After Czechia won gold at the IIIF World Championships last May, David Pastrnak posted a photo of himself grinning in his stall, clutching the championship trophy in one hand, a beer in the other, with a gold medal hanging over the crest of his home country’s jersey.
Pastrnak used the celebratory moment after Czechia’s 2-0 victory over Switzerland to take a shot at the NHL’s latest attempt at running its own international best-on-best showdown.
“Maybe Four Nations invite now?” the Boston Bruins’ four-time All-Star typed beneath the Instagram image.
Despite a proud and successful place in international hockey, Czechia was excluded from the nations chosen to compete in the NHL’s newest iteration of its World Cup of Hockey, the 4 Nations Face-Off.
Only NHL players from Canada, the United States, Finland and Sweden will compete in the tournament, which begins Feb. 12 — taking the place of the league’s usual All-Star event.
The limited nature of the tournament left many of the world’s best players upset about sitting on the sidelines while their NHL counterparts compete for their home countries. “Of course we are sad, pissed, you know,” Pastrnak said when the 4 Nations Face-Off was first announced last year. “A lot of talented guys who would love to play for their country.”
The tournament — with games taking place in Montreal and Boston over a nine-day window — is meant to herald in a new era of NHL involvement in international hockey, with NHL players returning to the Winter Olympics in 2026 and a commitment to host future World Cup tournaments. But the limited scope of this year’s event and the sprint to get it off the ground underscore more than a decade of struggle between players, the league, and the sport’s international governing bodies.
For a generation of players who have never represented their countries in a best-on-best competition during their NHL careers, it’s an imperfect solution — but it’s a solution.
“This is my first opportunity playing for Team USA at the highest level,” says Matthew Tkachuk, now more than 700 games into his career. “I’ve been pretty upset with the last few events that have been canceled, or whatever, the last few years. I’ve had this circled for however long it’s been rumored that we’d be doing it.”
Connor McDavid, arguably the world’s best player, has never represented Canada at the Olympics, but has longed for it. “It’s no secret that I’ve been vocal in terms of wanting best-on-best hockey,” he says.
These pleas are nothing new from members of the NHL Players’ Association.
Former players union head Donald Fehr often urged an aggressive pursuit of new international opportunities during his 13-year run. He was part of failed negotiations with the NHL on multiple potential tournaments.
When Marty Walsh succeeded Fehr in February 2023, the lack of best-on-best international competition was one of the main issues players brought up with him.
Since the Sochi Olympics in 2014, a generation of NHL players had been denied the opportunity to represent their countries at the highest level.
In that time, the IIHF’s World Championship was the sport’s biggest international prize. But that tournament lacked a best-on-best pedigree because it runs concurrently with the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Four years before Sochi, when McDavid was just 13 years old, he watched Sidney Crosby score his golden goal for Canada at the Vancouver Olympics. But since he’s been in the league, he’s never had the opportunity to experience that kind of thrill. Victor Hedman — who was 23 years old when Sweden controversially passed on taking him to the Sochi Olympics — is now a 34-year-old veteran and father of two.
“The last time I played in best-on-best was the World Cup in, I don’t even know when that was … 2016?” says Hedman.
The NHL returned to a new hybrid-version of the World Cup in 2016, when Toronto hosted a World Cup that included a hybrid of pseudo-national teams, a European team, and a team of young stars from North America.
The event took place before the NHL season. And — while entertaining — it didn’t carry the stakes of past World Cup events or the Olympics. Alex Pietrangelo remembers it feeling more like a training camp tournament.
“I’m trying to think of the politically correct answer here,” the Canadian defenseman says, when asked if the event felt intense to play in.
Alex Pietrangelo (left), along with teammate Drew Doughty, during the 2016 event in Toronto. (Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
The first time NHL players competed in a best-on-best event was the 1976 Canada Cup. That grew out of the immense public interest created by the 1972 Summit Series, which pitted Canada against the Soviet Union in an eight-game series. That initial event grew into a six-team offseason tournament that was held in 1981, 1984, 1987 and 1991.
The Canada Cup was eventually succeeded by the World Cup of Hockey in 1996, which expanded to eight teams and saw Team USA beat Canada in a memorable three-game final.
While that was a high-water mark for best-on-best hockey, the new tournament failed to gain a consistent footing after NHL players participated in their first Olympics at the 1998 Nagano Games, and that quickly became the priority.
Plans for a 2000 World Cup slipped away because the NHL and NHLPA were focused on a deal to return players to the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. And when the tournament was revived in 2004, it was played under the shadow of a looming labor dispute. Within hours of Canada beating Finland in the final, the NHL initiated a lockout that spanned 310 days and saw the entire 2004-05 season canceled.
NHL players would compete in three more Olympics — 2006 in Turin, 2010 in Vancouver and 2014 in Sochi — but the logistical challenges grew with each successive event. Some team owners began questioning the value of pausing the NHL season to loan their players to the tournament. They feared some of their greatest assets were risking injury for no direct payback, especially given the strict control the International Olympic Committee (IOC) maintained over marketing and media rights.
Further complicating matters, the NHL, IIHF and IOC came to an impasse in April 2017 over rising insurance and travel costs, which prompted the league to walk away from the 2018 Pyeongchang Games. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman told reporters that team owners weren’t eager to pay for the “privilege of disrupting our season.”
What it all boiled down to was control.
The NHL was seeking more say in tournaments featuring its biggest stars and hoped to generate more of a tangible payback. But without the involvement of the IOC or the IIHF it’s been impossible to create an event that rivals what came before.
A planned 2020 World Cup was canceled when the NHL and NHLPA could not come to terms over extending an expiring collective-bargaining agreement between the parties. An attempt at a 2021 World Cup failed as well.
The Covid pandemic scuttled plans for NHL players to return for the 2022 Olympics in Beijing at the 11th Hour.
There were plans between the NHL and the players association to stage a World Cup in February 2024, but they fell apart amid resistance from the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) and other international bodies.
The players and the league worked jointly to negotiate a path for NHL players to be involved in the 2026 Olympics in Milano. When there was some certainty that the NHL would return to the Olympics, the league and union turned their attention to some kind of competition before the 2026 Games.
“This was something we both thought was a good idea,” said Bill Daly, the NHL’s deputy commissioner.
Sidney Crosby helped secure Canada’s gold medal at the 2014 Games in Sochi, the last Olympics to feature NHL players. (Martin Rose / Getty Images)
In trying to kickstart a new era in international hockey, the feedback the NHLPA received from players was that they wanted to represent their nations and move away from gimmicks of the past.
So the 4 Nations Face-Off was conceived. But which nations would be allowed to compete? The IIHF banned Russia from all international competitions following the country’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. That meant excluding superstars like Alex Ovechkin and Nikita Kucherov.
And by allowing only players currently under an NHL contract to compete, the talent pool for many European nations — like Switzerland and Germany — was constricted.
To work with the NHL schedule, the tournament would have to fall into the league’s annual week-long All-Star break, which significantly limited the number of games that could be played.
So the focus shifted to a smaller scale event, leaning into traditional rivalries between countries that could fill rosters with NHL players.
Canada, the United States, Sweden and Finland were obvious choices — with 385, 278, 92 and 50 NHL players, respectively. Though Czechia has 29 NHL players, it would be a stretch to fill out each position. And there was no interest in returning to the Team Europe format used in the 2016 event.
The players’ association canvassed its members, particularly regarding the exclusion of those not from one of the four nations represented.
“Is there a desire from a broader group of players to play? Absolutely,” says Rob Zepp, the NHLPA’s senior director of International Strategy and Growth.
The union spoke directly with players like Roman Josi, the star Swiss defenseman, who will be excluded from the tournament. “It would be great for Swiss hockey to be part of that just to have people watch in Switzerland, for young kids, and just all the other countries too, that are not in it,” Josi says.
At the same time, he’s not complaining about the break. “It’ll be fun to watch,” he says. “But I’m not too mad about getting a little vacation either.”
Tomas Hertl was also aware Czechia would have trouble finding enough NHL defensemen to fill its roster. “Nothing you can do,” Hertl says. “We just have to keep making a good name for the Czechs and bring in more players.”
But despite that disappointment, Zepp says most players agreed it was a positive move toward more international competition.
The sprint to pull off the event included arranging logistics between the two host cities over a nine-day window.
The lead up required the negotiation of new media rights and sponsorship deals, planning game operations and game presentation, while also organizing ancillary events in Boston and Montreal. For the past several months, it’s been an all-day, every-day sprint for this “massive event,” Zepp says.
And it’s expected to mark the NHL’s consistent return to international competition.
“While this event might be the one and only 4 Nations Face-Off you see, this is really a building block to establishing that long-term international calendar that involves international best-on-best, which is something the sport hasn’t seen,” Zepp says. “The consensus is that this is a stepping stone to 2026, 2028, and beyond.”
Daly expects the next World Cup to look much different. In 2028, the plan is a return to an eight-team World Cup event — though the specifics still need to be determined. There is some thought around creating a qualifying tournament in which countries would play for a chance to join a group of six automatically invited nations.
But even though the 4 Nations Face-Off won’t be that kind of event, Daly believes players will embrace it.
“I don’t think there’s any concern at all that this will be the most important things that these players are focused on during that time period,” Daly says. “I don’t think there was any player in our league who didn’t want to be selected or considered for selection in their teams.”
Victor Hedman is intrigued to face his Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper, who will be at the helm for Team Canada — while reuniting on Team Sweden with current NHL rivals like the Leafs’ William Nylander, with whom he won a world championship in 2017.
“I think it’s a tremendous tournament just for hockey in general,” Hedman says.
Jack Eichel is excited for the opportunity to represent the United States. “Listen, when you put guys in that situation and you have your country on your chest and you’re representing more than you normally do, I think there’s not only a lot of pride that comes with it, but yeah, I think there’s going to be a ton of competitiveness,” Eichel says. “We all want to win right? We want to be the champions of that tournament. We’re going there to win.”
Bruins captain Brad Marchand, who will represent Canada, expects the tournament to be as intense as past Olympic clashes.
“Guys are going to be out for blood. We’re not out there as an exhibition match,” he says. “It doesn’t matter how quick it gets thrown together, or who’s involved — when you put that Canada jersey on or U.S., whatever it is, you’re going to leave it all on the ice.”
(Illustration: Will Tullos / The Athletic. Images: Jeff Vinnick / Getty Images)
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