Even before Marty Walsh took the job as head of the NHL Players\u2019 Association, he started to hear the same refrain.<\/p>\n
In interviews for the job, he\u2019d ask players about their priorities. Get us back into best-on-best competition and back into the Olympics, he was told.<\/p>\n
After skipping the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang, the NHL had come close to a return in 2022. Contracts were signed, the league\u2019s calendar included a long break in February for players to go to Beijing. The pandemic, and subsequent restrictions on athletes who traveled to China for the Olympics, caused the league to pull out in December 2021.<\/p>\n
By the time Walsh was named head of the NHLPA in March 2023, there was no pandemic to worry about. So the conversation quickly got serious about 2026.<\/p>\n
After more than a decade without NHL players going to the Olympics, and with an entire generation of the league\u2019s best players never given the opportunity to play in any kind of best-on-best competition, there was broad agreement that something had to give.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was never really a negotiation with the NHL,\u201d Walsh told The Post. \u201cIt was basically right out the gate, mutually agreed upon that we want to get NHL players back into the Olympics, from Day 1, pretty much.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is, of course, one thing to be on the same page about wanting to go to the Olympics, and another thing entirely to make it happen.<\/p>\n
On the NHL side, the Olympics come with a particular stumbling block. If they allow their players to go, it is, essentially, the highest-profile hockey event in the world, and the league itself has no control over it and cannot profit off it, at least not directly.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to disappear for two weeks at the height of our season,\u201d commissioner Gary Bettman told The Post. \u201cWhich means content for the website, for dot-com, for the radio station, for social media, from us, disappears to a large extent, because we don\u2019t get [intellectual property] rights from the IOC.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to have a compressed schedule. We have to take into account that NHL teams send various amounts of players to the Olympics. Teams like Tampa and the Panthers send 10 players each and we\u2019ve got some teams sending one or two players. Teams are gonna come back in a different place in terms of how they are than when we left. The fact of the matter is, some teams are gonna have a good chunk of their roster a little more tired and banged up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Team USA winger Kyle O\u2019Connor says the NHL players are \u201cjust chomping at the bit\u201d to play in the Olympics again. Getty Images<\/p>\n
Those concerns were shelved during negotiations with the IOC and IIHF for a few reasons.<\/p>\n
First, the agreement to go to the Olympics also came with the agreement to hold the 4 Nations Face-Off and, starting in 2028, the World Cup of Hockey. That is a win-win: Players are more than happy to get more opportunities to play best-on-best, and judging by the rousing success of the 4 Nations last season, the World Cup \u2014 over which the league and players association have joint control \u2014 will be a ratings bonanza and cash cow.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think having this consistent schedule moving forward is gonna change the dynamics as far as the fan experience,\u201d Walsh said. \u201cI\u2019m from Boston, I hear it all the time: Is there gonna be another 4 Nations? I try to explain to people, we have a World Cup of Hockey. \u2026 I think it\u2019s important for us that people want to see this tournament, make it exciting. That [growth] will be measured at some point; I don\u2019t think you can measure it yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Second, going back to the Olympics was a major priority for the players. It helped, too, that Walsh, unlike certain predecessors, established a strong relationship with Bettman early and the league also recognized that, though the Olympics stood to benefit most from their presence, being there would help grow the game.<\/p>\n
Third, negotiations with the IOC and IIHF went well. Costs such as transportation and insurance \u2014 the latter of which has turned into an ongoing issue at the World Baseball Classic \u2014 needed to be shouldered by those parties. Medical standards identical to the NHL\u2019s were also incorporated.<\/p>\n
Sidney Crosby, celebrating during Canada\u2019s win over the U.S. in the gold medal game in 2010, is making his Olympics return. AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cCertainly, we weren\u2019t going to pay for the privilege of shutting down,\u201d Bettman said.<\/p>\n
The IOC agreed to write the check, so that hurdle was cleared.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat was not on the list [of issues],\u201d Walsh said, \u201cwas the ice. Know what I mean?\u201d<\/p>\n
The last hurdle<\/p>\n
The first thing that needs to be said about the Santagiulia Arena in Milan is that it is expected to be complete, or, better put, complete enough to stage a competition.<\/p>\n
That such a thing was recently in question, though, is a problem unto itself. And if not for the determination of the players, who have taken an attitude that they will play in the Olympics come hell or high water, it\u2019s certainly possible that the state of the arena would be threatening the tournament at large.<\/p>\n