Gary Bettman Says NHL Planning Olympics 'Kickoff' Event for 2026 All-Star Weekend

The 2026 NHL All-Star Weekend, which is scheduled to take place at the New York Islanders' UBS Arena, will look a bit different ahead of the upcoming Olympics.

"We'll have an event at UBS before we go to the Olympics but then we'll do something that's more focused on a major hockey event for the following year," NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said Tuesday, per Andrew Gross and Hank Winnicki of Newsday. "We have a little bit of time to finalize what we're doing."

Gross and Winnicki noted it remains to be seen what the "kickoff going to the Olympics" will entail, although Bettman suggested it will not be a hockey competition.

"We look forward to working with the league on any event that will showcase our world class facility, UBS Arena," the Islanders said in a statement.

One thing is for sure. NHL fans should expect to see plenty of players participating in international competitions.

Bettman said the plan is for players to participate in the 2026 Games, a World Cup tournament in 2028 and the 2030 Olympics. The commissioner explained the league is formatting plans for the years in between those competitions.

"What we do in the intervening years, we're still thinking about," Bettman said. "But we know we set the bar high, which should be a good thing.

"We're in the process of finalizing the schedule and we are comfortable and confident that we will have an event that people will like as a kickoff to going to the Olympics. And then we'll come back and do a more hockey-focused competition event the following year."

These comments and the future plans that are yet to be finalized come after the NHL enjoyed plenty of success by switching things up during the 2025 All-Star Weekend.

Instead of a traditional tournament where the league's four divisions competed in an All-Star tournament, the NHL staged the 4 Nations Face-Off in February. NHL players from Canada, Finland, Sweden and the United States represented their country in a World Cup-style tournament with a round-robin competition before the championship.

Each team played each of the other three teams once before the top two teams squared off in a winner-takes-all championship game. Games were split between the Bell Centre in Montreal and the TD Garden in Boston

The United States and Canada advanced to the title game with Canada winning 3-2 in overtime. 

Connor McDavid scored the game-winning goal in a game that was defined by its intensity and back-and-forth momentum swings. The entire tournament was played at a Stanley Cup playoff type of atmosphere, and it generated plenty of excitement in the middle of the NHL season.

Bettman will look to build on that moving forward with this next set of events.