Zac Electrifly

The National Hockey League has a strange relationship with the Olympics. The players want to participate in the Olympics while the team owners see it as an unnecessary risk during the season. That was especially understandable during the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. The NHL not going to the Olympics is in part due to the power struggle between the National Hockey League and the International Ice Hockey Federation. For whatever reason the NHL has not seen eye to eye with the IIHF. While most leagues work with and around the IIHF the NHL does not. I think there needs to be more cooperation between the NHL and IIHF. I think both organizations have areas they need to improve in. Both leagues not working together will only hurt the growth of the sport.

Every four years it is always a question of if the NHL will allow their players to participate in the Olympics. Until 1988 only amateur players participated in the Olympics. Although the NHL could have allowed their players to participate as early as 1988 they did not allow their players to participate until 1998. They did participate until 2018. The 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi was the last Olympic ice hockey tournament the NHL allowed their players to participate in. Canada beat Sweden to win gold. Finland won the bronze medal. The United States did not medal after losing in the Bronze Medal game. The 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang was the first Olympic Ice Hockey tournament without NHL players since 1994. The Olympic Athletes from Russia beat Germany in that tournament for the gold medal. Canada won the bronze medal and the United States did not medal. In 2022 the NHL said they would allow their players to participate but pulled out at the last minute. This was the most understandable time the NHL pulled out of the Olympics. The 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing will be forever scared by how athletes and teams were teated with the threat of COVID-19 in the background. In this case the NHL dodged a bullet. In 2022 Finland beat the Russia Olympic Committee to win gold. Sweden won bronze. This was the first olympics in a long time that neither the United States or Canada won gold medals.

The women’s tournament started in 1998. There have been several professional women’s hockey leagues in North America. None of them have been on the same level as the NHL in popularity. The Professional Women’s Hockey League has been promising so far in their first season. The Olympics have been the highest level of competition for women’s ice hockey for so long. I don’t see a situation where the PWHL does not allow their players to play in the Olympics.

The 2026 Winter Olympics will be in Italy. We are two years away from those Olympics. Those will be the first Olympics to have NHL players in over a decade. The 2030 Olympics are yet to have a host. The host will be decided later this year. Sweden, Switzerland, the United States, Canada, Japan, and France have all placed bids to be the host. This is exciting news for hockey fans. The current generation of NHL players will be in the Olympics. The 2026 Olympic ice hockey tournament has the potential to be one of the best tournaments ever. Players like Austin Matthews, Connor McDavid, Jack Eichel, Connor Bedard, and the Hughes brothers will be able to play in the Olympics for the first time. For players like Sidney Crosby and Patrick Kane, it could be their last opportunity to represent their respective countries.

I think the NHL should have the World Cup of Hockey as a preseason tournament every season before the preseason. The WCOH is an international tournament with players only from the NHL, AHL, and ECHL. It should be an eight team tournament. Two groups of four with the top three teams in each group moving on. They could have multiple tournaments with teams being promoted and relegated. It should be open to all IIHF teams with rosters having eighty percent NHL, AHL, or ECHL players with the top two tournaments requiring at least one player on an NHL contract. That tournament could also include special teams that would not qualify to be an IIHF team. For example an NHL rookie team, teams from different states within the united states, or teams from different Canadian provinces. The NHL should also add a world versus North America game to their all-star events. They should also add exhibition games throughout the season with smaller international teams like Mexico. For national teams like Mexico it would be huge for them to get the opportunity to play in NHL venues even if they are only half full. The World Cup of Hockey will be returning in 2025.

The IIHF should model itself more like FIFA. The IIHF World Championships should be every four years instead of every year. Two years before their should be qualifying tournaments for each region. In between the tournaments teams can play qualifying games. The IIHF World Championships should be a thirty two team tournament. The format should be groups made up of four teams. Each venue should be limited to two groups. The top three teams move on. Second and third place play each other. Group winners get a bye into the second round. Then it is just single elimination until there is a winner.

For the Olympics it should be a sixteen team tournament with the same format as the IIHF World Championships. Qualifying would be two years of qualifying games with a regional tournament the year before the Olympics. There should also be second and third tier tournaments for both the Olympics and IIHF World Championships. Qualifying would reset every January after the tournaments. No one would automatically qualify except for the hosts. The current system based on the IIHF overall rankings is broken. It does not allow for smaller teams to qualify for major tournaments. One of the reasons that soccer is as popular as it is globally is because smaller nations have the opportunity to play bigger nations and qualify for major tournaments. Going back to a team like Mexico, if they had the opportunity to play Canada or the United states in a sold out 20,000 seat venue that would be big for the growth of the sport in Mexico.

The IIHF needs to add inline hockey and ball hockey. They also need to add variations such as 3 on 3 and pond hockey. There is a lot of missed opportunity to grow the game globally by not having these variations. I think the NHL should also support building up these variations of hockey. North America should also adopt a league like the Champions Hockey League.