US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed possible collaboration on hockey games in both leaders’ countries during a phone call on Tuesday.
The two spoke about the concept during a longer discussion that primarily focused on negotiating a partial ceasefire in Ukraine. News of the potential hockey games came via a summary of their conversation provided by the Russian government.
“Donald Trump supported Vladimir Putin’s idea to organize hockey matches in the USA and Russia between Russian and American players playing in the NHL and KHL,” the relevant section reads, as translated via Google Translate.
After reports spread about the discussions, the NHL quickly noted they had no prior knowledge of the talks.
“We have just become aware of the conversation between President Trump and President Putin,” the league said in a statement to The Athletic’s Chris Johnston. “Obviously, we were not a party to those discussions, and it would be inappropriate for us to comment at this time.”
Trump has now publicly spoken about hockey on three occasions in the last two months. First, he called Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin “a great player” and thanked Caps owner Ted Leonsis during a pre-inauguration rally at Capital One Arena in January. He then also called Team USA ahead of their 4 Nations Face-Off final matchup vs. Team Canada last month.
Ovechkin, the most prominent Russian hockey star of all time, has previously stated that the Capitals were scheduled to play the St. Louis Blues in Russia until the global pandemic halted those plans. He also recently brought up that he’d like to see the only two teams he’s played for professionally, Dynamo Moscow and the Capitals, get together for a farewell game for him.
“If [the world situation] allows, we will think about it!” Ovechkin said earlier this month.
Russia and Belarus have both been banned from IIHF competition since February 2022 due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
