NHL, NHLPA roll out long-term international calendar with 2028 World Cup of Hockey

Feb 13, 2025

Credit: Feb 12, 2025; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; [Imagn Images direct customers only] NHLPA executive director Marty Walsh addresses the press sitting beside NHL commissioner Gary Bettman before a 4 Nations Face-Off ice hockey game at Bell Centre. Mandatory Credit: David Kirouac-Imagn Images

MONTRÉAL — As the 4 Nations Face-Off kicked off at Bell Centre, the NHL and NHL Players’ Association made official another long-rumored international affair on the hockey calendar: the return of the World Cup of Hockey in 2028.

The NHL and NHLPA recently signed off on an agreement that will bring back the World Cup competition biennially midway through each Olympic cycle, hopefully ending a run of bastardized and incongruous World Cups in 2004 and 2016. The calendar will begin with the 2026 Olympics in Milan, then the 2028 World Cup, continuing with the 2030 Olympics in France, followed by World Cup again in 2032, and so on.

“Olympics, World Cups, Olympics, World Cups, on a regular schedule of the best hockey players in the world representing their countries,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said. “We couldn’t be more excited about making it a reality.”

It’s a reality that was sorely needed for both the game and NHL players, who up until this week have not had a chance to represent their countries in best-on-best play since the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia. Suddenly, a two-week break that NHL owners once said was a material disruption to the regular season, will now be a staple every other February.

“The most important thing is our regular season, our playoffs and the Stanley Cup Final,” Bettman reminded. “We don’t want to do anything that will jeopardize the competitive integrity that it all represents.”

So why did the NHL feel now was the appropriate time to move off that philosophy that it disrupts their season and create a true international calendar well into the future?

“We now have a partner, since Marty [Walsh] has been at the Players’ Association, that has put us in a position collectively to execute these types of events and make these decision for the long-term,” Bettman said. “That hasn’t always been the case.”

Here are a few details about the NHL’s return to international play:

Where will the 2028 World Cup of Hockey be played?

Bettman said the NHL/NHLPA were slated to send out packages soliciting bids from host cities in the next few weeks. Cities in Europe will be permitted to bid for the World Cup and preliminary round games are expected to be played in Europe.

Keep an eye on Stockholm, Helsinki and Prague – the usual suspects where the NHL hosts games and events in hockey-mad countries. But also don’t rule out buildings in London and Berlin that are owned or managed by NHL ownership groups.

As for North America, the hockey meccas of Toronto and Montréal stand out. However, there has been buzz recently about a New York / New Jersey bid, support in Minnesota and Chicago, as well as a potential Edmonton / Calgary play, with the Flames’ new Scotia Place slated to open in Oct. 2027.

How many countries will play in the 2028 World Cup of Hockey?

“At least eight countries” will be participating, doubling the 4 Nations format, which Bettman referred to as “merely a sample” of the World Cup. The other four participating federations have not yet been decided and it is possible that there will be a qualifying tournament to allow teams to play their way in.

It will be a tournament sanctioned by the NHL/NHLPA, so not an International Ice Hockey Federation event and is designed to be played with NHL players only.

“This is our tournament with our players,” Bettman said.

However, some federations will not be able to fill out a roster exclusively with NHL players. That was a challenge even for Finland at 4 Nations; once Miro Heiskanen and Rasmus Ristolainen went down with injury, that left Winnipeg Jets blue liner Ville Heinola as the only Finnish-born NHL defender left who isn’t participating in this week’s tournament.

Unlike in 2016 when Team North America and Team Europe participated, the NHL does not plan to have “melded” entries of teams comprised of players from multiple countries.

“Our anticipation is we’ll be using country-by-country teams,” Bettman said. “And again, we have a myriad of decisions that we have to make, which is one of the reasons that in the timeframe we had to put this [4 Nations] tournament together, this was the best format that was in a position for us to execute it in a first-class way with the timeframe that we had.”

Will Russia be permitted to play in the 2028 World Cup of Hockey?

The answer to that is TBD. For one, the tournament is still three calendar years away, and the geopolitical landscape may well be different by then.

The IIHF recently ruled that Russia and Belarus will be barred from skating in the 2025 World Championship again, citing security concerns. It is possible that the IOC follows the IIHF and prevents Russian participation in the 2026 Olympics in Milan as a result of their country’s unprovoked war on Ukraine.

Here’s the thing: It’s possible that the NHL and NHLPA unilaterally decide to include Russia. It’s their tournament – they don’t need IIHF or IOC blessing.

However, that might create a dealbreaker scenario for Finland and Sweden, who sources said would not participate in this current 4 Nations Face-Off if Russia was an entrant. That’s one reason why this tournament was limited to four countries.

But it also creates an uneasy discussion for the NHL and NHLPA, who must turn down players – their own constituents – from playing even though some Russian-born players have been publicly critical of Vladimir Putin’s war.

“I’ve been very clear in this,” NHLPA executive director Marty Walsh said. “The Russian players want to get back into best-on-best competition. They want to represent their country. They want to play in this tournament. They want to be part of the 4 Nations. They want to be part of the Olympics. They certainly would want to play in the World Cup tournament. I’d love to see our Russian players play in this tournament, they’re incredible hockey players.

“The issues are political. It’s not political as far as the NHLPA, it’s the world politics that we have to get through. I’m hoping that as we get closer to the Olympics, as we get closer to the World Cup, we will start seeing the Russian athletes back in competition.”

Bettman followed up: “As Marty said, it’s not our decision in the first instance. We’re going to have to see what the [IOC] does. But we have enough time to deal with the realities of what the world situation looks like before then.”

Are NHL players definitely playing in the 2026 Olympics in Milan?

Yes. But the formal agreement between all four parties – the NHL, NHLPA, IIHF and IOC – has been drafted but not signed yet.

“Our players will be there playing,” Walsh said. “We’re working on an agreement.”

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said: “There’s nothing, no real big obstacle. It’s just a matter of putting pen to paper and finalizing and dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s in the agreement.”

Bettman added: “I can’t imagine why the IIHF wouldn’t want the best players in the world playing in the Olympics or any other international tournament.”

Do NHL players get paid to play in the 4 Nations Face-Off?

NHLPA assistant executive director Ron Hainsey confirmed that players in this tournament will receive an “appearance fee” and there is a prize pool for the winning team to divide up.

“I think the numbers are very reasonable and it really tells you how much the players want to participate in this tournament,” Daly said. “This is for love of country much more than it is for money. Because what they get in terms of an appearance fee and a prize fee, pales in comparison to what a normal NHL player gets. And they’re giving up vacation time to do this. It tells you how much they love the competition.”

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