{"id":33167,"date":"2025-07-02T17:44:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T17:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/33167\/"},"modified":"2025-07-02T17:44:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T17:44:13","slug":"nhl-players-officially-returning-to-olympics-in-2026-for-first-time-since-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/33167\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL players officially returning to Olympics in 2026 for first time since 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

NHL players will officially return to the Olympic Games in February 2026 after the key stakeholders signed an agreement Wednesday at the International Ice Hockey Federation\u2019s headquarters in Zurich.<\/p>\n

While the deal itself was no surprise \u2014 the 12 participating nations in the men\u2019s tournament have already named six players to their respective rosters \u2014 the formalized agreement was hailed as a landmark achievement after the NHL opted not to attend the past two Winter Games.<\/p>\n

The Milan Cortina tournament in February will be the first featuring NHL players since the Sochi Games in 2014 and the sixth overall.<\/p>\n

\u201cOlympic participation will showcase the skill and talent of NHL players on an international stage,\u201d NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said. \u201cWe are proud to collaborate with the IIHF, NHLPA and IOC to bring the best hockey players in the world to the Olympics and make this happen in a way that benefits the game globally.\u201d<\/p>\n

The agreement also paved the way for NHL participation in the 2030 Winter Olympics in the French Alps. That was something the league and\u00a0the NHL Players\u2019 Association included in their recent\u00a0four-year extension to the collective bargaining agreement<\/a>, which is currently subject to ratification votes\u00a0by each side.<\/p>\n

The Olympic return comes on the heels of the successful 4 Nations Face-Off tournament staged by the NHL and NHLPA in February and should signal the start of a new era of best-on-best international events.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a tremendous day for international ice hockey and for fans across the globe,\u201d IIHF President Luc Tardif said. \u201cBringing the best players in the world back to the Olympic Winter Games \u2026 is a major step forward for our sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, it was the NHL players who pushed hardest for a return to the Olympic stage.<\/p>\n

They were disappointed when the league wasn\u2019t able to reach an agreement on the 2018 PyeongChang Games. Planned NHL participation in the 2022 Beijing Olympics was abandoned a couple of months before the tournament due to health and safety concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

As a result, virtually all of the players selected to participate in the 2026 Games will be making their Olympic debuts.<\/p>\n

\u201cBest-on-best international tournaments like the Olympics provide the opportunity to create extraordinary moments for our players and fans alike,\u201d NHLPA executive director Marty Walsh said. \u201cThe return to the Olympics marks a monumental moment for hockey, and we thank our partners \u2014 the NHL, IOC and IIHF \u2014 for this collaborative process.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe skill and passion on display in Milano Cortina will build off the excitement of the 4 Nations Face-Off and continue our game\u2019s global growth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Olympic rosters<\/p>\n

(Photo of Connor McDavid: Bruce Bennett \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NHL players will officially return to the Olympic Games in February 2026 after the key stakeholders signed an…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":33168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[51,50,293,3777,222,52],"class_list":{"0":"post-33167","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-olympics","12":"tag-sports-business","13":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}