NHL has offered to host Olympic hockey tournament in North American city: report

It appears that the NHL wants to see a best-on-best hockey tournament just as badly as its fans do.

NHL players last competed in the 2014 Olympics, which saw Canada defeat Sweden 3-0 to take home the gold medal in Sochi. The NHL elected not to attend the 2018 Olympics but had plans to rejoin in 2022, but opted out due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In an effort to appease its fans, the NHL also put together a World Cup of Hockey event in 2016, which took place in Toronto. Since then, however, we haven’t seen the top stars in the game compete against one another, though that could soon change.

The NHL has plans to stage a four-country international tournament, held in-season, in 2025. Canada, USA, Sweden, and Finland would be the participating nations.

The NHL has designs of returning to the Winter Olympics in 2026, and are prepared to offer a helping hand to hosts in Milano-Cortina, following reports that the hockey venue may not be built in time.

“I don’t think they’ve actually begun construction on it, which is a matter of some concern. We know it’s important to the players to go and we want to make it happen,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said recently.

So the NHL has offered an outside-the-box idea.

The league has offered to host the hockey portion of the 2026 Olympics at a venue in North America, according to TSN’s Darren Dreger.

“The National Hockey League has offered a North American city to house the [hockey] portion of the Olympics in 2026,” Dreger said. “Now, this is unlikely going to happen. We know that the pressure is on Italy. They’re trying to get their main venue completed in time for the Games. They’ve also got another satellite venue that’s available to them.”

Dreger added that the NHL has made this type of offer before to the IOC, but it has never been accepted.

Regardless of where it takes place, hockey fans across the world are starving to see another best-on-best tournament between the game’s top stars. Being able to see players like Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby on the same team would be any hockey fan’s dream, and based on this latest report, it seems that the NHL is doing everything in its power to have it happen.

You might also like:
• Canadiens and Penguins compete in ridiculously long 24-player shootout