MONTREAL — The 4 Nations Face-Off is just the beginning of the National Hockey League’s return to the world stage.
As the first international tournament involving NHL players got underway on Wednesday night with Team Canada taking on Sweden at the Bell Centre, league commissioner Gary Bettman and Marty Walsh, executive director of the NHL Players’ Association, noted this is only the start.
The NHL has already confirmed it will halt play next February so players can participate in the Winter Olympic Games in Milan/Cortina, Italy, but Bettman and Walsh confirmed they expect the World Cup of Hockey to return in 2028 with eight nations represented.
The league has also committed to participate in the 2030 Olympics in France and then, ideally, a World Cup would return in 2032.
The plan is to have some of those games played in Europe.
“We couldn’t be more excited about making it a reality on a regular schedule with the best players in the world representing their countries,” Bettman said. “We know the full-blown World Cup — and this is just going to be a sampler — is going to be sensational.”
The players want to have events like this.
“You’ve seen here how thrilled the guys are to be here,” said Ron Hainsey, a former NHL player and assistant executive director of the union. “Their families are excited to play. With international play, you look at soccer and they have so much international play, and they get so much attention.
“We’re not soccer as far as a global game, but we’re not that far behind. That’s the long-term goal is so that everyone can look forward to these guys playing for their countries on a regular basis. Honestly, it’s about creating moments like (Sidney Crosby) did in 2010 with the Golden Goal in Canada. That lasts a lifetime.”
With only four teams from the United States, Finland, Canada and Sweden participating, the expansion of the event will raise questions about whether the Russians will be allowed to return to the international stage.
“The Russian players we’ve talked to want to get back into best-on-best competition,” Walsh said. “They want to represent their country, they want to play in this tournament, they want to be part of 4 Nations, play in the Olympics, and would want to play in World Cup.
“I’d love to see our Russian players playing in these tournaments again. They’re incredible hockey players. The issues are political. Not political as far as the NHLPA, it’s world politics we have to get through.”
The International Ice Hockey Federation has banned them from all events since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. However, they participated in the last World Cup along with representatives from Team Europe, which consisted of countries that didn’t have enough players to build their teams.
That won’t happen this time, which is why Russia will be an option.
“Russia has a great hockey tradition, we have great Russian players playing in our league,” Bettman added. “As Marty said, it’s not our decision in the first instance. The (IIHF) just voted to keep Russia out of many competitions, as have many other sports, and we’re going to have to see what the International Olympic Committee does, but we have enough time to deal with the realities of what the world situation will look like then.”
Bettman and Walsh also need to hammer out a new collective bargaining agreement. The current agreement is set to expire on Sept. 15, 2026, and both sides would like to avoid another work stoppage.
Walsh has been meeting with the players to find out issues they want dealt with in the next agreement and Bettman has taken similar steps with the NHL’s board of governors.
The 50/50 split of Hockey Related Revenues has worked on both sides, but the league and the players both want to continue to grow the business.
The league’s lucrative 12-year broadcast deal in Canada with Rogers will expire at the end of the 2025-26 campaign. Talks between the network and league officials began in early January after the league exercised its right to open a 90-day window to negotiate exclusively with the network.
The NHL and the union have already released the cap numbers for the next three years.
“We haven’t formally started yet,” Bettman said of CBA talks. “It was good for the players and good for the teams to get some sense of predictability. The numbers are subject to adjustment based on what may be happening in the world’s economic climate, but it’s another indication of how well we’re working together and communicating.
“I know we told you we would start negotiations in February or thereabouts. We’ll get started when Marty tells me we’ll get started.”
Walsh said both sides would like to complete a deal by the summer, and he just finished meeting with the players.
“We’re just working with our player bargaining units so it won’t be too much longer,” Walsh said.