NHL International tournament to come in 2025 will not include Russian players and Bruins’ Milan Lucic pleads not guilty to domestic abuse allegations

The NHL and NHL Players Association are nearing an agreement to put the league back into international play for the foreseeable future, starting with a proposed four-nation tournament.

“We’re hopeful to have an international tournament in February 2025,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said in Sweden last week.

“We’re working with the players’ association on the construct of that. Then, after that, we would like to be in a regular rotation between the Olympics and the World Cup every other year. That obviously involves us having an agreement to go to Milan [in 2026], and that is still a work in progress.”

The tournament will not be named the World Cup of Hockey but will follow a four-team format involving only NHL players and is believed to involve Canada, Finland, the United States, and Sweden. The goal for the NHL and NHLPA is to have games in Europe as a part of the agreement, but nothing has been decided thus far. 

However, the tournament will not feature a team representing Russia due to the unprovoked attack and war on Ukraine. Other hockey unions, such as Finland and Sweden, reportedly would not agree to participate if Russian-born players were involved in the tournament.

“There’s a bigger issue at play here,” NHLPA executive director Marty Walsh told Daily Faceoff‘s Frank Seravalli. “You have other federations that won’t allow other players to play in the tournament. You have to take all of that into account.”

For Walsh and the rest of the NHLPA, their job is becoming increasingly more difficult as their role is to defend and protect their members regardless of nationality or heritage. 

“I represent everybody,” Walsh said. “I’m going to support my guys. It’s a really complicated situation. It’s complicated but yet very unfortunate. It’s an awful situation, you think about trying to separate sport from what’s happening in the world and it’s really complicated right now.”

Despite the tough challenge ahead, the NHL and NHLPA are still working with the International Olympic Committee and the IIHF on an agreement for NHL players to once again join one of the most exciting events, the Olympics. They hope to reach a consensus for the 2026 Winter Games in Milan, Italy, and then plan to announce a schedule that alternates the World Cup of Hockey and the Olympics every two years.

The planning for the Olympics also involved a discussion of Russian players’ participation. Walsh told Servalli, “I’m of the mindset that I hope that the world is in a different place in 2026. But we don’t know what is going to happen. There’s a good chance the world won’t be in a different place.”

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