NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman confirmed today that NHL players will participate in the 2026 and 2030 Winter Olympics. Along with NHLPA Executive Director Marty Walsh and IIHF President Luc Tardif, Bettman oversaw a press conference during All-Star weekend in Toronto and offered some clarifying notes about Olympic participation in 2026 in Milan, Italy.
Tardif confirmed to reporters that Russia’s standing in the tournament has not yet been decided. The IIHF council will meet next week to determine whether the country will be eligible to return for the 2025 Men’s World Championship, at which point they will issue additional updates. Russia has been barred from IIHF competition since its early 2022 invasion of Ukraine for geopolitical reasons. If deemed eligible for Olympic play in 2026, Russia will qualify automatically based on their current world ranking.
The security of players will be the driving force behind the IIHF’s decision to reinstate a Russian contingent, said Tardif. Both the 2025 World Championship and 2026 Winter Olympics will be held in Western European countries.
Other updates regarding the Olympics and future international tournaments:
- One of the driving forces behind the NHL’s barring of players from attending the 2018 and 2022 Winter Olympics dealt with uncertainty over insurance and travel costs for players. That’s been settled as part of today’s announcement, Bettman said. Those costs, plus other travel-associated costs, will not be fronted by the league – instead, individual Olympic committees and the IIHF will provide funding for players to travel and stay at the overseas events.
- Tardif also added that for the first time, the Olympic tournament will be played on smaller NHL-sized ice in 2026. This downsizing from the standard international-sized rink was not contingent on the NHL’s participation in the event, per Tardif, and it did not play a factor in today’s announcement. Previous IIHF specifications dictated that rinks must be 197 by 98 feet, while NHL rinks are narrower at 200 by 85 feet.
- The league also confirmed today’s reported news that a 2025 best-on-best tournament between Canada, Sweden, Finland, and the United States will occur next February in two unnamed North American cities, one in Canada and one in the United States. The tournament, called the 4 Nations Face-Off, will be comprised of 23 NHL-rostered players from each country selected by each nation’s governing association. Interestingly, despite the NHL hosting the tournament, the round-robin portion will adopt the more internationally-recognized 3-2-1-0 points system. There will be no multi-round playoff; instead, the best two teams in the round-robin schedule will play a one-game final match.
- Bettman said the league’s plan is to return to a regular World Cup of Hockey schedule after Olympic participation resumes. Time constraints limited the size of the 2025 best-on-best tournament, but World Cups are expected to run in 2028 and 2032 and will feature expanded participation from countries not included in the 2025 tournament.
My sympathies to you, @Josh, and any other writers that had the “pleasure” of getting flat-lined by Bettman & Daly a short while ago. And, show of hands for the membership at large, who else was pissed at the bogus geo-blocking on NHL.com and had to resort to YouTube for a live feed? Felt a little sorry for some reporters there (except Brooks), when many of the questions by them were unanswerable.
Rinks should be larger than NHL size, They are too “crowded” on the smaller rink and invite more injury because of it.
Agreed. The guys are too big and too fast and we’re starting to see collisions (Fischer/Petry), boarding calls are up because of the speed level, and play is getting so tight that there’s little room for maneuvering and passing.
I’d raise the NBA basket a foot also …
Banned for geopolitical reasons? Stick with hockey writing please. They were banned because they are a rogue country run by a warmongering psychopath, not nebulous geopolitical reasons.
How is that geopolitics?
sorry meant to have “not” in there
@DarkSide830 — Spot on. That is the definition of geopolitics.
That is a gross oversimplification of the invasion of Ukraine. Eastern Ukraine, where a large portion of the population identifies as ethnically Russian and tends to vote in favour of more economic ties to Russia, had been experiencing a civil war where the Ukrainian government has been killing its own people. Additionally, Ukraine was flirting with the idea of joining NATO, which was seen as an act of western aggression against Russian sovereignty.
I do not like Putin. I do not like United Russia. But whitewashing the issues in play and invented cartoon supervillains helps nobody.
The Rudsian hockey players didn’t invade Ukraine. Nor did the Belarusian players.
Unfortunately, leagues/organizations/bodies have stripped these athletes of part of their identities.
This is stupid. Ovechkin, kucherov, provorov etc had nothing to do with insane Vladdy’s decision to destroy a nation. I hate this ridiculous cancel culture everybody’s feelings are hurt so no you can play (pouty face) it’s time to stop being snowflakes. Canada wouldn’t send aid to Rwanda during the genocide…the USA invaded Iraq for oil oops I mean weapons of mass destruction oh but they can play and many Africans and Iraqis who had nothing to do with it lost their lives…but our players are fine? Look nobody condones Putin. Let the guys play they are unfortunately born of a nationality they can’t control but why are some countries immune from this and yet Russia gets the crap end? Stupid. Hate that this crap is coming into a sport I love. Leave it alone you virtue signalling clowns. Let the best play the best. Sick of your garbage politics that is literally the definition of racism blaming an entire ethnicity for the actions of one man and an army blinded by fear.
Olympics switching to NHL rink size is interesting news. Didn’t see this coming. Might have a trickle-down effect on European leagues and/or IIHF to follow suit. There’s many smaller Olympic sports where Olympic rules are the de facto standard for other national or international competitions.
“I stopped caring about the innocent people being bombed in their own apartments or being executed and buried in their own backyards a while ago but I’m still upset for those poor millionaire hockey players being denied the opportunity to bring glory to a war criminal.”
Guess life’s not fair sometimes.