The NHL is planning an international event at UBS Arena next February in lieu of the previously announced All-Star Weekend at the home of the New York Islanders, a person with knowledge of the situation said Monday.
The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the league has not announced its plans for the weekend before the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics.
Commissioner Gary Bettman has said on multiple occasions recently that the league has been rethinking what to do about the event after the success of the 4 Nations Face-Off international tournament earlier this year. The thought was always to use New York as a jumping off point for Milan, with players leaving from there to participate in the Olympics for the first time since 2014.
“We know we’ve set the bar high, which should be a good thing, not a problem,” Bettman said last week at a meeting of Associated Press Sports Editors in New York. “We’re going to make sure we do something. … We’ll have an event at UBS before we go to the Olympics. But then we’ll do something that’s more focused on a major hockey event for the following year.”
At his news conference wrapping up the general managers’ annual spring meeting last month, Bettman said: “We’re reevaluating how we want to do things because I think we’ve raised the bar about as high as you can for an all-star game in any sport. And so we want to make sure whatever we do is up to the standards that we’ve created.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Monday she wrote a letter to Bettman expressing her disappointment about the decision to hold a Winter Olympics kickoff event in place of All-Star Weekend, adding it was made without consulting with the state and requesting the league “bring a hockey event with equal or greater economic activity and cultural value to the region in 2027.”
That could quite easily be an All-Star Weekend or something of the sort at UBS Arena, since nothing else has been confirmed as of now. The 4 Nations tournament featuring teams representing the U.S., Canada, Sweden and Finland drawing sellout crowds and stellar ratings has the NHL considering different options for midseason festivities and even made the NBA contemplate doing something involving international play.
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AP Assistant Sports Editor Jake Seiner in New York contributed to this report.
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