MILAN \u2014 Russian and Belarusian players under the age of 18 could be re-entering the international hockey scene as soon as 2027-28 under new IOC recommendations, but the NHL has no current plans to bring Russia back into the fold in time for its 2028 World Cup.<\/p>\n
Russia and Belarus have been largely banished from international competition since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. The league did not include Russia in its 4 Nations Face-Off last year, and the Russians were left out of the 2026 Olympics and recent World Championships.<\/p>\n
Interestingly, neither NHL commissioner Gary Bettman nor IIHF president Luc Tardif, speaking at news conference in Milan on Thursday, specified that Russia\u2019s reintegration into the hockey community was dependent on the war ending. Instead, they both deferred to the International Olympic Committee, both clearly eager to avoid taking any sort of political stand.<\/p>\n
Ukrainian luger Vladyslav Heraskevych was disqualified from the Olympics on Thursday because his helmet included images of his countrymen who were killed in the war. The NHL very much wants to dodge such issues, and making its own determination on Russian participation in league events such as a World Cup would be tantamount to picking a side.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will follow what the international community is doing in terms of athletics,\u201d Bettman said. \u201cI don\u2019t see any need for us to weigh in separately. And frankly, in terms of our game and our players, wherever they\u2019re from, if we can steer clear of geopolitical issues \u2014 not just this one but a whole host of others that are going on \u2014 I think that\u2019s better for the game, better for our players and better for our fans.\u201d<\/p>\n
The NHL returned to the Olympics in Milan after skipping the last two events in South Korea and China. The phrase \u201cbest on best\u201d has become synonymous with the event now that NHL players are involved, but Russia remains the elephant that\u2019s not in the room. No Alex Ovechkin, no Nikita Kucherov, no Kirill Kaprizov, no Evgeni Malkin, no Igor Shesterkin, no Ilya Sorokin, no Andrei Vasilevskiy.<\/p>\n
Tardif also said that his organization heeds the International Olympic Committee\u2019s guidance. And while the IOC suggested last month that under-18 players from the two nations could return to competition for 2027-28, the senior teams are still banned. Tardif, again wary of taking any sort of political stand, said that the security of the event \u2014 including the security of the Russian and Belarusian players \u2014 is the primary concern, not the moral underpinnings of the decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe try to keep away the politics from our competition, but sometimes that\u2019s not so easy,\u201d Tardif said. \u201cWe want as soon as possible the Belarus and the Russians back. Because first, it will mean that the world will be a little bit better. But every time when we have to say to Belarus and Russia that it\u2019s a little bit too soon to come back, we (make) the decision. But we follow the recommendation of IOC. And for the team sports, at the moment they\u2019re not allowed to participate at the Olympics.\u201d<\/p>\n
NHLPA director Marty Walsh \u2014 who represents all NHL players, including the Russians \u2014 also spoke at Thursday\u2019s news conference but didn\u2019t weigh in on the topic.
\u201cI don\u2019t really have much to add to that,\u201d he said after Tardif spoke. \u201cThis is a decision based above my level of pay, and it\u2019s something that we\u2019ll see as you move forward here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here are Bettman\u2019s thoughts on a few other topics:<\/p>\n
\u2022 The Olympics award three points for a regulation win, two points for an overtime or shootout win, one point for an overtime or shootout loss, and zero points for a regulation loss. Bettman has no appetite to bring such a system to the NHL, and Walsh said he\u2019s never had a player approach him about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere isn\u2019t much discussion,\u201d Bettman said. \u201cWe like what we have and we like the way it plays out over our 82-game season and our playoffs, the way we do it. And I think it\u2019s a little unfair, for lack of a better word, to compare a two-week tournament to a 10-month season. And so we like the way our games play out and the way our schedule plays out. We\u2019re aware that there are alternatives. But we\u2019re not in search of a problem to fix.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 The IOC, in collaboration with its partners such as NBC in the United States and CBC in Canada, severely restrict the league\u2019s ability to use footage of Olympic hockey games. Bettman said it\u2019s slowly getting better, but there\u2019s a long way to go.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is more flexibility than we\u2019ve had in the past,\u201d he said. \u201cPlayers are allowed to create content as participants, we\u2019re allowed to retweet it. In some respects, we have better access than we did before. It will continue to evolve.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bettman said the IOC is starting to realize hockey\u2019s significance to the Winter Games, and has gradually become more cooperative.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving access to things like Sidney Crosby\u2019s goal in Vancouver (in 2010) is important,\u201d Bettman said.<\/p>\n
\u2022 There\u2019s been some histrionics over Canada coach Jon Cooper\u2019s decision to close a practice to the press earlier in the week. Bettman said that won\u2019t be a practice that makes its way to the NHL.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not looking to change our rules,\u201d he said. \u201cWe like what we have and when we\u2019re in control, we do what we think is best.\u201d<\/p>\n
Walsh said the players have not expressed concern over the increased workload created by having an international tournament every two years, but the NHLPA is monitoring it to \u201cmake sure we\u2019re protecting our players.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILAN \u2014 Russian and Belarusian players under the age of 18 could be re-entering the international hockey scene…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,54125,4,2602],"class_list":{"0":"post-455763","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-mens-olympic-ice-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-olympics"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116058603070757744","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}