NHL/NHLPA tracking to participate in 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan Italy, and the 2030 Winter Olympics

[Coconuts]

12 minutes ago, DSVII said:

I would not be, they'll just come in as OAR again (Olympic Athletes from Russia)

 

That I could see, but Russia as a country? Nahhh

[cripplereh]

9 hours ago, KoreanHockeyFan said:

 

Owners love this guy. He's not going anywhere until he himself wants to step down. 

Really?

 

This past off season many owners wanted the cap to go up and then Bettman announced he screwed up a TV deal costing hundreds of millions.

 

I think his time will be up sooner then later.

[KoreanHockeyFan]

8 hours ago, cripplereh said:

Really?

 

This past off season many owners wanted the cap to go up and then Bettman announced he screwed up a TV deal costing hundreds of millions.

 

I think his time will be up sooner then later.

 

I don't know enough about the TV deals to make a judgement on how good or bad of a business deal they've been for the owners. As far as I know, I thought the deal with Rogers/Sportsnet was a lucrative one in terms of the actual contract dollars when it was initially signed, but my knowledge is quite limited on this, so feel free to elaborate. 

 

Barring performance around TV deals and whatnot, I think the only sure-fire way Bettman gets told to step down is if something scathing comes out of the Hockey Canada sexual assault case. Like it or not, since this guy came in the 90's, he's raked in expansion fees for the owners and got a major win for them with the hard salary cap back in 2005. 

Edited February 3 by KoreanHockeyFan

[cripplereh]

2 hours ago, KoreanHockeyFan said:

 

I don't know enough about the TV deals to make a judgement on how good or bad of a business deal they've been for the owners. As far as I know, I thought the deal with Rogers/Sportsnet was a lucrative one in terms of the actual contract dollars when it was initially signed, but my knowledge is quite limited on this, so feel free to elaborate. 

 

Barring performance around TV deals and whatnot, I think the only sure-fire way Bettman gets told to step down is if something scathing comes out of the Hockey Canada sexual assault case. Like it or not, since this guy came in the 90's, he's raked in expansion fees for the owners and got a major win for them with the hard salary cap back in 2005. 

Not sure the details as it's in the us and a big part that the company went under so the NHL list hundreds of millions.

 

Plus yes this last year the owners a lot of them were pissed as Bettman before that deal fell threw said since COVID the NHL had made a fair amount of money which owners wanted the cap to go up and hasn't.

 

I think next year and the following it will quit a bit, but for now some owners are still mad.

[6of1_halfdozenofother]

5 hours ago, KoreanHockeyFan said:

I think the only sure-fire way Bettman gets told to step down is if something scathing comes out of the Hockey Canada sexual assault case.

 

Sadly, I disagree that even this would cause him to step down.  Dude's underwear is made of teflon.

 

It would probably take nothing less than fraud to take him down - and if the fraud were to have been performed upon the owners, I'm sure he'll be taught to BASE jump without a parachute really quick, at an accelerated rate of 9.8 m/sec^2

[wai_lai416]

lol 4 nations cup might as well not have it at all. Literally only team USA have competent goalies for the event..

[Jaimito]

1 hour ago, wai_lai416 said:

lol 4 nations cup might as well not have it at all. Literally only team USA have competent goalies for the event..

Hill is the defending cup champ.

If he's healthy, he will be on the list.  

[Slegr]

On 2/2/2024 at 2:07 PM, Coconuts said:

I'd be surprised if they allow Russia to participate, well, slightly. 

 

 

 

There’s no way Russian players should be able to play in the Olympics, regardless of whether it’s for team Russia or as independents. They were previously banned because the country couldn’t stop cheating with drugs. But now that Russia continues to invade Ukraine, killing innocent lives daily, there needs to be consequences globally. Russia must learn that the international community will not tolerate their invasion.

Edited February 4 by Slegr

[CanuckMan]

46 minutes ago, Slegr said:

There’s no way Russian players should be able to play in the Olympics, regardless of whether it’s for team Russia or as independents. They were previously banned because the country couldn’t stop cheating with drugs. But now that Russia continues to invade Ukraine, killing innocent lives daily, there needs to be consequences globally. Russia must learn that the international community will not tolerate their invasion.

Going by those statements you made, if Israel ever made a national ice hockey team capable of going to the olympics they should be banned too. But they’d allow Israel since it’s a western backed country. Yet I see Israel doing no different than Russia (if not worse). 
I’d gladly support the Russians going to the olympics. GERMANY was allowed to enter the olympics after ww1/ww2. No one has ever been as bad as them eh?

[wai_lai416]

3 hours ago, Jaimito said:

Hill is the defending cup champ.

If he's healthy, he will be on the list.  

Hill is a goalie with no more than 27 games a season on a stacked vegas team where all their goalies look better than they are.. lehner thompson fleury all have been exceptional paying for the vegas.. so it's probably not a conincident the team is making him better than he looks. 

[Jaimito]

13 minutes ago, wai_lai416 said:

Hill is a goalie with no more than 27 games a season on a stacked vegas team where all their goalies look better than they are.. lehner thompson fleury all have been exceptional paying for the vegas.. so it's probably not a conincident the team is making him better than he looks. 

Sure.  But he'll have among the best players in front of him if he's on Team Canada, deeper than VGK ever had.  You don't need to be the best goalie in the world to win on that team. 

[Jaimito]

Wrong thread 

Edited February 4 by Jaimito

[wai_lai416]

2 hours ago, Jaimito said:

Sure.  But he'll have among the best players in front of him if he's on Team Canada, deeper than VGK ever had.  You don't need to be the best goalie in the world to win on that team. 

Actually you do need to have one of the best goalie in the world to win lol 98 best goalie in the world hasek won.. 2002 brodeur 2006 lundqvist 2010 luongo 2014 price.. literally every single goalie that won was top 1-3 at the time in their career. In such a short tournament where teams have almost no time to gel and practice goalie which doesn’t require much team bonding is even more important. If u haven’t noticed in all of the Olympic where nhler were involved it’s almost the team with the best goalies ends up in the final. In 1 game eliminations I’ll take a goalie that can stand on his head regardless of the roster than a goalie that relies on the team to play well in front of him. The skill difference between the forwards and defence are negligible.. the goalies are mountains apart. There’s literally not a goalie in Canada that’s even ranked top 10 in the league unless you are buying into the skinner hype. 

[IBatch]

22 hours ago, KoreanHockeyFan said:

 

I don't know enough about the TV deals to make a judgement on how good or bad of a business deal they've been for the owners. As far as I know, I thought the deal with Rogers/Sportsnet was a lucrative one in terms of the actual contract dollars when it was initially signed, but my knowledge is quite limited on this, so feel free to elaborate. 

 

Barring performance around TV deals and whatnot, I think the only sure-fire way Bettman gets told to step down is if something scathing comes out of the Hockey Canada sexual assault case. Like it or not, since this guy came in the 90's, he's raked in expansion fees for the owners and got a major win for them with the hard salary cap back in 2005. 

Bettman will stay as long as he wants.    Personally was seriously disappointed with what happened to the game in the late 90's and 2000's, the NHL was able to expand to 24 teams and barely keep the talent level up, only because of the iron curtain falling, and scouring european countries and drafting the cream of the crop.   It worked for awhile.    In the 80's, we didn't have much.   The Stastny brothers.    Before that Salming.    Stastny would be near or at the top of the list of players of the decade, if it wasn't for Gretzky and Mario.   In short, there were others outside of the NHL, who for sure could have played in the NHL and made it better, and provide room for SOME expansion.   

 

 There was a massive contingent of stars playing on the Red Army at the time (1987 Canada Cup, is still considered the best collection of hockey players all-time, and look at how difficult it was for Canada to beat them).    Eventually Larionov, Festisov, Makarov and a few others from those teams came in and played in the NHL in their late 20's and 30's.    Remarkable players.   Makarov  changed the way the Calder worked, at 33 he won.   Was so good, Tippet basically made him a coach, he took five guys to one side and ran the drills.   SJ beat the mighty wings, huge upset one of the biggest all-time. 

 

Sundin, Selanne, Bure, Federov,  Kovalev, Jagr,  Zubov,  Forsberg , Konsantinov, Lidstrom and a bunch of Nedved's, and a pile of goalies.  It was enough to sustain the quality when SJ, ANA and OTT were added but barely.    And not really even then.   SJ copied NJ and the trap was born, mediocre to bad teams, started drafting Ludwig/Hatcher sized bodies with half the talent to fill out rosters (added jobs).     And for whatever reason, the next wave of guys coming up behind them, were underwhelming, and couldn't match up with previous generations.    Some really bad drafts.   Lidstrom couldn't win a Norris until the guys he was competing against aged out.   Only Pronger and Neidermayer left!   Yikes.    The league expanded, and it took a very long time, to consolidate it.   25- 30 years IMO, thank god for Crosby and Ovi anyways.    

 

So the league kept adding teams, and there was no more planet to find the players, and the next generation, was a tad lacking (the proof is in the pudding).    Eventually Crosby and Ovi arrived.   Things slowly,  year to year, started getting a little better.   And finally we had a 5-6 year period, of very good to excellent drafts.  It's taken a very long time, to get things back to 90's levels, pre dead puck era, rule changes.   The league far surpassed its ability to ice the same product it had with 21-24 teams, but kept expanding anyways. 

 

...for 3 decades it was the norm to have Orr/Potvin/Park/Borque/Coffey/AlMac/Leetch/Housley/Murphy ... Chelios, Robinson, Langway, Stevens, Zubov, Konstantinov, Blake etc ... and whole pile of guys like Wilson, Babych, Carlyle, Huddy, Lowe, Foote etc.    

 

There is a reason why older fans dislike Bettman.   The ones around before he took over, enjoyed the very best the sport had to offer.    It felt like he stole that from us, and was the man in charge during the dead puck era, and the game floundering to the point we needed an entire season lost.   Greed.   From the players and the owners, billionaires quibbling with millionaires for their share of the pie.    And some of these expansion teams ... NSH?  PHX?!  CLB!!  why why why?   The game was already suffering.   The on ice product.   Why add 25 AHLers each time?  

 

Also by the looks of it, with honest reflection, Bettman saved us too.   Vancouver couldn't compete (Burke) with the massive losses.   Without creating a hard cap, the league wouldn't look like it does today.    And as for his job itself, he did a tremendous job for the owners over the years.   Still all for retraction.   Imagine for a moment, if you went down to 24 teams, and what the talent level would be like today.    And truly hope, that they stop that.   32 teams.   The league can't and shouldn't go to 40 which I think could be their long term target.    That means, there will be a lot of fans, whom never get to see their team win a cup.    32 is tough enough. 

 

Already some rumblings of Houston.   If they go to 9 in one division... Bettman needs to do the right thing now.   Stop expanding.   And re-locate ARI.    CAR attendance was so bad, the players had to add gimmicks.   Even with a cup,  Raliegh isn't a good hockey market either.   Move them to Quebec City.    If he makes a commitment and states we won't expand ... well one can wish anyways.    

Edited February 4 by IBatch

[Alflives]

39 minutes ago, IBatch said:

Bettman will stay as long as he wants.    Personally was seriously disappointed with what happened to the game in the late 90's and 2000's, the NHL was able to expand to 24 teams and barely keep the talent level up, only because of the iron curtain falling, and scouring european countries and drafting the cream of the crop.   It worked for awhile.    In the 80's, we didn't have much.   The Stastny brothers.    Before that Salming.    Stastny would be near or at the top of the list of players of the decade, if it wasn't for Gretzky and Mario.   In short, there were others outside of the NHL, who for sure could have played in the NHL and made it better, and provide room for SOME expansion.   

 

 There was a massive contingent of stars playing on the Red Army at the time (1987 Canada Cup, is still considered the best collection of hockey players all-time, and look at how difficult it was for Canada to beat them).    Eventually Larionov, Festisov, Makarov and a few others from those teams came in and played in the NHL in their late 20's and 30's.    Remarkable players.   Makarov  changed the way the Calder worked, at 33 he won.   Was so good, Tippet basically made him a coach, he took five guys to one side and ran the drills.   SJ beat the mighty wings, huge upset one of the biggest all-time. 

 

Sundin, Selanne, Bure, Federov,  Kovalev, Jagr,  Zubov,  Forsberg , Konsantinov, Lidstrom and a bunch of Nedved's, and a pile of goalies.  It was enough to sustain the quality when SJ, ANA and OTT were added but barely.    And not really even then.   SJ copied NJ and the trap was born, mediocre to bad teams, started drafting Ludwig/Hatcher sized bodies with half the talent to fill out rosters (added jobs).     And for whatever reason, the next wave of guys coming up behind them, were underwhelming, and couldn't match up with previous generations.    Some really bad drafts.   Lidstrom couldn't win a Norris until the guys he was competing against aged out.   Only Pronger and Neidermayer left!   Yikes.    The league expanded, and it took a very long time, to consolidate it.   25- 30 years IMO, thank god for Crosby and Ovi anyways.    

 

So the league kept adding teams, and there was no more planet to find the players, and the next generation, was a tad lacking (the proof is in the pudding).    Eventually Crosby and Ovi arrived.   Things slowly,  year to year, started getting a little better.   And finally we had a 5-6 year period, of very good to excellent drafts.  It's taken a very long time, to get things back to 90's levels, pre dead puck era, rule changes.   The league far surpassed its ability to ice the same product it had with 21-24 teams, but kept expanding anyways. 

 

...for 3 decades it was the norm to have Orr/Potvin/Park/Borque/Coffey/AlMac/Leetch/Housley/Murphy ... Chelios, Robinson, Langway, Stevens, Zubov, Konstantinov, Blake etc ... and whole pile of guys like Wilson, Babych, Carlyle, Huddy, Lowe, Foote etc.    

 

There is a reason why older fans dislike Bettman.   The ones around before he took over, enjoyed the very best the sport had to offer.    It felt like he stole that from us, and was the man in charge during the dead puck era, and the game floundering to the point we needed an entire season lost.   Greed.   From the players and the owners, billionaires quibbling with millionaires for their share of the pie.    And some of these expansion teams ... NSH?  PHX?!  CLB!!  why why why?   The game was already suffering.   The on ice product.   Why add 25 AHLers each time?  

 

Also by the looks of it, with honest reflection, Bettman saved us too.   Vancouver couldn't compete (Burke) with the massive losses.   Without creating a hard cap, the league wouldn't look like it does today.    And as for his job itself, he did a tremendous job for the owners over the years.   Still all for retraction.   Imagine for a moment, if you went down to 24 teams, and what the talent level would be like today.    And truly hope, that they stop that.   32 teams.   The league can't and shouldn't go to 40 which I think could be their long term target.    That means, there will be a lot of fans, whom never get to see their team win a cup.    32 is tough enough. 

 

Already some rumblings of Houston.   If they go to 9 in one division... Bettman needs to do the right thing now.   Stop expanding.   And re-locate ARI.    CAR attendance was so bad, the players had to add gimmicks.   Even with a cup,  Raliegh isn't a good hockey market either.   Move them to Quebec City.    If he makes a commitment and states we won't expand ... well one can wish anyways.    

Coyotes are going to be relocated. Huston? 
Panthers end up in Quebec City. 

[Gnarcore]

On 2/2/2024 at 12:57 PM, Jaimito said:

 

 

 

I don't think is nearly the factor it used to be. The Euros almost all play in the NHL and Canada and the US have some of the best skaters now in the world. Some strategy sure as the larger ice helps keep attackers to the outside but give McDavid more space?  

Edited February 4 by Gnarcore

[Coconuts]

11 hours ago, Slegr said:

There’s no way Russian players should be able to play in the Olympics, regardless of whether it’s for team Russia or as independents. They were previously banned because the country couldn’t stop cheating with drugs. But now that Russia continues to invade Ukraine, killing innocent lives daily, there needs to be consequences globally. Russia must learn that the international community will not tolerate their invasion.

 

I don't disagree 

[Slegr]

18 hours ago, CanuckMan said:

Going by those statements you made, if Israel ever made a national ice hockey team capable of going to the olympics they should be banned too. But they’d allow Israel since it’s a western backed country. Yet I see Israel doing no different than Russia (if not worse). 

I’m not quite sure where this is going, but I don’t think we’ll have to worry about Israel’s hockey team in the Olympics.

[Alflives]

We didn’t do do well the last time the games were in Italy. 

[IBatch]

15 hours ago, wai_lai416 said:

Hill is a goalie with no more than 27 games a season on a stacked vegas team where all their goalies look better than they are.. lehner thompson fleury all have been exceptional paying for the vegas.. so it's probably not a conincident the team is making him better than he looks. 

Oettinger is a great goalie.  Or a goalie who's played some great hockey in the recent past.  If you watched the Dallas series (much better than the final) Hill outplayed him.   He was pretty legit last playoffs.   Number of games for sure is a ? mark still.   If he was just average in that series, Dallas likely would have won a cup last season. 

[wai_lai416]

6 minutes ago, IBatch said:

Oettinger is a great goalie.  Or a goalie who's played some great hockey in the recent past.  If you watched the Dallas series (much better than the final) Hill outplayed him.   He was pretty legit last playoffs.   Number of games for sure is a ? mark still.   If he was just average in that series, Dallas likely would have won a cup last season. 

sure but in a long playoff series it's been proven over and over again you can win with average goaltending as long as you have a great team... and i dunno about oettinger.. he had 1 great regular season last year and i think he was abysmal in the playoff and lucky to get past seattle... and i don't think they would have won the cup if he was average.. it's not like they barely lost to vegas.. he have 9 lost last playoff.. in 7 of those games he given up 4+ goals..  and his team was blown out in most of them... wasn't like they lost by 1 goal.. yes Hill outplayed him but i still would not take hill in a 1 game elimination game over any of the USA goalies.. Hill is more a result of his team than a result of his individual abilities.. like i said stick any goalie in the vegas system and they all looked good. but in a short tournament where you are not used to the teammates.. goalie individual ability is way more important.