NHL welcomes Russians — not Russia — into new international all-star game

RALEIGH, N.C. — Russian hockey players will be returning to international hockey.

While the NHL did not unveil Russia as one of its five teams set to compete in a brand-new twist on its 3-on-3 showcase at the 2027 All-Star Game, Russian athletes have been given the green light to join the league’s clunkily named “Rest of the World” squad.

Canada, the United States, Sweden, and Finland will all have their own teams at the exhibition event, which takes place Feb. 6 at UBS Arena in Elmont, N.Y., and will be preceded by a 25-and-under skills contest highlighting hockey’s young stars.

Could this be the league tiptoeing into welcoming Russians back to an international stage from which they’ve been banned since the invasion of Ukraine?

“We’ve been very clear at the Players’ Association. Our Russian players want to play best-on-best. And in a perfect world, we’d love to see them back in competition,” NHLPA chief Marty Walsh said Tuesday as the Stanley Cup Final opened in Raleigh, N.C.

Russians were denied entry to 2025’s NHL-run 4 Nations Face-Off and have been prohibited from all IIHF events, including the 2026 Winter Games, since early 2022. But the IIHF is reconsidering its stance, and the NHL has yet to make a decision on Russia’s involvement in the 2028 World Cup of Hockey.

In no rush, the league will wait, monitor world affairs, and allow the IIHF’s mandate to inform its own.

The all-star “World” team uses the NHL shield as its logo, and no use of Russia’s flag has been incorporated into promotion of the tournament.

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly spoke with the IIHF on Tuesday morning. He relayed that hockey’s international governing body did not anticipate a boycott from the Finns, Swedes or Czechs if or when Russia is invited back to international action.

“But we’re getting a little too far ahead of ourselves, because they haven’t made any determinations with respect to whether any of the international tournaments scheduled for ’26-’27 the Russians are going to participate in,” Daly said. 

“We’re going to monitor what goes on there. We’re not going to be bound by it, but we’re going to monitor it, and it’ll be relevant to our process in determining the World Cup of Hockey.”

The PA surveyed its membership face-to-face on Russia’s participation in best-on-best as recently as the fall.

“There were certainly players and their countries who were not comfortable at that time,” NHLPA assistant executive director Ron Hainsey said.

“A few months ago, there were more than a few hands that went up really quick: ‘That’s not for me and our country. We’re not there.’ Things have changed in five months. I’m sure in a few months it’ll be a little bit different” 

“But when we have players say that, obviously, as you can imagine, we’re gonna listen and proceed accordingly. We still have more time before 2028.”

The NHL is backing the Golden Knights’ decision to deny their fired coach, Bruce Cassidy, the ability to interview for his next job because it is the club’s contractual right.

“When you sign and insist upon a long-term contract, there are certain, under league policies, consequences of that,” commissioner Gary Bettman reminded.

The Edmonton Oilers, Los Angeles Kings and, possibly, Toronto Maple Leafs would like to speak with Cassidy, who is still on the Knights’ payroll through 2026-27.

“Once you’re fired, your contract’s basically terminated, but the one thing people don’t realize is … you have no-compete clauses, so I can’t resign today and go work for someone tomorrow,” Cassidy told Spittin’ Chiclets last week. “If I resign, all I do is not get paid.”

The NHL has spoken with all parties on the matter, including Cassidy.

“He knows what our position on the subject is. And he might not be happy about it, but he was accepting of it, and we’ll see where we go from there,” said Daly. 

“There are contracts that exist in the league that would not allow for this to happen. His was not one of them.”

Vegas may still change its mind on Cassidy’s situation once the Cup has been awarded.

Bettman works on succession plan

Moreso than at any other press conference, Bettman cracked a door into a world where he may no longer be running the league he’s overseen for nearly 34 years. 

But that doesn’t mean he is ready to go full Logan Roy just yet.

“Any major organization, it’s incumbent upon its CEO, which a commissioner is, and its board to have a succession plan,” said Bettman, who is celebrating his birthday during Game 1. 

“I am 74, and I do acknowledge the fact that I can’t do this forever. We have been in discussions over the last couple of years at least as to what a succession plan might look like. It hasn’t been fully implemented. The executive committee is fully on board. The board has been briefed in terms of the direction that we may go. But beyond that, there’s nothing happening imminently — and reports of my demise or retirement are greatly exaggerated.”

Revenue on the rise, again 

The warm and fuzzy relationship between the league and its Players’ Association is a result, at least in part, from the financial health of a sport that continues to ride the momentum of a successful return to the international stage.

New and lucrative French-language and U.S. broadcasting rights deals are on the horizon. Rogers’ $11-billion commitment for English-language Canadian rights kicks in next season. And Bettman continues to explore “expressions of interest” in expansion while juicing teams’ schedules to 84 games in 2026-27.

The commissioner estimates that 2025-26’s regular-season games sold to 96-per-cent capacity, and playoff buildings are more than 100-per-cent full.

“From a business standpoint, it’s all good,” Bettman smiled.

He estimates the NHL will rake somewhere between $7.5 and $8 billion in hockey-related revenue this season. That figure does not mesh with a purposely restricted salary cap.

Because the players’ union does not wish to pay a penny of escrow, nor see a dramatic salary spike that will only benefit members lucky enough to have contracts expiring in 2026 or 2027.

Instead, all players receive a percentage bonus on the salaries you see published on sites such as PuckPedia.com. They are still getting 50 per cent of HRR. It’s just not reflected in a salary cap that remains below current economics.

The NHL does not anticipate changing from its new decentralized draft concept, unless team executives push to return to the original format … Construction on Calgary’s new arena is ahead of schedule … Hainsey on a possible push for longer suspensions in wake of the Auston Matthews injury: “It is a topic that obviously bubbled up, and probably rightfully so, and that hit led to an injury. But in the months that have followed, it has cooled off from the players’ perspective.”… Bettman says he binge-watched Amazon Prime’s Off Campus, just as he did Heated Rivalry.