SEATTLE -- The NHL is making plans to hold a four-team, in-season international tournament next season that it hopes will be the start of rotating best-on-best international schedule including participation in the Olympics and a World Cup of Hockey.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman announced the concept after Day 2 of the League's two-day Board of Governors meetings Tuesday.
"It hasn't been finalized but that's what we're focused on," Bettman said.
Without confirming, Bettman indicated the United States, Canada, Sweden and Finland would be the four participating countries in the 2025 tournament the League is planning to host.
The tournament would be limited only to NHL players and could take place in multiple locations, but that is also not confirmed.
The NHL hasn't held or participated in an international tournament since the World Cup of Hockey 2016. The last time there was an in-season break for a tournament was the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
"It gives us a nice intro to best-on-best international and I hope at the same time we're in a position to announce that we'll have firm plans to tell you about what the World Cup will be because the ultimate goal is to have Olympics, two years later World Cup, two years later Olympics, two years later World Cup," Bettman said. "That's the cycle we're trying to get on, but we figured we'd try a little bit of an appetizer between now and then."
Bettman said the NHL continues to work with the International Olympic Committee and the International Ice Hockey Federation on terms for the participation in the 2026 Milan Olympics.
No agreement has been finalized.
"We know it's important to the players to go and we want to make it happen," Bettman said. "We're going to be as flexible as we can but at some point. We've got to do a schedule for that season."
NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said the League has a meeting with the International Olympic Committee scheduled for next week.
"It's not about making a decision," Bettman said. "It's trying to finalize the plans, some of which are beyond our control. It's up to the International Olympic Committee and the IIHF to put things in place that need to be there and, not insignificantly, they have a lot of work to do on the arena. I don't think they've actually begun construction on it, which is a matter of some concern."
Bettman said the other open issues are paying to insure players' NHL contracts and providing travel and accommodations for the players and their families in Milan. Those expenses have been covered by the IOC and the local organizing committees at the previous five Olympics the NHL has attended (1998, 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014).
"But the thing I'm most focused on and concerned about is the building," Bettman said. "Normally when you build a building for the Olympics for the hockey tournament it's done a year in advance, and you have time to have events and test it and build the ice and do all of that. They're projecting that it won't be done until the fourth quarter of '25, which is like six or eight weeks before the Olympics if they're on time, and I think they're already late. But that's nothing we can control. It's an IOC and a Milano-Cortina organizing committee issue."
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