The NHL is eyeing a return to the Winter Olympics in 2026. After the league sat out of the 2018 and 2022 Winter Olympic Games, the league and NHL Player's Association (NHL PA) plans on coming back to the next games.

Not only is the league wanting an Olympic return, but to revitalize the World Cup of Hockey in the even years between each Olympic Games. Though the World Cup is intended to be a global affair, deputy commissioner Bill Daly suggests that it could also be NHL-heavy.

Bill Daly spoke further on the possibilities, with little set in stone yet.

“I don't know exactly what form it will take,” Daly said. “The goal is to make it an international competition of some sort. It's going to obviously be heavily NHL-centric in terms of the player base, maybe entirely NHL. We'll see what form it takes, but that's something we're working on with the Players' Association,” via Dan Rosen of the official NHL website.

The NHL last participated in the Olympics at the 2014 games in Sochi, Russia and attended all of the Winter Olympics between 1998-2014. Though the United States did not win any of those five tournaments, Canada won three out of the five and the US came in second twice. The NHL's return will certainly add another level of competition.

The World Cup of Hockey has taken place in 1996, 2004, and 2016. The Cup was the successor to the Canada Cup and Daly is hoping to bring it back in 2025. Daly's plan is to ideally bring it back on a more consistent basis in between Olympic years, like the FIFA World Cup.