The pinnacle of the Worldwide Ice Hockey Federation stated Thursday that he would really like a decision on NHL participation in the 2026 Olympics by the spring of 2024.
IIHF President Luc Tardif informed reporters on the world junior championship in Halifax, Nova Scotia, that may give the events concerned two years to organize for the Video games in Milan and Cortina, Italy. NHL Deputy Commissioner Invoice Daly informed The Related Press by electronic mail it’s “seemingly an inexpensive timeline” to make that decision.
“I’m optimistic, however everyone has to do an effort to be there,” Tardif informed the Canadian Press and others on the occasion. “You have to have the identical guidelines as the opposite athletes. We aren’t a journey company. We set up a contest.”
The league and its gamers’ affiliation have agreed to take part in 2026 after skipping the previous two Olympics, if they’ll attain a cope with the IIHF and the Worldwide Olympic Committee. The NHL didn’t take part in Pyeongchang in 2018 after the IOC wouldn’t pay travel- and insurance-related prices because it did on 5 earlier events from 1998-2014.
“If we mentioned immediately with the gamers — the gamers need to go — we’d discover a manner,” Tardif stated. “Nevertheless it’s extra difficult than that.”
NHL gamers have been set to go in 2022 earlier than pandemic-related schedule interruptions caused them to pull out. They haven’t competed within the Olympics since 2014 in Sochi.
The NHL and NHLPA had planned to host a World Cup of Hockey in February 2024, however that was derailed by Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine, and so they introduced in November that one other try could be made to carry the occasion in 2025.
Tardif stated the IIHF isn’t a fan of the World Cup going down in February due to the potential impacts on European leagues and the way shut it will be to the group’s males’s world championships held in Could — which is through the NHL playoffs.
“That’s an enormous downside for us,” Tardif stated. “We want August, September, October.”
The final World Cup of Hockey was held in September 2016 in Toronto. The NHL from house owners down wish to keep away from that timing and like February, when gamers are already in recreation form and the sports activities schedule in North America is obvious, with the NFL season over.
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The Canadian Press contributed to this report.
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Comply with AP Hockey Author Stephen Whyno on Twitter at https://twitter.com/SWhyno
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