NHL, NHLPA working to create international competition for February 2025

STOCKHOLM --The NHL is working with the NHL Players' Association to create an international competition to be held in February 2025 with the intention of beginning a regular rotation of Olympic participation and a World Cup of Hockey in the even years to follow, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said at the European Player Media Tour on Wednesday.

The NHL last held a World Cup of Hockey in 2016. It did not participate in the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics or 2022 Beijing Olympics after going in 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014. The 2026 Winter Olympics are scheduled to be held in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy.

"So if we do a '25 international tournament, we do the '26 Olympics, the '28 World Cup of Hockey, the '30 Olympics, the '32 World Cup of Hockey, and so on," Daly said. "That's the goal."

Daly said the 2025 tournament does not have to follow the same format of a World Cup of Hockey, which the League and the NHLPA held in 1996, 2004 and 2016. He said there have been no shortage of ideas being discussed.

"I don't know exactly what form it will take," Daly said. "The goal is to make it an international competition of some sort. It's going to obviously be heavily NHL-centric in terms of the player base, maybe entirely NHL. We'll see what form it takes, but that's something we're working on with the Players' Association."

A significant hurdle in the way of planning for a World Cup in 2025 is the uncertainty regarding the participation of Russian players because of the ongoing war in Ukraine.

The International Ice Hockey Federation has banned Russia and Belarus from its events since the war began last year.

The International Olympic Committee has already said it will not invite Russia or Belarus to the 2024 Paris Olympics, but athletes with Russian and Belarussian passports may still be allowed to participate without the backing of their countries and not under their country's flags.

"We have had a fairly recent meeting with the IIHF and the IOC which we talked about Olympic participation in 2026 and as part of that what the World Cup would look like on a regular basis," Daly said. "We continue to be challenged by the short-term political realities, what's going on in Russia and Ukraine and what kind of role can Russia play both in an international tournament that we may sponsor or in the Olympic games. That continues to be an unknown that we're all trying to navigate around and through and that certainly affects the World Cup property."

Daly said the NHL and NHLPA will continue to monitor the pending decision on the potential participation of athletes from Russia and Belarus in the 2024 Games.

"It would be an important piece of information as to how that worked out and whether it was executed and what the hockey bodies would decide to do with that," Daly said. "The IOC has made public statements that indicate to me that they're going to try very hard to include Russian athletes on some basis. Whether it's on the basis they've included them in the past where they're not really playing for a flag but they are playing and participating, I think that is probably a model they will pursue. Who knows how it plays out.

"The IIHF is different and they do have the ability to potentially not embrace that because they do operate that tournament [Olympics], but I think it's probably more likely than not that the IIHF would follow the lead of whatever the IOC found acceptable."

Daly said he can't yet project a deadline for when the NHL and NHLPA would have to make a decision about an international competition in February 2025, as well as future participation in the Olympics and the creation of a recurring World Cup of Hockey.

"Obviously, the more lead time the better," he said. "What we've said across the table, the various parties, the IIHF, the IOC, the NHLPA and the NHL is, let's strive to do it as quickly as we can, understanding we're not in control of every issue we need to be in control of."