International Ice Hockey Federation President Luc Tardif is optimistic that the NHL’s participation in the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics will be announced by the end of February.
The league did not send athletes to the past two Winter Olympics.
“You can see I’m smiling,” Tardif said at a press conference Friday. According to the press release. “For the first time, we’re meeting with all the stakeholders: NHL, NHLPA, IIHF, IOC, etc. And I think all the planets are aligned. By mid-January, IOC President Thomas Bach We’re going to have a meeting with the president. I think we’ll have an announcement by the end of February. And we’re looking forward to the next Olympics, so we’ll try to get commitments for the next two Olympics. Participation We have a common goal to do that.”
NHL players were scheduled to participate in the 2022 Beijing Winter Games until the reversal six weeks before the opening ceremony. The NHL and NHLPA cited the regular season as disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, which led to the cancellation of the previous 50 games.
The NHL, NHLPA, IIHF and IOC were unable to reach an agreement regarding the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics.
In both 2018 and 2022, the U.S. roster was comprised of collegiate players, minor leaguers, and international league players.
In 2020, the NHL and NHLPA announced a new collective bargaining agreement at the players’ request that includes Olympic participation in 2022 and 2026, but an agreement between the NHL, IOC, and IIHF still needs to be reached. be.
The NHL has long had concerns about its participation in the Olympics, including the risk of injury to players and the league’s inability to use the Games for marketing due to sponsorship rules and travel costs.
Also on Friday, Tardiv said Russia and Belarus’ chances of returning to international hockey competition depended entirely on the safety of players and organizers to run a safe tournament.
Russia and Belarus have been banned from participating in IIHF tournaments, including the World Championship, since shortly after the invasion of Ukraine.
As of late October, the IIHF had maintained the Russian men’s hockey team’s eligibility for the 2026 Winter Olympics in case the ban was lifted.
Following last year’s World Championships, the top nine teams out of the 12 participating in the Olympics were determined by rankings. Russia is currently ranked 3rd in the rankings, even though they have not participated in any international tournaments. The final three teams will be determined by a series of qualifying tournaments between lower-tier countries that began in November.