NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and deputy commissioner Bill Daly met with leaguewide media on Saturday at their annual all-star press conference. Among the variety of topics they discussed was one about NHL players and their future involvement in international best-on-best tournaments.

The last time NHL players competed at the Olympic Games was 2014 in Sochi, Russia. Overall, the last best-on-best tournament featuring national teams with NHL players was played in a heavily modified format during the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.

Bettman said that he and Daly met with International Ice Hockey Federation president Luc Tardif this week in South Florida about both of those events.

“We each re-expressed our desires to work together on a variety of fronts,” Bettman started. “I know it’s important to the players and they’d like to play in the Olympics, but certain things are going to have to be done by some combination of the International Olympic Committee, the International Ice Hockey Federation, and the local organizing committee in order for that to be reality.

“If they do those things, which is not a whole lot dissimilar to what’s been done in the past, then we’ll be happy to go,” he continued.

The NHL fully skipped the 2018 Olympics due to unresolved travel costs and scheduling issues. The 2022 Games were completely removed from consideration because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The league had hoped their next version of the World Cup would be held in 2024, but a variety of factors made that not feasible, particularly the geopolitical uncertainty surrounding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has pushed the event until at least 2025.

The NHL halted all of its business relationships in Russia last February and still aligns with the mandate from the IIHF that the nation is suspended from all international competitions until further notice.

“With respect to a World Cup, we want to bring it back on a regular schedule,” Bettman said. “It’s something we do in partnership with the players’ association and for a whole host of reasons we need a little more time to put it together. Some of those reasons are pretty obvious. But, we’re going to get to it and we hope to get it done.”

Another factor at play which Bettman added in a later interview on SiriusXM NHL Network Radio is that the NHL Players’ Association is seeking a new Executive Director to replace Donald Fehr.

#NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman on Olympics and World Cup @SiriusXMNHL pic.twitter.com/YrmsIyrdW1

— SiriusXM NHL Network Radio (@SiriusXMNHL) February 4, 2023

The relationship between the league and the IIHF has certainly been a tumultuous one in recent years.

At the last World Junior Hockey Championship, Tardif stated that he wanted an answer from the NHL on the 2026 Olympics by the spring of 2024. He finished that statement by bluntly saying the IIHF is, “not a travel agency, we organize a competition.”

Daly did add on Saturday that things may be clearing up a bit on that front.

“I think most importantly we were aligned with the IIHF in our conversation as to what the issues are and what needs to be done,” Daly said. “We’re in lockstep on that.”

Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin was asked to give his thoughts on the situation at his final press conference of the weekend. He deferred to the commissioner.

“You have to ask Gary about it, not me,” Ovechkin said plainly. “It’s Gary, you know.”

Screenshot via Edmonton Oilers