NHL Aims to Resolve ‘Logistical Nightmare’ of Olympic Participation

NHL player participation in the Olympics has been one of commissioner Gary Bettman’s thorniest issues for more than a generation of talent. A meeting this week between the league, NHL Players Association, IIHF, and IOC could help finally resolve the matter not only for the upcoming 2026 Winter Olympics but also on a longer-term basis.

According to Canada’s SportsNet, the session is aimed in part toward establishing a broader rotation between the Olympics and the NHL’s own World Cup of Hockey.

“The ultimate goal is to have an Olympics, two years later World Cup, two years later Olympics, two years later World Cup,” Bettman said at a recent NHL Board of Governors meetings. “That’s the cycle we’re trying to get on.”

Since NHL players first competed in the 1998 Olympics, participation has wavered based on several factors, including the logistics of suspending the league schedule, coming to agreements on key costs such as insurance, harmonizing the Olympic tournament with the World Cup, the pandemic, and geopolitical concerns.

Many of those issues ultimately led to NHL players not competing in the 2018 and ’22 Olympics, and as recently as November, Bettman called the Olympics issue “a logistical nightmare” and “very expensive.” Despite those hurdles, the commissioner also acknowledges the bigger role the Olympics can play in growing hockey globally.

“We’re focused on wanting to do something, [and] hopefully we will,” Bettman said.

In the meantime, the NHL is finalizing plans for a scaled-down 2025 international tournament that it will operate, involving teams representing the U.S., Canada, Sweden, and Finland.