2026 Olympic Games: NHL presence could be announced today

In the early afternoon, Gary Bettman will appear before reporters.

The National Hockey League commissioner will of course be grilled on a number of current NHL-related topics, as this will be the perfect opportunity to do so.

The Team Canada junior issue comes to mind. The players can avoid it, but he can’t.

Radio silence at the All-Star Game on the Hockey Canada scandal https://t.co/b6K6GkiHyx

– Radio-Canada Sports (@RC_Sports) February 2, 2024

But it won’t all be negative. For example? There will surely be questions about an expansion process and an announcement about an international tournament in 2025, to replace the All-Star Game.

Canada, the United States, Finland and Sweden are expected to cross swords.

As Renaud Lavoie informed us yesterday morning, we can expect Montreal to be included in the news. The journalist raised the possibility of games being held in Montreal and Boston.

And this morning, Frank Seravalli tweeted in the same vein.

Sources say #NHL + #NHLPA plan to announce this afternoon 2025 international tournament hosted in Montréal and Boston.

Four nations: Canada, Finland, Sweden and United States.

Not totally clear yet if today also includes confirming Olympic participation, but that is on track.

– Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) February 2, 2024

We’ll all agree that it’s fun, but we can see that only four nations will be there. And we also agree that it’s not the Olympics either, you know.

What the players want is to go to the Olympics. They grew up dreaming of representing their country in this mythical event, and for the past two editions, the NHL hasn’t been there.

In recent years, there has been some talk that Gary Bettman was looking into not sending his players to the Games in 2026.

But if that’s the case, he’s obviously missed the boat. And why? Because, according to Marc Antoine Godin and Alexandre Gascon (Radio-Canada), we can expect the NHL to confirm that in 2026, the NHL will go to the Olympics.

Negotiation blitz: the NHL could announce its presence at the Olympics on Friday. A text I’m co-signing with the well-coiffed@GasconAlexandre .https://t.co/MCmw6QbKBa?

– Marc Antoine Godin (@MAGodin) February 2, 2024

If confirmed, it will surely be very well received.

Last night, Radio-Canada journalists wrote that negotiations were not over. That said, the tone of the article suggests that, barring a catastrophe, it should happen.

And as I said at the outset, the players will be happy with that. After all, representing your country at the Olympics is the dream of many athletes, and hockey players are no exception.

Such news could also help to keep the lid on the not-so-good news surrounding the league…

In Brief

– Really?

Non-Finn Jaromir Jagr received a vote in Finland’s presidential elections.

As long as we’re invalidating his vote, we might as well pay tribute to #68.https://t.co/yiffnJFnk9

– Michel Laprise (@MLapriseRDS) February 2, 2024

– Speaking of expansion: will Quebec try to have a club in the shadows?

Basically, a return of the Nordiques seems to hinge on avoiding public proclamations from politicians and the media attention that would most certainly accompany it, and so far everything is being done more hush-hush, versus 2015 where everything was being done out in the open.

– Andrew Zadarnowski (@AZadarski) February 2, 2024

– Interesting. It takes time to make a big deal.

Really good stuff from@ThomasDrance and@jkamckenzie: How the Elias Lindholm trade happened: Mexican vacations, a no-trade list and no in-flight Wi-Fi https://t.co/DjJYPZ9B9W

– Arpon Basu (@ArponBasu) February 2, 2024

– Nick Suzuki loves Juraj Slafkovsky’s work ethic. [BPM Sports]

– Hey boy.