NHLPA executive director Marty Walsh is purportedly making an NHL return to the Olympic Games a high priority.
Speaking with Greg Wyshynski of ESPN, Walsh expressed that there remains a strong desire from the Player’s Union to make their way back to the best-on-best tournament in time for the 2026 Winter Games in Milano-Cortina.
“I’m working with commissioner Gary Bettman, collectively together with the IIHF, and hopefully we’ll be able to come up with an agreement and move forward,” Walsh said in the interview. “A lot of players from around the globe want to play for their home country. They want that best-on-best tournament.”
A return to the Olympic games in 2026 would mark a decade since NHL players last competed in a best-on-best tournament with the 2016 World Cup of Hockey in Toronto. The NHL had initially intended to attend the 2022 games in Beijing but ultimately withdrew due to schedule disruptions to the regular season from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Beyond the 2026 Olympics, interest apparently remains high for a 2025 return of the World Cup of Hockey, though Walsh reiterated that certain specifications would need to be met for the players to buy in.
“We’ve had some conversations with the league about making sure that if we’re going to do a World Cup hockey tournament, it’s best-on-best and we do it for a period of a couple different tournaments,” Walsh said, adding that the players had expressed concerns about the tournament remaining consistent moving forward.
“That still has a ways to go.”