The NHL’s recent 4 Nations tournament was a huge success for the league. Despite that, there is no guarantee it will be back anytime soon.
In an appearance on “The Rich Eisen Show” Monday, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman cast some doubt on the future of the 4 Nations tournament. The league has more ambitious plans for international hockey, and wants to stage a larger competition in addition to letting NHL players participate in upcoming Winter Olympics competition.
“The 4 Nations was kind of a quick appetizer. There is Olympics, two years later a World Cup,” Bettman said. “The World Cup will have at least eight countries participating, and that is something we’re in the process of finalizing. … We’re looking to do a full World Cup like you see in soccer. We’re going to look to do it in a variety of locations, and not just in North America. We’ll be looking to do it in Europe as well.
“The success has been so quick and overwhelming. We’ve got a lot of things to consider and sort out, including what our own All-Star Game looks like going forward.”
Bettman does not sound eager to kill off the traditional NHL All-Star Game, even though that event has been plagued by many of the same issues as its NBA counterpart. Perhaps there are reasons for that, but 4 Nations brought a great deal of attention to the sport and won rave reviews, particularly in contrast with the lack of enthusiasm for the retooled NBA All-Star events.
No matter what, there will be no international tournament in 2026, as NHL players are already slated to take part in the Winter Olympics in Italy. Beyond that, it sounds like Bettman would prefer to do a larger, more ambitious event that features more countries. The NHL has sanctioned similar tournaments on three previous occasions, most recently in 2016, and staged it in September just before the start of the regular season.
Canada won the inaugural 4 Nations event with an overtime win over the United States in the final. The victory was clearly a meaningful one for the Canadians, even though the tournament was fundamentally just an exhibition.
