The commissioner's remarks point to a distinction the league has maintained between Russian players competing for their club sides and the Russian national team appearing in a sanctioned international event.
The National Hockey League has not set any deadline for deciding whether Russia will take part in the 2028 World Cup of Hockey, according to comments from Commissioner Gary Bettman reported by TASS. The league and the players' union intend to stage the tournament with eight teams, but the composition of the field remains unresolved.
Bettman framed the question as one of timing as much as principle. "We're committed to ultimately doing the right thing, which on a daily basis may change, but we're still not doing business with Russia and the players in the NHL who are from Russia play for their NHL teams, they're not playing for Russia," he said, according to the TASS report. He added that the situation is changing "on almost a daily basis" and that the league does not have to make a decision today.
The commissioner's remarks point to a distinction the league has maintained between Russian players competing for their club sides and the Russian national team appearing in a sanctioned international event. Bettman said the NHL would evaluate "what is the right thing to do at the right point in time taking into account everything that is and isn't going on in the world," and acknowledged there is "no easy answer" to the question.
The legal backdrop has shifted. According to the report, the Court of Arbitration for Sport ordered the International Ice Hockey Federation to allow Russian teams to participate in international competitions after an appeal by the Russian Ice Hockey Federation. That ruling places the sport's governing body under an obligation that the NHL, as a separate commercial league, does not automatically share. The World Cup is a joint venture between the league and the players' union, so its entry rules are theirs to set.
The 2028 tournament is to be hosted by Canada and the Czech Republic. The previous edition in this format, held in 2016, included national teams from Russia, Canada, the United States, Finland, the Czech Republic and Sweden. The report does not say which eight teams are planned for 2028, nor how the remaining places would be allocated.
What is not yet known is when the league will decide, what criteria it will apply, or whether the CAS ruling will influence its position. Bettman gave no timetable and no conditions. For now the NHL has bought itself room, keeping the question open while the wider political environment continues to move. The risk of leaving it late is that preparation, scheduling and broadcast arrangements for a tournament still two years away will eventually force the issue.
