LATEST | NHL & NHLPA reportedly working towards having consistent international schedule

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Cooper Godin
August 25, 2023 (9:47)

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During the NHL's European Media Tour this week, Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said that the league and NHLPA are trying to create a consistent schedule for best-on-best international events.

Daly said that both sides are wanting to have a best-on-best international event every two years starting in 2025. This would see a World Cup of Hockey or similar event in 2025, followed by the 2026 Winter Olympics and then another World Cup in 2028, 2030 Winter Olympics, etc.

"So if we do a '25 international tournament, we do the '26 Olympics, the '28 World Cup of Hockey, the '30 Olympics, the '32 World Cup of Hockey, and so on," Daly said. "That's the goal."

It's unclear what the 2025 event would look like, as Daly explains. It could be the World Cup or something similar, but said that they're still working through the details on both sides.

"I don't know exactly what form it will take. The goal is to make it an international competition of some sort. It's going to obviously be heavily NHL-centric in terms of the player base, maybe entirely NHL. We'll see what form it takes, but that's something we're working on with the Players' Association."

It's been nearly seven years since the last best-on-best international event, which was the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. The NHL decided not to send their players to the 2018 Winter Olympics due to a disagreement with the IOC on insurance and travel costs.

In 2022, the NHL fully intended on having the players play at the Winter Olympics in China, but decided against it, citing COVID-19 concerns and schedule disruptions due to the pandemic.

If the schedule does go ahead as explained earlier, the Canucks could have plenty of representatives at the 2025 international event. There's no doubt that Quinn Hughes and Thatcher Demko will be on the United States' roster, while Elias Pettersson will play for Sweden. Defenceman Filip Hronek will likely suit up for Czechia and Pius Suter could be an option for Switzerland.

Belarus and Russia's participation is still up in the air due to the invasion of Ukraine, but if they're allowed, Andrei Kuzmenko could be involved for the Russians.

Source: NHL.com

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