The National Hockey League confirmed Friday it will send players to the 2026 Olympics in Milan, ending the league’s Olympics drought dating back to 2014.
Topline
The National Hockey League is sending players to the 2026 Olympics in Milan, marking the league’s first participation in the games since the 2014 Olympics in Sochi after cost- and pandemic-related snags in 2018 and 2022.Key Facts
League Commissioner Gary Betttman confirmed at a Friday press conference in Toronto the league would be participating in both the 2026 games in Milan and the 2030 games, which are poised to take place in the French Alps.
It’ll mark a long-awaited return for the North American league, which declined to allow its players to participate in the 2018 Olympics in South Korea—the NHL must pause its regular season to allow its players to compete in the Olympics and was unwilling to do so.
The league’s collective bargaining agreement with the NHL Players Association in 2020 would have allowed players to participate in 2022 and 2026, but the league backed out of the Beijing Games in 2022 after the Covid-19 pandemic hampered much of the NHL regular season that year.
