MOSCOW, December 1, Andrey Senchenko. Member of the Board and special Pavel Bure, representative of the Russian Hockey Federation (RHF) for international affairs and member of the board of the International Hockey Federation (IIHF), said that an international tournament without the participation of the Russian national team would be “not entirely real.”
Previously, National Hockey League (NHL) Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said that the league, together with the NHL Players Association (NHLPA), is working on creating an international national team tournament, which will be held in February 2025. It is noted that the tournament will not follow the World Cup format that the NHL and NHLPA held in 1996, 2004 and 2016. Teams from Canada, Finland, Sweden and the USA will take part in the new international competitions. As the head of the NHLPA stated, Russian players most likely will not take part in the tournament, since there are federations that do not allow their players to participate in the same tournament with the Russians.
«»As far as I know, nothing has been 100 percent approved. There has been no announcement that the tournament will take place. For now, this is all in the plans. In the world and in hockey, everything can still change. But Russia is a leading hockey power. If a team of this level will not participate, then this tournament is not entirely real. Boycott other countries? There is a difficult political situation now. Unfortunately, this is reflected in hockey. They said that sport is outside of politics. But it turns out that it is in politics,» he said Bure to journalists.
Earlier, the teams of Sweden and Finland announced that they would refuse to participate in the tournament if Russia was allowed there.