The next season of the National Hockey League has been underway for more than a month was in full swing, and during this time a number of significant events happened. Among them is another NHL foray outside of North America. As part of the NHL Global Series, the league played scheduled matches in Sweden: the Ottawa Senators, Detroit Red Wings, Toronto Maple Leafs and Minnesota Wild played in Stockholm. The games themselves, most likely, did not live up to all the expectations of fans and spectators in terms of intensity, but they found something to remember. In addition to the matches in Stockholm, other key events took place, but only with the participation of representatives of the league management.
The games in Sweden were attended by the main NHL officials — commissioner Gary Bettman and his deputy Bill Daly. In addition to them, the executive director of the League Players Association (NHLPA), Marty Walsh, also visited Stockholm, and his latest statements shed light on the fate of Russian hockey players. As you know, the NHL has been working for the past few years to hold a tournament with the participation of league players. In common parlance — the World Cup. The league has not organized it since 2016. It was supposed to take place again in 2024, but the NHL eventually abandoned it because of the Russian national team. Let us remind you that since the beginning of 2022, by decision of the International Hockey Federation, Russians have been banned from participating in tournaments under their auspices. The IIHF has nothing to do with the NHL World Cup, but due to a number of difficulties (for example, the likely refusal of a number of countries to compete with Russia), the tournament was postponed.
It is planned that it will still take place, but in February 2025. According to well-known North American insiders Elliott Friedman and Frank Seravalli, the tournament itself will not be called the World Cup, which, in fact, Marty Walsh also pointed out in a dialogue with Seravalli. But this is not what is interesting, but the fate of the Russian team. She, most likely, will not be allowed to participate in the championship.
“»Most likely not. In this case, we are talking about a more serious problem. There are federations that do not allow their players to participate in the tournament (with the Russians). You have to take all this into account. I represent everyone. I'm going to support my guys (Russians). This is a really difficult situation. It's terrible that you have to reckon with what's happening in the world,» Walsh was quoted as saying by Daily Faceoff.
And this approach is puzzling. The exclusion of the Russian team would have been understandable if the tournament was organized by the IIHF, but in this case it was not even close. Moreover, the International Hockey Federation is not at all happy with the NHL’s initiative to hold the tournament on the specified date. But now the decision to reject the Russians is made by the league and the NHLPA. Let us just remind you that, according to the leadership of the NHL Players Association, its main task is to protect the interests of all members of the union, regardless of their nationality. Largely for this reason, Russian hockey players still play in the NHL without any obstacles. But for some reason they will not be allowed into the tournament under the auspices of the league. Allegedly due to the claims of other national hockey federations, although they are also not the organizers and for some reason are not indignant due to the joint participation of their players in the NHL with the Russians.
It turns out that the league contradicts its own principles.
The composition of the participating countries in the future tournament also raises questions. It will apparently include from four to six national teams. So far, only Canada, the USA, Finland and Sweden appear on the list. Perhaps someone else will join them. One way or another, the tournament could potentially do without not only Russia, but also without the Czech Republic, Germany, Switzerland, Slovakia and a number of other countries, where the level of hockey has grown noticeably in recent years along with the number of their star representatives. That is, in theory, competitions under the auspices of the NHL could miss 60-80% percent (abstract, inaccurate numbers) of players throughout the league. You can see the battles of the twentieth team of the Canadian national team, students from the USA and Scandinavian immigrants from European leagues at the World Championship, why then create another tournament similar in content?
This, interestingly, is indicated by the majority of fans from North America. It is clear that their words do not solve anything, but the voice of the people is indicative. If you read numerous comments on social networks — for example, on X (formerly Twitter) — you can see how viewers are categorically against a tournament in a similar format. They don’t need a North American equivalent of the Euro Hockey Tour. This is especially true for the status of Russians. The Americans express particular dissatisfaction with the absence of Russia among the championship participants and justify their claims by the potentially low level of quality and interest of the tournament, similar to what has been happening in the last couple of years with the IIHF World Championships of various age categories. The modern NHL relies, among other things, on Russian stars, and it is obvious that the absence from the tournament, for example, of Alexander Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, Nikita Kucherov, Artemy Panarin, Kirill Kaprizov, Andrei Vasilevsky, Igor Shesterkin, Ilya Sorokin, Mikhail Sergachev, Dmitry Orlov and many, many, many other Russians, will deprive the competition of the very sharpness and attractiveness of battles among the world's best hockey players.
All the same Americans rightly point out the lack of logic in the actions of the NHL and NHLPA. “If the Russians compete in the league without any problems, then why can’t they play in this tournament created by the NHL?” — a similar question is rightly raised in the discussion. However, the league will not give a clear answer to this. Everything is heading towards the fact that the former reputation of the NHL — the territory of the superiority of sports business over political beliefs — will be noticeably undermined. It will be interesting how the main Russian stars of the league, who previously expressed a sincere desire to represent their country at the tournament, will react to this.
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