IIHF wants decision from the NHL regarding Milano Cortina 2026 by the end of the year

After a 12-year hiatus, the door is open for National Hockey League (NHL) players to return and compete in the Winter Olympics. The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) would like to know if they are willing to return.

During the World Junior Championships in Halifax, Canada, IIHF President Luc Tardiff said he would like a decision by the NHL and the NHL Players’ Association about Milano Cortina 2026 within the next 12 months.

Speaking to The Canadian Press Tardiff said, “I’m optimistic, but everybody has to do an effort to be there.”

“If we discussed directly with the players, we would find a way. The players want to go but it’s more complicated than that.”

NHL players competed in Sochi 2014 but skipped both the PyeongChang 2018 and Beijing 2022 Winter Games after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) refused to pay travel and insurance-related costs. The NHL also lost over 50 regular season games last season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman to make up games while the Beijing 2022 Games were going on.

“We appreciate the efforts made by the IOC, IIHF and the Beijing Organizing Committee to host NHL players but current circumstances have made it impossible for us to proceed despite everyone’s best efforts,” Bettman said last year. “We look forward to Olympic participation in 2026.”

The “complications” referred to by Tardiff center around the NHL and NHL Players’ Association plans to host a World Cup of Hockey in February 2024. That has been cancelled due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but the league is hopeful for a 2025 edition. The problem isn’t so much the competition, but the timing of it.

Tardiff said a February date would “be a big problem for us” because it would impact the European leagues and would be too close to the Men’s World Championships in May.

“We prefer August, September or October,” Tardiff said.

The NHL prefers February because their athletes would be in mid-season form and they won’t be competing against football in North America.

Both the NHL and IIHF believe a compromise will be reached before the end of the year, and NHL players will be chasing Olympic gold in Italy in three years time.

NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly told the Associated Press the request by the IIHF to make a decision is “likely a reasonable timeline to make that call.”