![Feb 12, 2025; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; [Imagn Images direct customers only] Team Sweden goalie Linus Ullmark (35) warms-up before a game against Team Canada during a 4 Nations Face-Off ice hockey game at Bell Centre.](https://frontofficesports.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/USATSI_25401158_168416385_lowres.jpg?quality=100)
The NHL’s first international best-on-best tournament since 2016 began Wednesday in Montréal with 4 Nations Face-Off. But league commissioner Gary Bettman and NHLPA executive director Marty Walsh upstaged the first game between Canada and Sweden with another big announcement prior to puck drop: the return of the World Cup of Hockey in 2028.
The NHL and NHLPA’s joint announcement, which was expected to arrive at some point during 4 Nations Face-Off, marks the return of not only the World Cup event, but also the reintroduction of a consistent international competition calendar.
The cadence for international hockey play will likely be every two years beginning next year, when NHL players will be permitted to participate in the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics—the first time since 2014’s Sochi games, which saw Canada win gold. Following the 2028 World Cup of Hockey, the NHL will return players to the 2030 French Alps Olympics, followed by a 2032 World Cup, and so on for a biannual rotation.
Prior to 4 Nations Face-Off, the NHL has not participated in or arranged an international best-on-best tournament since the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. The 2028 event—only the fourth of its kind—will happen in February. Bettman confirmed there will be “at least” eight teams, and the NHL and NHLPA will begin fielding host bids in both Europe and North America in the coming months.
Some of the NHL’s biggest stars, including Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid, who both play for Canada in 4 Nations Face-Off, have lobbied alongside other members of the NHLPA for more—and more consistent—international competition.
Rob Zepp, the NHLPA’s senior director of international strategy and growth, tells Front Office Sports that 4 Nations Face-Off came together in just about 12 months in a scramble for some form of international best-on-best competition during the NHL’s 2025 all-star break. The seven-game, round-robin tournament replacing the All-Star Game has always been intended as an “appetizer” for upcoming international competition, including the Olympics.
Combined with the Olympics, the return of the World Cup of Hockey is the entrée.
