Matt Shott Arizona Hockey Legacy Foundation, established in his honor, also had a booth at the event, with its goal to “support hockey programming and the growth of the sport in Arizona.”

This is the second consecutive year that Skatin’ for Leighton has taken place at Salt River Fields, after the Coyotes held the event at Mountain America Stadium in 2024. With ASU hockey now the biggest hockey program in the Valley, Sun Devils players Logan Morrell, Lincoln Kuehne and Ben Kevan also took part in the event.

Morrell’s connection with the Accardos harkens back to his childhood, where he skated in Gilbert as a teenager. The Accardos live in Gilbert.

Seeing the community of young girls come together to celebrate Leighton evoked personal connections, with Kevan and Morrell referring to their younger sisters, who played hockey. 

“I’d say 20 years ago, honestly, there would probably be nothing like this,” Kuehne said. “Even with the Coyotes gone, you can see the game’s grown.”

“With the PWHL (Professional Women’s Hockey League), it’s really growing at a fast rate,” Kevan added. 

As the Valley’s tightly knit community celebrated Leighton’s story – one that no hockey fan in Arizona will ever forget – Carly Accardo emphasized the event’s impact on girls youth hockey. 

“There are a lot of girls that need financial assistance,” she said. “We don’t want that to be the reason why a girl can’t play hockey.”

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