NHL players will compete in the 2026 and 2030 Winter Olympics

NHL players will return to the Winter Olympics for the 2026 and 2030 tournaments, the league announced Friday as part of a joint agreement with the NHL Players Association, the International Ice Hockey Federation and the International Olympic Committee.

Speaking to reporters during NHL All-Star Weekend in Toronto, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman confirmed that players will be cleared to compete for the first time since the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia.

“We know how important international competition is to our players,” Bettman said. “We know how much they love their country and want to represent it, and we think this is a great platform for the best.”

The 2026 Games will be held in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. The IOC will announce the host country for 2030 in July.

NHL’s Olympic return is a long time coming

NHL players participated in five consecutive Winter Olympics from 1998 through 2014, but concerns over marketing, insurance, travel expenses and player injuries prevented the league, the NHLPA, the IIHF and the IOC from reaching an agreement to resume the competition in 2018 in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

For 2026, costs will be covered by the IIHF and the national federations and Olympic committees of each participating country.

Bettman said he strongly believes the NHL will have enough “content access” for player and game highlights, a major point of contention in the past. No previous Olympic highlights, such as Sidney Crosby’s gold medal-winning overtime goal during the 2010 tournament, have been posted on NHL.com.

“There’s a recognition of how important this is to the players and in the spirit of collaboration, especially the work we did during COVID, everyone on our side felt it was the right thing to do,” Bettman said when asked how he got NHL owners to agree to a deal. “This really came down to us doing something because the players really wanted it.”

As part of the NHL and NHLPA ratified collective bargaining agreement in 2020, both parties agreed to greenlight participation in the 2022 and 2026 tournaments, pending an agreement with all parties, including the IIHF and IOC.

However, six weeks before the 2022 Games in Beijing, the NHL and NHLPA changed course. The COVID-19 pandemic was cited as the primary reason for the withdrawal, as the league was forced to cancel 50 regular-season games at the time due to the coronavirus. With NHL players unavailable, USA Hockey and Hockey Canada used rosters made up of players from international leagues, college players and minor leaguers, as they did in 2018.

Field of participants for 2026 men’s tournament almost known

Nine countries have already qualified in the men’s event through their position in the IIHF world rankings after the 2023 World Championships.

Canada, Finland, Russia, the United States, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Italy (host country) are participating. The final three spots will be determined by four qualifying rounds starting on February 8 and ending on September 1.

Olympic Results with NHL Participation

1998: Czech Republic (gold), Russia (silver), Finland (bronze)
2002: Canada, USA, Russia
2006: Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic
2010: Canada, USA, Finland
2014: Canada, Sweden, Finland

NHL adds four-nation international tournament for 2025

As part of his mid-season accolade, Bettman also announced that NHL players from Canada, Finland, Sweden and the United States will participate in next year’s “4 Nations Face-Off” to be held in Montreal and Boston.

The tournament consists of seven games played over nine days from February 12-20, 2025. Rosters will consist of 20 skaters and three goalies selected by each country’s governing body. Eligible players must be under contract for the 2024-25 season and be on an NHL roster by December 2, 2024. National associations will add six players to their rosters next summer.

The games are played under NHL rules, with teams playing three games in a round robin format with a 3-2-1 point system. Overtime games in the first round are three-on-three for 10 minutes and, if tied, are decided by a three-round shootout. The top two teams advance to a one-game final, which has an overtime format similar to the Stanley Cup playoffs: five-on-five sudden-death with 20-minute periods until one team scores.

It marks the first time since the 2016 World Cup of Hockey that NHL players will compete in a best-on-best tournament.

“This marks a new era for international hockey,” NHLPA Executive Director Marty Walsh said. “We see this event as a building block for a larger World Cup.”

These types of NHL/NHLPA-sponsored tournaments have been in the works for years. The league attempted to host a sequel to the 2016 World Cup, but various issues, including the COVID-19 pandemic, concerns about disrupting the regular-season schedule and global political issues (see: Russia), prevented discussions from moving forward.

Russia and Belarus are banned from IIHF-sanctioned tournaments until 2024, and the NHL has severed all business ties with Russia following Ukraine’s invasion of the country. IIHF President Luc Tardif said a decision on the two countries’ eligibility for the 2024 world championships in May would come this month — a decision that could make it clearer where they stand on the issue for the 2026 Olympics.

The NHL and NHLPA aim to develop an international schedule with Olympic participation and a World Cup every two years. There is hope for a World Cup to take place again in 2028.