logo
ENFRع
#

Latest news with #IIHF

Why The NHL Shouldn't Make The 4 Nations Face-Off An Annual Event
Why The NHL Shouldn't Make The 4 Nations Face-Off An Annual Event

Miami Herald

time13-07-2025

  • Sport
  • Miami Herald

Why The NHL Shouldn't Make The 4 Nations Face-Off An Annual Event

By Jack Klinck, The Hockey News intern The success of the 4 Nations Face-Off instead of the NHL All-Star Game had some fans asking, "Why not do this every year?" With all-star games and skills competitions becoming less and less popular across all sports, leagues are constantly looking at ways to squeeze excitement out of these low-effort showings. It seems like the NHL is the first league to crack the code. Want to make all-star weekends more exciting? Scrap them all together. Instead of a breakaway challenge, slam dunk competition or dodgeball game, let players put on their country's colors and play for something they actually want to win. With the excitement of the 4 Nations, it's hard to imagine a return to another NHL All-Star Game in the coming years. With NHL players participating in the Olympics in 2026, fans will get another taste of best-on-best, but after that, it's likely back to the NHL's old all-star ways. But maybe that's a good thing. Connor McDavid seems to think so. He said that best-on-best hockey every two years is enough because of the physical toll it takes on the players. As much fun as the 4 Nations Face-Off has been, Connor, we agree. While playing high-intensity playoff-style hockey instead of having a week-long vacation takes a toll on the players, having international best-on-best hockey every year would diminish the meaning of these tournaments and dilute the quality of play. Part of what has made this tournament so exciting was that it was our first taste of men's international best-on-best hockey since the World Cup of Hockey in 2016. It's the rarity that makes it special. For the first time in their careers, the best players in the world could play for their country at the highest level. The NHL caught magic in a bottle with the 4 Nations Face-Off, but it's a magic they can only capture once. Now it's time to tighten the lid and put that bottle back on the shelf. Imagine if every best-on-best tournament ended with a "there's always next year" mentality. Not just that, but a "there's always every year" mentality. The fans would be less interested, and the players would treat it as less of a priority. Take the IIHF's World Championship for example. A tournament of the top hockey countries in the world that sees many NHL players prioritize healing ailments and having a longer off-season over competing for their country. Although the tournament happens in May and usually overlaps with the second round of the NHL playoffs, players such as Connor Bedard, Cale Makar and Cole Caufield were available by that time last season. Not one of them went. The tournament is popular in Europe and has seen countries that likely wouldn't medal in true best-on-best competition like Switzerland, Latvia and Germany leave with some hardware. The worlds also give top prospects a chance to play against high-level professional competition. While the World Championship is great for the game, it should serve as a cautionary tale for the NHL: best-on-best hockey shouldn't be where players go to work on their game or get healthy. It should be the best players in the world playing their best hockey. With NHL Olympic participation in 2026 and the return of the World Cup of Hockey in 2028, we will see international best-on-best hockey at least every two years. And that should be enough. The 4 Nations Face-Off seems like the odd man out. While the NHL seemed to have fixed the All-Star Game this year, it is only a one-time fix. There will still be a February opening in the schedule every second season that the NHL will have to fill. But the league will need to flex its creative muscles as more international hockey is not the way to go. Get the latest news and trending stories by following The Hockey News on Google News and by subscribing to The Hockey News newsletter here. And share your thoughts by commenting below the article on Copyright The Hockey News, Roustan Media Ltd.

Gabriel Vilardi, Lukas Dostal Headline 2025 NHL Salary Arbitration Class
Gabriel Vilardi, Lukas Dostal Headline 2025 NHL Salary Arbitration Class

Forbes

time05-07-2025

  • Business
  • Forbes

Gabriel Vilardi, Lukas Dostal Headline 2025 NHL Salary Arbitration Class

Goaltender Lukas Dostal of the Anaheim Ducks and forward Gabriel Vilardi of the Winnipeg Jets are ... More among the 11 NHL players who have filed for salary abritration in 2025. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images) As the NHL's salary cap continues to rise, the number of players filing for salary arbitration continues to fall. On Saturday, the NHL Players' Association issued its list of 11 players who have filed for arbitration in 2025. That's down from 14 in 2024, and continues a downward trend. This year, the two most prominent names on the list both hail from the Western Conference. Lukas Dostal, 25, is now the Anaheim Ducks' undisputed No. 1 goaltender after veteran John Gibson was traded to the Detroit Red Wings on June 28. And 25-year-old Gabriel Vilardi is a big center who is coming off a career-high 61 points in 71 games with the Winnipeg Jets in 2024-25. Both are due for significant raises. Dostal was primarily an AHL goalie who had played just 23 NHL games when he signed his last contract in 2023 — a two-year deal at a budget cap hit of just $812,500. Since then, he supplanted Gibson in Anaheim and backstopped Czechia to an emotional gold medal at the 2024 IIHF World Championship, cementing his spot as a national hero in his homeland and being named one of the Czechs' first six players on the roster for the 2026 Winter Olympics. Dostal posted a 23-23-7 record as the Ducks gained 21 points in the standings in 2024-25, and the team is looking to push for a playoff spot this year with the help of new coach Joel Quenneville and veteran additions Chris Kreider and Mikael Granlund as well as rising-star defenseman Jackson LaCombe. According to PuckPedia, Anaheim also has nearly $29 million in available cap space — more than enough to get Dostal inked to a long-term deal. Anaheim defenseman Drew Helleson is also among the 11 players who filed. A depth defenseman, the 24-year-old split his time between Anaheim and the AHL San Diego Gulls last season. After spending three years at Boston College, he's coming out of his entry-level contract which carried a cap hit of $925,000. Dylan Samberg and Morgan Barron have both filed for arbitration with the Winnipeg Jets. (Photo by ... More Jonathan Kozub/NHLI via Getty Images) Up in Winnipeg, the Jets have close to $20 million available after winger Nikolaj Ehlers elected to take his services to the Carolina Hurricanes earlier this week as an unrestricted free agent. But GM Kevin Cheveldayoff has some work to do, as Vilardi is one of three Jets who have filed for arbitration. The others are forward Morgan Barron and defenseman Dylan Samberg. After Vilardi was acquired as part of the return for Pierre-Luc Dubois during the summer of 2023, the Jets inked him to a two-year bridge deal with a cap hit of just over $3.4 million. Barron, 26, is coming off a two-year deal with a cap hit of $1.35 million. He's a big-bodied bottom-six player who collected 15 points in 74 games last season. As for Samberg, the 26-year-old has been drafted and developed by the Jets and has become one of their most important defenders. Though his offense is modest — he hit a career high of six goals last season — his ice time jumped to more than 21 minutes a game, cementing his spot as an important member of Winnipeg's top four. He's coming off a two-year deal that carried a $1.4 million cap hit. AFP Analytics projects a four-year deal for Vilardi at a cap hit of $6.8 million, two years for Barron at $1.56 million and five years for Samberg at $5.2 million. If those projections are close for the reigning Presidents' Trophy winners, that will eat up about $13.5 million of Winnipeg's available cap space. No other team has more than one player up for arbitration. Here's the list: The Kraken also avoided a potential arbitration filing on Saturday when they signed forward Tye Kartye to a new two-year deal with a cap hit of $1.35 million. The Columbus Blue Jackets did the same with a two-year deal for 23-goal scorer Dmitry Voronkov. The cap charge there is $4.175 million. Players who file for arbitration are now committed to getting a deal done with their current teams. They can still agree to a contract before their scheduled hearing, which will be held between July 20 - Aug. 4 but as of Saturday, they are no longer eligible to sign an offer sheet from another team. A handful of arbitration-eligible players elected not to file on Saturday — as Jeremy Swayman of the Boston Bruins notably chose last summer. That decision can give a player more contract flexibility: in Swayman's case, he held out until training camp before inking an eight-year contract, rather than being bound by a one or two-year deal that arbitration would deliver. Players also like to avoid arbitration hearings wherever possible due to the harsh assessments that teams can sometimes deliver while making their cases. This year, the two most notable names who didn't file are defensemen Bowen Byram of the Buffalo Sabres and Cam York of the Philadelphia Flyers. Byram, 24, has been a frequent subject of trade rumors and even a potential offer-sheet candidate — although Sabres GM Kevyn Adams said this week that he would 'absolutely' match any offer sheet that might be presented. Byram's last deal, signed when he was still a member of the Colorado Avalanche, carried a $3.85 million cap hit over three years. York, also 24, saw his role decrease somewhat under John Tortorella last year, and he was an occasional healthy scratch. He'll have a new coach, Rick Tocchet, to impress this fall. York's last deal was a two-year contract at $1.6 million. To be eligible to file for arbitration, a player must be a restricted free agent and have accrued the required amount of professional experience, which varies depending on the age at which a player signs his first contract. For 18-to-20-year-olds, four years of experience is required before arbitration eligibility begins; the threshold drops for players who sign their first contracts at older ages. Arbitration awards can be one or two years. If the arbitrator awards a salary of less than $4.85 million, the award is binding. If the arbitration award is greater than that number, the team has an option to walk away. If it's a one-year contract, the team can immediately decline, making the player an unrestricted free agent. If it's a two-year contract, they must accept the first year of the deal, but can walk away after that. There is a strong incentive for both sides to come to terms before the arbitration hearing begins. That's what happens in most cases — having a fixed arbitration date on the calendar creates a firm deadline for both sides to reach an agreement. The deadline for team-elected filings for 2025 NHL salary arbitration is Sunday, July 6 at 5 p.m. ET. Typically, there are no more than a handful of filings of this type each year.

All Systems Go For NHL Players' Return To 2026 Winter Olympics
All Systems Go For NHL Players' Return To 2026 Winter Olympics

Forbes

time04-07-2025

  • Sport
  • Forbes

All Systems Go For NHL Players' Return To 2026 Winter Olympics

Canada's Nathan MacKinnon of Team Canada and Dylan Larkin of Team USA will be among the NHL players ... More with the opportunity to play at the Olympics for the first time in 2026. (Photo by Vitor Munhoz/4NFO/World Cup of Hockey via Getty Images) After a 12-year absence, the stage is set for NHL players to return to the ice at the 2026 Winter Olympics. On Wednesday, the key stakeholders gathered at the offices of the International Ice Hockey Federation in Zurich, Switzerland to finalize the agreement for Olympic participation between the NHL, NHL Players' Association, IIHF and the International Olympic Committee. 'This agreement will lead to the participation of all the best ice hockey players of the world in the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 and the Olympic Winter Games 2030,' said IOC president Kristy Coventry. 'All the parties who were involved in coming to this agreement should be commended for this excellent result.' The news follows the mid-June announcements of the first six players for each of the 12 participating countries as well as the detailed tournament schedule. Here's what fans need to know: Men's Hockey At The 2026 Winter Olympics Dates: Feb. 11-22, 2026 Location: Milan, Italy Tickets: available from 2026 Winter Olympics Hockey Tournament Format The 12 participating teams are divided into three groups of four. Participation was determined through world rankings and qualifying tournaments. Teams from Russia and Belarus remain ineligible as part of the sanctions imposed following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In the preliminary round, teams will play the other three teams in their group to determine seeding. There will be two preliminary-round games on Wednesday, Feb. 11 and four games each day from Feb. 12-15. Game times will be at 6:10 a.m., 10:40 a.m. and 3:10 p.m. (all ET). Four teams will advance directly to the quarter-finals: the top team in each group, and the next highest-ranked team. The eight remaining teams will be seeded for a one-game qualification playoff, with all four games played Tuesday, Feb. 17. From there, the four quarterfinal games will be played on Wednesday, Feb. 18, with the semifinals on Friday, Feb. 20. The bronze-medal game will be played on Saturday, Feb. 21 at 2:40 p.m. ET and the gold-medal game will go Sunday, Feb. 22 at 8:10 a.m. ET. 2026 Winter Olympics Hockey Groups And First Six Players 2026 Winter Olympics Roster Sizes Each team at the 2026 Winter Olympics will be permitted to carry a roster of up to 22 skaters and 3 goaltenders for a total of 25 players. That's two more skaters than were allowed at the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off. Final rosters are expected to be announced by Dec. 31, 2025. 2026 Winter Olympics Women's Hockey Tournament The women's tournament at the 2026 Winter Olympics will feature 10 teams, divided into two groups. Games will be played at the same two arenas, from Feb. 5-19. The round robin will run from Feb. 5-10, with the quarterfinals on Feb. 13-14, the semifinals on Feb. 16, and both medal games on Feb. 19.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store