2023-08-25 05:00:00
The National Hockey League has begun working closely with the Players Association on the return of the World Cup and possible new player participation. NHL in the Olympic Games. League Vice Commissioner Bill Daly said this during a speech at the NHL European Media Tour in Stockholm.
Both sides are discussing the details of hosting the World Cup in 2025, a year before participation in the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy, according to the league’s official website columnist Dan Rosen. From this we can draw a simple conclusion that in the future, international tournaments held by the NHL will be held halfway between the two Olympics.
“So, if we hold our international tournament in 2025, then we will hold the Olympic Games in 2026, Ice Hockey World Cup 2028, 2030 Olympic Games, 2032 Ice Hockey World Cup and so on. This is our goal,” Daly said, adding that he does not yet know what exact form and formula all this will take.
“The goal is to make the World Cup a great international competition. Obviously, in terms of the composition of the players, it will be heavily NHL-oriented, and maybe completely NHL-oriented. We’ll see what form it takes, but we’re working on it with the Players’ Association,” the vice commissioner said, and there was no opening in that. The World Cup was previously focused exclusively on the NHL and was held without regard to the rules and regulations of the IIHF, being a commercial tournament under the auspices of the NHL.
The last time the league held Ice Hockey World Cup in 2016. Then, in addition to the national teams of Russia, Canada, the USA, Sweden, Finland and the Czech Republic, “patchwork” teams participated in the tournament – young stars of North America and the European team, which reached the final. The winners were the Canadians, who beat the Russians in the semi-finals, and in the final series they dealt with the European team under the leadership of Ralph Kruger without any problems.
One of the obstacles to hosting an international level tournament in 2025 may be the status of the Russian and Belarusian teams, which have been suspended from international competitions. Currently, the IIHF has banned hockey players from these countries from participating in competitions under its auspices, but the NHL is not formally an organization subordinate to the IIHF. Therefore, everything here is in the hands of Gary Bettman and Bill Daly, who, of course, will be subjected to huge public pressure in the “no pasaran” style, and Dominik Hasek, without a doubt, will become the main mouthpiece against the Russians.
The same Daly openly admitted that the NHL will observe how the IOC will solve the problem of the possible admission of Russians and Belarusians to the 2024 Olympics.
“This will be important information. It is important to understand how this will be done. The IOC has made public statements that I think indicate that they will try very hard to include Russian athletes – at least on some acceptable basis. In the past, they were included without a flag, called Olympic athletes from Russia – but, nevertheless, they played. It seems to me that this will be the model they will follow. But who knows how things will turn out. The International Ice Hockey Federation has the opportunity to potentially not approve the IOC decision, because it is the IIHF that hosts the Olympic hockey tournament. But I think the IIHF is more likely to follow the opinion of the IOC,” Daly said.
His words make sense between the lines. Ideally, both the NHL and the IIHF and even the International Olympic Committee would like the return of Russia, and the return of a full-fledged one, with a flag and an anthem. Half-hearted decisions in the style of “Olympic athletes from Russia” without a flag and an anthem will inevitably lead to the fact that such a decision will be mercilessly criticized from both sides: Russia will be unhappy that they were not allowed to play again, and Russophobes – that the Russians were allowed to play even like this .
In addition, the NHL is also moving closer to allowing players to return to the Olympics. The league did not allow its players to participate in the last two Olympic Games in Beijing (2022) and Pyeongchang (2018).
A return to the winter games might give Alexander Ovechkin last chance to win Olympic gold, and in a tournament of the best of the best. Ovi’s contract with Washington is valid until 2026, and after it ends, Alexander, of course, will be free to leave to play in Russia – if the NHL does not allow its hockey players to the Olympics, then this desire will be stronger. But surprisingly, it is not yet clear which team the Great Eight can play for at the Olympics.
The IOC has already announced that Russia and Belarus will be banned from participating in the 2024 Summer Olympics, which will be held in Paris. But the door for the participation of Russian athletes can be opened under a neutral status.
To what extent will this suit Alexander Ovechkin? And how strong will this team be, what will it be able to claim? So far, too many questions remain here, but all of them are completely solvable with common sense and goodwill.
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