A look at the future of best-on-best men’s hockey after 4 Nations

By Canadian Press on February 21, 2025.

The NHL went to five straight Olympics between 1998 and 2014 before passing on the 2018 Games for financial reasons. The aim was to return four years later, but concerns surrounding COVID-19 scuttled plans.

The league also held World Cups in 1996, 2004 and 2016.

The just-completed 4 Nations Face-Off, which saw Canada down the United States 3-2 in overtime on Thursday, represented a return of NHL players to high-level international competition.

Russia was banned because of its war in Ukraine and reigning world champion Czechia didn’t make the cut, but the event was the closest men’s hockey had seen to best-on-best action in nearly a decade.

The Canadian Press takes a look at what the NHL has in store moving forward.

2026 OLYMPICS

The Games in Milan-Cortina, Italy, will be the league’s first appearance on the sporting world’s biggest stage since Canada won its second of back-to-back gold medals at the 2014 Olympic tournament in Sochi, Russia.

The 12-team field will begin competition Feb. 11 with preliminary round play in Milan. The gold-medal game goes Feb. 22.

Russia and Belarus have been banned by the International Ice Hockey Federation through 2026, but the International Olympic Committee has the final say on the countries’ potential inclusion.

Finland won Olympic gold at the non-NHL event in 2022 in Beijing.

2028 WORLD CUP

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and NHL Players’ Association chief Marty Walsh announced ahead of the 4 Nations that the league would hold a World Cup in 2028.

The aim is to hold best-on-best competition every two years moving forward in conjunction with the Olympic cycle.

Bettman said the NHL expected to begin receiving bids from potential host cities for the eight-team event soon, adding that both North American and European destinations would be considered.

Unlike the 2016 World Cup, there will be no gimmicks like Team Europe and the age-23-and-under Team North America that were part of the format nine years ago.

2030 OLYMPICS

The NHL and NHLPA have also signalled an intention to go to the Games in the French Alps.

Nice, a city on France’s southeast Mediterranean coast, is expected to play host to the tournament as one of the central Olympic hubs.