According to TSN’s NHL Insider Darren Dreger, the NHL is expected to play an exhibition game in China next season. While the NHL is easily the most nationally diverse of the “Big Four” North American sports leagues and has a history of playing international games, this would be their first foray into the world’s most populous country. Whether it be just one or a series of exhibition games next season, the league building a relationship with China will result in much fanfare and a great opportunity for the growth of the game.
International play is no stranger to the NHL. As far back as 1938, the league has played games overseas. That year, the Detroit Red Wings and Montreal Canadiens played a nine-game Spring series in England and France. Twenty years later, the Boston Bruins and New York Rangers did the same thing, committing to a 23-game European tour in late April and all of May. The teams visited England, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Austria, and West Germany. In 1976, the Washington Capitals and Kansas City Scouts played four games in Japan, the NHL’s first international event in Asia. The Capitals have been busy on the international stage ever since, playing five games against the Minnesota North Stars in Stockholm, Sweden in 1980 and competing against the New York Rangers and several Swedish and Finnish pro teams in a tournament hosted by the two countries in 1981. The team from the United States capital was back at it in 1989, joined by the Calgary Flames in a series of games against European teams that took place throughout Sweden and what used to be Czechoslovakia and the USSR. The NHL returned to Sweden and the USSR the following year with an exhibition tournament including the Montreal Canadiens and Minnesota North Stars, while a similar tournament took place at the same time in West Germany and Austria featuring the St. Louis Blues and Edmonton Oilers.
While international play has not been eliminated since then, it has been dialed back significantly. Gone are the days when the NHL would send it’s teams to Europe for weeks at a time. Instead, small two or three game series took place throughout the 1990’s and early 2000’s, with teams frequently playing in London, Tokyo, Helsinki and Stockholm over the years, as well as more obscure places like the Tampa Bay Lightning and Buffalo Sabres taking on Austrian pro teams in 1998 or the Florida Panthers and New York Rangers squaring off in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 2006. From 2009 to 2011, the league would send a handful of teams over to Europe during preseason to each play exhibition games against local teams or NHL foes. While many of the games took place in the usual countries, some highlights included the Chicago Blackhawks in Zurich, Switzerland in 2009, the Boston Bruins visiting Belfast, Northern Ireland in 2010, and the first visits to former Soviet nations like the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Latvia in 2010 and 2011.
However, if an exhibition game in China does come to be in 2017-18, it will be new territory for the NHL. Other than games in Japan, Asia is largely untouched by the world’s best hockey league. However, that doesn’t mean that the game has not grown regardless. The popularity of hockey in China has been on the rise for years now. The KHL was the first league to notice the trend, playing exhibition games in the country before finally establishing an expansion team there, the Kunlun Red Star, who are currently playing in their inaugural season. That’s not to say that the NHL has been slow on the uptake though. Last year, the Boston Bruins became the first team to strike a sponsorship deal with a Chinese company, O.R.G. Packaging, and sent players and personnel over this summer to conduct hockey clinics and share the brand around the country. Winger Matt Beleskey even documented the trip for the Players’ Tribune. With the NHL formalizing it’s interest in the country, expect more teams to follow suit, building relationships in one of the world’s most influential countries. Although the Bruins may have already built a local fan base and the Capitals were the NHL’s ambassadors throughout the 70’s and 80’s, it appears that the league is intent on sending west coast teams across the Pacific for the game. Though nothing is finalized, Dreger reports that early indications are that if one game is to be played it will be between the Los Angeles Kings and Vancouver Canucks.
With the next two Winter Olympic Games slated for Pyeongchang, South Korea and Beijing, China, hockey culture in Asia is more important now than it has ever been. Grassroots hockey has grown throughout the continent and we are seeing the best skill to ever come out of Asia. Japan and South Korea are both ranked in the top 25 by the IIHF, and their rankings have been improving each year. There is no doubt that the game has taken hold of the Far East. Hockey is a global game and the NHL is the undisputed face of the sport. A growing relationship between the league and a country with a population nearing 1.4 billion can only be good for the game. Hockey in China has a bright future and the NHL deserves credit for fostering its growth with plans for exhibition events.