NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman has “carefully shifted the responsibility” for getting NHL players into the 2026 Milan-Cortina Games from the NHL to the IOC and the IIHF, according to Eric Duhatschek of THE ATHLETIC. While Bettman is concerned that the arena holding the hockey games “wasn’t going to be completed on time," a more pertinent issue is who “would pick up the tab for ferrying NHL players and families back and forth to Italy and, also, who would pay for the insurance.” With the Games still 27 months away, there is “still lots of time to get this fixed” and the IOC “understands how much of a draw the men’s hockey tournament is for the Olympics -- and how, when the NHL wasn’t present for the last two, it took a lot of the sheen off of the event.” However, if enough of the decision-makers “drag their feet long enough,” time will run out soon enough. Duhatschek estimated the chances at “about 50-50” that hockey’s “powers-that-be don’t mess it up in 2026 and ultimately find a way of getting everybody to Italy to compete.” Duhatschek: “As long as there are gold medals at stake, nothing will top the Olympic experience for an NHL player” (THE ATHLETIC, 12/8).
NOT WORTH THE RISK: In Pittsburgh, Mark Madden wrote he is “against NHL teams putting assets at risk in an endeavor that doesn’t directly benefit the league.” If Sidney Crosby gets hurt playing in the Olympics, it “becomes the Pittsburgh Penguins’ problem not long after.” Madden added he is “against interrupting the NHL season to break for the Olympics” and he “far prefer[s]” the World Cup of Hockey, which gets played just before the NHL campaign. Madden: “The NHL is the best hockey league in the world. It should not make itself second fiddle” (TRIBLIVE.com, 12/9).
