Hey now, there’s no more NHL All-Star Weekend—at least not for the moment. Around the success of the NHL’s inaugural 4 Nations Face-Off this February, there was a lot of talk of that sort of international concept perhaps replacing the league’s annual All-Star Game. The 4 Nations event took place instead of a standard All-Star Game, and the level of play and fan interest greatly overshadowed the NBA’s All-Star Game around the same time.
At that point, though, the NHL still had a traditional All-Star Game on the books for 2026. That was set for the New York Islanders’ home of UBS Arena in Elmont, NY. But that now seems not likely to come to pass.
There was always some talk that the 2026 All-Star Game might see somewhat of a different format. That was true not just with the astounding success of the 4 Nations event (to a degree not seen in the previous incarnation of international best-on-best hockey tournaments, the World Cup of Hockey), but also with that game taking place ahead of NHL players heading to the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics (for their first Winter Games since 2014, with them missing the last two) and the league taking a corresponding break. But now that’s pivoted into a complete axing of the All-Star Game and a replacement with an unspecified international event, as per Stephen Whyno of The Associated Press:
The NHL is planning an international event at UBS Arena next February in lieu of the previously announced All-Star Weekend at the home of the New York Islanders, a person with knowledge of the situation said Monday.
…Commissioner Gary Bettman has said on multiple occasions recently that the league has been rethinking what to do about the event after the success of the 4 Nations Face-Off international tournament earlier this year. The thought was always to use New York as a jumping off point for Milan, with players leaving from there to participate in the Olympics for the first time since 2014.
“We know we’ve set the bar high, which should be a good thing, not a problem,” Bettman said last week at a meeting of Associated Press Sports Editors in New York. “We’re going to make sure we do something. … We’ll have an event at UBS before we go to the Olympics. But then we’ll do something that’s more focused on a major hockey event for the following year.”
While this plan will be well-received by those who had been lobbying for the NHL (and other leagues) to do away with traditional All-Star Games in favor of more international events (which could also happen in the NBA), it has provoked backlash of its own. Whyno notes that New York governor Kathy Hochul complained to Bettman about this plan in a letter Monday, and requested a ASG or similar event in 2027 as a makeup:
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Monday she wrote a letter to Bettman expressing her disappointment about the decision to hold a Winter Olympics kickoff event in place of All-Star Weekend, adding it was made without consulting with the state and requesting the league “bring a hockey event with equal or greater economic activity and cultural value to the region in 2027.”
It’s far from clear at this point what kind of event the league will hold relative to a traditional All-Star Weekend, and what level of impact on visiting fans that will have. And that makes it interesting that Hochul is already disapproving and asking for a make-up event. We’ll see what comes of that, and what this event may wind up being, and how popular it will prove. But it’s definitely notable to see the NHL pivot away from a traditional All-Star Weekend for at least 2026, and that might signal an ongoing change.
