Luc Tardif will likely be paying shut consideration to international occasions over the subsequent few months.
The door for considered one of hockey’s powers to rejoin the fold may quickly swing open.
U.S. president-elect Donald Trump has indicated he plans to work to finish Russia’s struggle in Ukraine when he returns to the White Home later this month.
If that occurs, the trickle-down impact may embody a lifting of Russia’s ban from worldwide competitors that’s been in place for the reason that nation invaded its neighbour in February 2022
“We have now to let the door open as quickly as doable,” Tardif, the president of the Worldwide Ice Hockey Federation, stated Sunday.
“It will likely be attention-grabbing to see what’s going to occur within the subsequent two months.”
Russia has been frozen out of the world junior hockey championship — the 2025 occasion concluded Sunday in Ottawa — together with different males’s, girls’s and para hockey tournaments.
Tardif stated a call on the sector for subsequent 12 months’s world juniors in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn., will likely be made in February.
He added the IIHF may also press the Worldwide Olympic Committee on a solution for the 2026 Video games in Milan and Cortina, Italy, that can see NHL gamers return after a 12-year absence.
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“The organizing committees should know who’s enjoying to arrange a schedule,” Tardif stated on the IIHF’s closing press convention in Ottawa. “The groups additionally should see precisely what will likely be their schedule.”
Tardif stated having Russia and Belarus, which was additionally banned attributable to its assist for the struggle, can be excellent news for hockey and the world.
“We wish them again as quickly as doable,” he stated. “It can imply the struggle will likely be over.
“(Russia) is missed for any competitors. However allow them to come too early, that’s not going to be good.”
Tardif was additionally requested concerning the NHL’s plans for a world schedule that goes outdoors the IIHF sphere with the upcoming 4 Nations Face-Off and a push to carry a World Cup each two years starting in 2028.
Tardif stated the NHL has floated the concept of a World Cup in Europe, however added that might be tough with the lads’s world championships, that are held every spring.
He additionally identified the IIHF doesn’t maintain its males’s worlds in North American as a result of it will battle with the NHL playoffs.
“We wish the identical respect,” Tardif stated. “The need to arrange a contest collectively, we’ll do it within the Olympic Video games, continues to be there. However what we would like is a partnership — equality within the partnership. We made a proposition on the finish of December, so now we open the dialogue about that, and I hope we could have the identical success because the Olympic Video games.
“However we nonetheless bought rather a lot to debate.”
REFFING STANDARD
Canadian followers and gamers have been left fuming after the underperforming nationwide crew was bounced from the world juniors within the quarterfinals for a second straight 12 months.
The host nation’s efficiency was pockmarked by undisciplined play, however the referees did the squad no favours in its knockout-round loss to Czechia, together with two questionable penalties for kneeing.
“If you need me to apologize, I can do it,” Tardif stated. “I’m not on the ice. I’m not a referee, and I need to shield the referee. Get higher and analyze what is sweet or not. That’s just like the participant. For lots of video games, generally that’s self-discipline and generally that’s perhaps a nasty name — perhaps — however that’s human.”
2027 HOST CITIES
Hockey Canada has nonetheless but to announce the host cities for the 2027 world juniors in Alberta.
The province held a pair of pandemic-impacted tournaments in 2021 and 2022. Calgary is constructing a brand new NHL area, however Scotia Place isn’t anticipated to be prepared till the autumn of 2027.
COSTELLO HONOURED
The IIHF introduced the world junior MVP trophy has been renamed the Murray Costello Award.
Costello, who led the Canadian Novice Hockey Affiliation and Hockey Canada as president for twenty years, died in July at age 90.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
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