Has NHL lost interest in the international game?
Don’t be bothered if your memories of the 2016 World Cup of Hockey are a bit sketchy. You’re not alone.
As a refresher, the tournament was held two Septembers ago, entirely in Toronto, there were two amalgamation teams made up of players from various European countries and NHLers under the age of 23, the U.S. squad was lousy and Canada beat the Euros in a forgettable two-game final. The hockey was fine, if not compelling, and the profits were considerable, if not spectacular.
More than anything, it was a start. The NHL was back on the board with what was once its signature international event before the league joined the Olympic movement in 1998, working hand-in-hand with the NHL Players Association and sharing the proceeds.
The intention was clear. After 12 years without a non-Olympic, best-on-best competition, the World Cup was not only going to be a regular event, likely every four years, it was going to be accompanied by several other new events to showcase NHL players internationally.
“We’re committed to multiple tournaments on a regular schedule,” said NHL executive Bill Daly back on the eve of the 2016 World Cup.
Well, here we are in 2018, almost in October, and no events, new or old, have materialized. Boston and Calgary were in China for a couple of meaningless exhibition games earlier this month. Edmonton and New Jersey will kick off the 2018-19 NHL season in Gothenberg, Sweden, as part of the 2018 NHL Global Series, which will also include Winnipeg and Florida flying to Helsinki for games Nov. 1 and 2.
This is clearly not what the grand plan was. As golf dominates the headlines with the Ryder Cup in Paris over the next few days, an international competition that seems to be growing in stature with every passing year, we’re left to wonder when hockey will hold it’s next big event.
Between 1972 and 1996, there were seven major international clashes, including the ’72 Summit Series, five Canada Cup tournaments and one World Cup. Between 1998 and 2016, there were five visits by NHLers to the Olympics, and two World Cups.
So that’s 14 attention-grabbing international hockey events in 44 years, one every 3 1/2 years or so. Now, there could be another World Cup, maybe, in 2020. Or maybe not. And beyond that? There has been lots of talk and many promises, but it appears there is again no plan, no vision, no agenda.
We know there will be nothing in 2018, and it seems likely there will also be nothing major in 2019. Instead, labour uncertainty and the owners seeming lack of interest in being part of the Olympics have disrupted the international hockey momentum that was supposed to flow out of the 2016 World Cup.
Both sides can opt out of the current bargaining agreement a year from now, although the actual collective bargaining agreement runs through 202122. The NHL can opt out on Sept. 1, 2019, the NHLPA can do so on Sept. 15. The pact itself cannot be terminated until September 2020, but Bettman already made it clear the league isn’t interested in holding a World Cup if the CBA is about to be terminated. That’s what happened in 2004, and it put a dark cloud over the event.
Meanwhile, upwards of 75 NHL players already have “lockout proof” salary bonuses in place for the 2020-21 season, a group that includes the newest Maple Leaf, John Tavares. So everyone’s already girding themselves for another big fight, and international hockey seems destined to be a casualty of that battle. Again.
The players are likely going to fight for the ability to participate in the Winter Olympics after the NHL denied them that right for the 2018 Olympics in South Korea, but a protracted squabble could again push international hockey even further off the front burner for NHL owners.
Everyone on both sides say they want more global shinny than just these little trips by individual teams to the Far East and Europe, but CBA problems always seem to get in the way.
“We need a long-term international calendar agreement with the owners,” NHLPA boss Don Fehr said earlier this month.
Right now, after adding Las Vegas last season, the league seems more focused on expanding to Seattle. Owners love expansion dollars a lot more than whatever international hockey delivers.
The NHL theoretically could go back to the Winter Olym- pics for the 2022 Beijing gathering, but that would mean NHL owners would have to again believe there’s something in it for them. The return of a non-apologetic Russia to the Olympic “family”, meanwhile, has put a stain across the entire competition. Why would the NHL, or anyone for that matter, want to be part of that?
Maybe international hockey, perhaps aside from the annual Christmas diversion known as the world juniors, has lost its zing for good. The last truly memorable NHL best-on-best event was the 1987 Canada Cup, while the Olympics worked well in 2002 and 2010, and not so well in 1998, 2006 and 2014. Those of us of a certain vintage will always cherish the memory of the 1972 Summit Series, but that was 46 years ago in a very different world.
Right now, it’s hard to imagine the NHL and the NHLPA being able to combine forces, put all their other interests and differences aside, and produce a compelling, legitimate and consistent series of competitions even close in quality or excitement to the Ryder Cup. And if it's not going to be special, or anything but an irregular cash grab by the owners and players, who needs it?