NHL 'in a better place' with NHLPA, IIHF relationship

MILAN -- The working relationship between the NHL, NHL Players' Association and the International Ice Hockey Federation is evolving in a positive way, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said in a joint press conference with IIHF president Luc Tardif and NHLPA executive director Marty Walsh at Santagiulia Arena on Thursday.

The collaboration among the three entities is a big reason why the NHL is participating in the OIympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 and why planning for future best-on-best competitions is already underway.

"The hockey world from an NHL and NHLPA standpoint is in a better place when the Players' Association and the League are cooperating, and internationally when these three organizations are collaborating the hockey world is in a better place," Commissioner Bettman said. "And it gives us an opportunity to grow the game in places where we're not as strong as say we are in North America. We look forward to continuing to collaborate with Luc in furtherance of growing the game. That's the goal. The more things we can figure out to do together, the better it is for everybody."

The next big venture for the NHL and NHLPA with cooperation from the IIHF is the World Cup of Hockey in 2028 before a return to the Olympics in 2030, showcasing the two-year cycle of best-on-best hockey the League and Players' Association want to establish.

Commissioner Bettman said the League and Players' Association will be making announcements regarding the 2028 World Cup after the Olympics.

"Hockey fans and players want to see best on best," Walsh said. "I think when you think about the Olympics, 4 Nations, World Cup of Hockey and when you think about the World Championships that they have every year, fans want to see the best players in the world. That's what we're seeing here between the three of us on the stage working collectively together to make sure that the fans in the world get to see best-on-best when they're 18 years old and when they're in the NHL."

The NHL is participating in the Olympics for the first time since 2014.

The League made a business decision not to attend the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, and concerns about the pandemic's impact on the NHL and its business led the League to back out of attending the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

The fact that the League is represented here in Milan is a testament to the collaboration it and the NHLPA have with the IIHF with Tardif touting two years of meetings and planning to make it a reality.

"We didn't have the best players in the world since Sochi and it was time to find a solution because all of us in our different organizations, we want to grow the game," Tardif said. "So, it was important to bring all the players to the best competition. … It was two years of discussion but yesterday when we saw the tournament start, everybody smiling, the players also, it means we did our job."

A key to making it happen was increased flexibility on the part of the International Olympic Committee, Commissioner Bettman said.

The NHL and NHLPA have been given more leeway and access at this Olympics than it had at previous Olympics it jointly attended in 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014. It has allowed for more content and promotion to come out of the Olympics both from the NHL and the players themselves, including on their social media channels.

"Players are allowed to create content as participants; we're allowed to retweet it," Commissioner Bettman said. "In some respects, we have better access than we did before. There's been some cooperation in terms of joint logo use. It will continue to evolve over time as the IOC continues to recognize as it relates to the Winter Olympics in terms of sheer mass, there's nothing that compares to the hockey. There has been an evolution over time. … I think over time we will continue to evolve."

In the past, the IOC's agreements with its own rightsholders have prevented the NHL from having access that would have a positive impact on the League's business, including such things as the ability to promote Sidney Crosby's golden goal in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

"I do respect the fact that the IOC has important rightsholders that pay them a lot of money for those rights and some of the exclusivity that goes forward with it," Commissioner Bettman said. "I do believe we have cooperated well particularly in North America with NBC and CBC. But we're always looking to do better. Having access to things like Sidney Crosby's goal in Vancouver is important over time that we're able to promote it. It's good promotion for hockey but it's also good promotion for the Olympics as well as the NHL."

In addition, Commissioner Bettman said the IOC has shown an increasing recognition that the NHL is unique compared to other sports at the Olympics because it has to pause its season in the middle, which he said, "is an imposition."

"I think over time that's something that the IOC has begun to respect more and more and something that Luc and the IIHF have clearly understood," Commissioner Bettman said.

"This entire process, if we're giving you any sense of it, should continue to evolve and depends on the collaboration and partnership that the three organizations before you right now have been able to establish. We think we're laying a foundation that we can grow upon for the good of the game."