The NHL's best players have not participated in the Olympic Games since 2014. In 2026, that will finally change.
During all-star weekend in Toronto, the NHL announced a plan to return to action in the Winter Olympics every four years, starting with the 2026 Games in Milan and followed by the 2030 Games in Paris.
In addition, the league will help put on a 4 Nations Face-Off in 2025 that will feature Canada, the U.S, Finland and Sweden in a four-team tournament composed of only players on NHL rosters.
This is the most welcomed change in quite some time for hockey fans, as past iterations of the Olympic tournament have produced some of the most iconic moments of the past two decades.
World Juniors... And Then What?
Most NHL players at some point participate in the IIHF U20 World Junior Championships, the tournament that dominates the hockey landscape from Boxing Day into January.
The pride for players that comes with representing their country on this stage is deeply ingrained from a young age. It's built up to the apex that the World Juniors is, and then it has been shelved after that for far too long.
Take Sidney Crosby for example. In 2005, he helped lead Team Canada to World Junior gold. Then, in 2010, he solidified himself as Canadian royalty forever when he delivered an overtime, gold medal-winning goal against Team USA on Canadian soil.
In 2014, he helped guide Canada to a less exciting gold medal, and in the 12 years since he has not had a chance to earn a third.
Nobody who entered the NHL since about 2012 has had a shot to represent their country in best-on-best competition.
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Hockey's Next Generation Gets its Olympics Shot
While Crosby is possibly about to get his chance at a third Olympic gold, his successor as the face of both Canadian hockey and the sport as a whole is about to get his first.
Connor McDavid is 27 years old, and he hasn't represented Hockey Canada since he participated in World Juniors. The league put on a World Cup of Hockey in 2016, but McDavid was on a team composed of both Americans and Canadians under the age of 23. That team and the amalgamation that was the "Rest of Europe" team blunted the excitement and the national pride associated with that event.
It's been a long time coming for McDavid, who would have been Canada's top forward both in 2018 and 2022. The Oilers super star voiced his excitement during a media availability session this weekend in Toronto.
"Obviously, I've been vocal about this," he said. "I feel like it's important for hockey as we continue to try to grow the game internationally and at home. I think it's a great thing. It's an exciting schedule, something that people can look forward to."
After Canada won in dramatic fashion in 2010 and with ease in 2014, it's also been a long time since Canada's dominance has been put to the test.
The True North's biggest rival figures to be the United States, as Russia is likely to ice a worse team than it did in 2014 with Sweden and Finland at around the same caliber.
USA Hockey has worked tirelessly to get to the point where it can legitimately challenge Canada, and a group led by Auston Matthews, Quinn and Jack Hughes, and Brady and Matthew Tkachuk along with a litany of other stars means the red, white, and blue could easily be considered co-favorites by the time 2026 rolls around.
While such speculation has been just that since 2014, it's a breath of fresh air for hockey fans that these debates will be settled for real soon enough.
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