NHL Wants to Return to Winter Olympics Starting in 2026

The NHL would like to return to the Winter Olympics starting in 2026, according to a report in NHL.com.

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told NHL.com the league and players’ association are working together to more regularly compete in international events and would like to be part of another World Cup of Hockey.

The NHL participated in the Winter Olympics from 1998-2014 but didn’t play in 2018 and 2022. Daly also said the league would like to have an international event in 2025, but it likely wouldn’t be the World Cup of Hockey.

“I don’t know exactly what form it will take,” Daly told Dan Rosen, of NHL.com. “The goal is to make it an international competition of some sort.

“It’s going to obviously be heavily NHL-centric in terms of the player base, maybe entirely NHL. We’ll see what form it takes, but that’s something we’re working on with the players’ association.” 

In 2014 at Sochi, the Flyers had five players compete in the Olympics — Michael Raffl (Austria),  Kimmo Timonen (Finland), Andrej Meszaro (Slovakia),  Mark Streit (Switzerland), Jake Voracek (Czechia).

The World Cup has been held three times. The United States won the first one, in 1996. Team USA lost Game 1 of the best-of-three series at the brand-new Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. The Americans won the next two games in Montreal to win the Cup.

Canada won World Cup in 2004 and 2016.

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