After the success of the Four Nations Faceoff this past February, the NHL is pivoting away from the NHL All-Star Game, at least for this year. There will still be some event, but it is unclear what that event will be.
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As part of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), the NHL and NHLPA agreed to send the Players back to the Olympics beginning in 2026. The initial thought was to have an All-Star Game in 2026. During the 2024 Stadium Series event in New Jersey, the League announced that UBS Arena was getting an All-Star Game. However, with the Players heading to the Olympics, plans changed.
Part of those plans will see UBS Arena, home of the New York Islanders, host an Olympic send-off event in 2026 and some All-Star Game in 2027. What those events will be is still anyone’s guess, as NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly told Dave Pagnotta and Dennis Bernstein of Sirius XM NHL Network Radio as part of the European Player Media Tour.
Dave Pagnotta: “We know in February there’s going to be some type of send off on Long Island. Presumably, that’s still the case, by the way.”
Bill Daly: “It is. We’re using John F Kennedy Airport as kind of a hub city for players to fly to Milan. So we’re creating some type of event around the send-off for those players.”
Pagnotta: “Deputy Commissioner of the National Hockey League, Bill Daly. And then that follows up with the following season, with the formal All Star format to some degree back on back on Long Island. Was it a challenging effort to try to figure out what the best pivot may be once you realize that the All-Star itself may have to change, which ultimately did for this coming season?”
Daly: “Yeah, I mean, it was complicated by a number of things, and it’s still somewhat in flux in terms of us figuring out what it is we want to do both respect to 2026 and 2027. We know we’re going to be in Long Island both years, and we’re working with the club, we’re working with the Players Association on concepts and ideas, and I’m sure we’ll come up with something that works well for all the relevant parts.”
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As Daly mentioned, they are still working on concepts for both events. The key will be trying to make the All-Star Game or Extravaganza as compelling as Four Nations, as President and NHL Content and Events Steve Mayer told NHLRumors.com.
“And I do think it may have changed the dynamic of All Stars moving forward,” Mayer said. ” We have not made a decision at all based on Four Nations or Olympics coming up, on what we’re going to exactly do with our All-Star game, which we have announced will be at UBS Arena in Long Island next year. But we’re going to look at it long and hard as to what the future of the All-Star is, and how do we make it as compelling as Four Nations?”
That last part may be a little tricky, as NHLRumors.com has documented. You will never be able to recreate that atmosphere Four Nations had in an All-Star Event. But whatever the NHL and NHLPA decide for 2026 and 2027 on Long Island will be good. It will be interesting to see what the ultimate product and concept will be by 2027.
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