NHL and NHLPA drop the major announcement that every hockey fan has been waiting for

The NHL made a couple of major announcements earlier today that should bring back a lot of excitement towards the sport. For starters, the NHL and NHLPA are following in the footsteps of the NBA with an in-season tournament that will feature four nations in Canada, Finland, Sweden, and the United States. It is set to commence in February of 2025 and it will only be limited to NHL players.

The tournament will be held in Montreal and Boston, each team will play 3 games in a Round Robin format, and there will be 7 games in total spread out between the 12th and the 20th of February. This tournament will replace the All-Star Game next year and is similar to the World Cup of Hockey that took place back in 2016.

On top of that, the NHL also announced that they will be participating in the 2026 Olympic Games in Milan, as well as the 2030 Olympic Games. It will be the first time since 2014 that the NHL will be a part of the Olympics after taking a hiatus in 2018 and 2022.

This is fantastic news because hockey fans have been robbed for close to a decade of seeing the best players facing off against each other, representing their home nations. We may finally get to see Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, and Sidney Crosby on the same team as well as the newly vaunted American squad, led by Auston Matthews, Jack Hughes, Jack Eichel and others that might finally be able take down the Canadians.


Gary Bettman and IIHF President Luc Tardif both admitted that it took two years for the Olympic deal to come together but they finally "made it." Bettman added that the "responsibility to pay for insurance, travel and other associated costs for NHL player participation in Olympics falls on the IIHF." which was a sticking point in previous years.

The All-Star Game will have to take a backseat for at least 2025 and most likely 2026 but I think the hockey world is more than okay with the trade-off.