NHL is moving away from a traditional All-Star weekend for the 2025-26 season and the opening is planning another international activity in the heels of the success of 4 countries.
The league initially announced at the new UBS Arena house in the New York Islanders, NY, 2026 All-Star weekend, and the idea of changing plans less than a year did not sit well with the New York government Kathy Hochul, who wrote a letter to NHL commissioner Gary Bettman on Monday.
“I am writing to express my frustration about the decision of NHL's decision to cancel the 2026 All-Star weekend in UBS Arena and to change a Winter Olympics activity.” “This decision was given as a critical partner in supporting this facility and the presence of NHL in Long Island, as well as consultation in the entire province,” he said.
Hochul continued to call the league's decision “cancellation” and asked NHL to “bring an equal or more economic activity and cultural value to the region in 2027”.
However, he did not make a public comment on NHL plans, and he could still use UBS Arena as an international tournament center before the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics in Italy next February.
“This will be a great international activity,” an anonymous league source told ESPN on Monday.
NHL received widespread praise for the encounter of 4 countries that won the gold medal with Canada in Boston and Montreal last February. Since NHL did not allow its players to participate in the 2018 or 2022 Winter Olympics, it was the first best international hockey tournament since the 2016 World Cup Hockey Cup.
4 Nations face face to replace a typical All-Star game in 2025, while the NBA continued to receive negative comments for the All-Star game, including a draft and four-team tournament format.
The NBA commissioner Adam Silver admitted that he had been thinking about a US and the world format for the main event of 2026 since then, and Bettman may be interested in keeping hockey in this area.
“We know we're raising the bar, it's not a good thing, it's not a problem,” Bettman said at a meeting of Associated Press sports editors last week. “We'll make sure we're doing something.
-FELD level media
