TORONTO — NHL players are returning to the Olympics for the first time in more than a decade.
The world’s top hockey league will allow its players to participate in the Winter Olympics at the 2026 Milan Games and again in 2030 under an agreement announced Friday by the NHL, NHL Players’ Association, International Ice Hockey Federation and the IOC.
NHL players have not been at the Olympics since 2014 in Sochi.
“There is a recognition of how important this is to the players,” commissioner Gary Bettman said at a news conference during NHL All-Star Weekend. “Everybody felt on our ownership side that it was the right thing to do. … This really came down to doing something because the players really wanted it.”
IIHF president Luc Tardif smiled and said, “We made it” after two years of work that picked up over the past six months.