The NHL and NHLPA have reached a long-awaited agreement with the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) formalizing the terms of NHL players’ participation in the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympic Games, which are scheduled to be held in February. The NHL, NHLPA and IIHF announced at NHL All-Star Weekend in 2024 that they intended to bring NHL players back to the Olympics for the first time since the 2014 Sochi Games, and today’s agreement makes that return official.
NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly and NHLPA Senior Dir of International Strategy & Growth Rob Zepp led negotiations in Zurich for the league and union, respectively. The IIHF was represented by President Luc Tardif and SVP Petr Briza. IOC representatives were also present at meetings in Zurich, but the committee itself is not a party to the deal.
The IIHF said in a statement that the deal also “opened the door” for NHL players to participate in the 2030 Winter Games in the French Alps. The NHL and NHLPA will surely want to be involved in the following Winter Games, which are slated to be held on American soil in Salt Lake City.
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The NHL and NHLPA plan to support best-on-best international competition every two years, alternating between sending player to the Olympic Games and operating their own World Cup of Hockey. The latter is set to return in 2028 for the first time since 2016 following the success of this year’s 4 Nations Face-Off in Montreal and Boston.
Terms of the agreement for 2026 were not immediately available. Key issues in past discussions over NHL players’ Olympic participation have included whether the IIHF would cover the cost of travel and insurance for players and whether the IOC would allow the NHL and its clubs to promote their players’ involvement in the competition. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman has previously said, for example, that the league could not use footage of Sidney Crosby’s game-winning goal at the 2010 Vancouver Games due to IOC restrictions.
It’s unclear whether the league and the union have a separate agreement with the IOC regarding such commercial and promotional matters. Daly said in a press conference last week that there are “various agreements” that need to be made as it pertains to the player’s participation in the Olympics next year.
