The NHL's one-off All-Star Game replacement that has players pumped
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Team USA's Jake Guentzel of the Tampa Bay Lightning practices for the NHL 4 Nations Face-Off in Quebec. Photo: Vitor Munhoz/4NFO/World Cup of Hockey via Getty Images
Instead of an NHL All-Star Game, top stars from four nations will face off for a midseason international tournament starting Wednesday in Boston and Montreal.
Why it matters: The 4 Nations Face-Off is meant to herald the NHL's return to the Winter Olympics — but, indirectly, the tournament is also a natural experiment with a potential solution to other leagues' All-Star Game problem.
- Across North American pro sports, fans have never cared less about All-Star contests, and many top athletes don't extend themselves due to injury concerns.
State of play: Teams from the U.S., Canada, Finland and Sweden are treating the tournament as a warm-up for Milano Cortina 2026, the first Winter Olympics since 2014 in which NHL players will compete.
What they're saying: The 4 Nations Face-Off is "not even comparable" with All-Star Games, Team USA alternate captain Charlie McAvoy told Boston TV station WCVB.
- "Those are just skills competitions. This is the real deal," McAvoy said.
Inside the dressing room: The Athletic's player poll showed 81% of respondents were "interested" in the 4 Nations Face-Off.
- That's just one year after the NHL's All-Star skills competition featured some competitors pretty obviously phoning it in.
Reality check: The NHL isn't abandoning its All-Star Game altogether. It's scheduled to return in 2026.
The big picture: Other leagues have leaned on national pride to increase interest in their All-Star Games.
- The WNBA pitted Team USA against the league's top players, and the NBA considered retooling its All-Star week around a similar format, though commissioner Adam Silver also told CNN the All-Star contest may never again be a "truly competitive game."
The other side: The NHL's tournament, which features only four of the world's top seven countries, won't feature all of the world's best players.
- The league is following an international sporting ban on Russian participation, meaning aces like Kirill Kaprizov and Andrei Vasilevskiy won't be on the ice. Aging Russian greats Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin are also running out of chances to play for their nation.
- The snub of No. 4 Czechia leaves out players like David Pastrnak, Martin Nečas and Karel Vejmelka.
- Leon Draisaitl also won't be there: There aren't enough NHLers from No. 8 Germany to assemble a full team.
Context: The 4 Nations Face-Off may not replace the All-Star Game every year, but league officials do hope it's a first step in solving another problem for hockey: adopting a world championship tournament that consistently features the best men's players.
- During the NHL's absence from the Olympics, Russia's top league allowed its players to compete. They won gold in 2018.
- The IIHF's annual Ice Hockey World Championships overlap with the later rounds of the Stanley Cup playoffs, excluding lots of top talent.
- It's been a decade since the last World Cup of Hockey, an NHL-sanctioned preseason tournament akin to MLB's World Baseball Classic.
How it works: All four teams will play three games. The two teams with the best records will then play a one-game final at Boston's TD Garden on Feb. 20.
What we're watching: It remains to be seen how injecting national pride into the midseason break affects ratings. Previous NHL All-Star Games haven't drawn audiences as big as other leagues.
