NHL Commissioner Bettman says on his 74th birthday retiring is not imminent

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Hours after a report surfaced that he was discussing a succession plan with members of the Board of Governors executive committee, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman reiterated that he is not expecting to retire any time soon from the job he has held for more than three decades.

Bettman on his 74th birthday acknowledged the league has a plan in place like any major organization, but is not in any rush to enact it.

“I am 74, and I do acknowledge the fact that I can’t do this forever,” Bettman said Tuesday during his annual state of the NHL news conference before Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final. “There’s nothing happening imminently, and reports of my demise or retirement are greatly exaggerated.”

Bettman has been commissioner since 1993, when he took that title instead of president as part of a modernization effort. It was not clear what the succession plan, which he said has been a topic of conversation for at least a couple of years, would entail.

Hockey has labour peace at its highest level through 2030 after the league and the Players’ Association negotiated a new collective bargaining agreement last summer. Union executive director Marty Walsh said the relationship between the sides is strong but is not worrying about Bettman’s future.

“I’m not going focus on whether he’s leaving or not,” Walsh said. “I’ve been in politics for a long time. I’ve seen leaders and speakers come and go. When and if the time comes, we deal with it.”

All-Star format for 2027 unveiled

Bettman and Walsh unveiled a new format for 2027 All-Star Weekend, including a skills competition for players age 25 and younger and an international event. The change comes after the immense success of the 4 Nations Face-Off last year made the NHL and NBA rethink midseason festivities.

Following the skills competition on Friday night, Feb. 5, the plan is to hold a round-robin 3-on-3 tournament with 11-player teams from the U.S., Canada, Sweden, Finland and the World. Walsh figures it could serve as a prelude to the 2028 World Cup of Hockey.

“We think the format that we created will be fun,” Bettman said. “It’ll be entertaining, it’ll be great for the players and the fans. We know there have been some fits and starts on this, but we think together we figured this out.”

It is scheduled to take place at UBS Arena, home of the New York Islanders, which was supposed to host All-Star Weekend this year as a lead-up to the Olympics. That was downscaled and then cancelled.

Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said Russian players would be part of the World team.

Russian World Cup participation remains a question

The International Ice Hockey Federation last week said it would determine Russian participation on an event-by-event basis. Teams from the country have been banned since its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and the NHL has said it would follow the lead of the IIHF and the International Olympic Committee.

The league and the Players’ Association are running the World Cup, so they hold the cards on whether players from Russia are allowed to take part. One question is whether countries such as Sweden and Finland would refuse to participate if Russia is involved, and Daly got an update on that front from the IIHF earlier Tuesday.

“They don’t anticipate a problem with the Swedes and Finns, necessarily, or the Czechs right now in terms of a boycott if it comes to that,” Daly said.

Potential NCAA eligibility change is a concern

The NHL and the NHLPA are against a possible change to NCAA eligibility rules that would give athletes five years of eligibility with the clock starting when an athlete turns 19 or graduates from high school, whichever is earlier. It would be a problem for college hockey players, who are often older after playing at a junior level before going.

“We’re not in favour of the change, and we’ve made the NCAA aware of it,” said Daly, who spoke to NCAA President Charlie Baker about the matter last week.

“We and a number of other hockey organizations throughout North America — the three junior leagues in Canada, the USHL, USA Hockey, the college coaches association — all have raised concerns, so we’ve made the NCAA aware of those concerns and what it might do to development of players in North America.”

The sport is already dealing with a major change to the developmental landscape after the NCAA allowed players who played in the junior Canadian Hockey League to play college hockey. Adding the wrinkle of the so-called “5 in 5” rule would cause all sorts of complications.

“It’s something that’ll affect the hockey ecosystem,” NHLPA assistant executive director Ron Hainsey said.

“We’re obviously removed from the conversation, and there’s a lot going in the NCAA, but when that comes forward it’s incumbent upon us to at least make an impression on how that will affect the entire hockey ecosystem, which everyone here knows, is a little different than the other sports, how our guys get to college.

“And so we’ll continue to try to impress upon them how the whole system would be in shock.”

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Stephen Whyno, The Associated Press