GLOBAL GAMES REMAIN AS NHL FEEDS OFF MOMENTUM

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN – The NHL Global Series continues to be a big success and the League will be maintaining its presence in Europe next season after NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman announced the 2020 NHL Global Series will take place in Prague and Helsinki.

In case you missed Friday’s news, the Boston Bruins will wrap up training camp in Manheim, Germany before meeting the Nashville Predators for one game in Prague, Czech Republic to kickoff the 2020-21 season; Nashville will finish its camp in Bern, Switzerland.

Later in the season, either in late October or early November (the dates haven’t been finalized yet), the Colorado Avalanche will play two games against the Columbus Blue Jackets in Helsinki, Finland.

The games in Europe work. They’re tremendously successful, sell out in minutes, attract fans from all over the world, not only Europe, and sells merchandise. And the players enjoy it, both in terms of growing the game outside of the dressing room and growing the bond inside the room.

“It’s been a cool experience. This is very unique to come over here and play two NHL games,” said Buffalo Sabres captain Jack Eichel.

“Probably one of the best parts about coming here on this trip is the opportunity to get everyone together in an environment that we’re not familiar with that way it forces us to spend a lot of time together, and it’s been awesome. I’ve gotten to know some guys a little bit better on this trip and I think it’s really great for our team going forward. I think the relationships that we build off the ice will contribute to on-ice success.”

Overall, the games in Europe expand the League’s footprint beyond North America. I’ve run into fans from Germany, Italy, England, Finland, Austria and the Czech Republic while in Stockholm, and there’s a strong contingent of fans from Tampa and Buffalo, too. And for the NHL, these events are now simple to execute. Costly, but simple.

“We really feel like we’ve got a system down pat, and we really feel we have an amazing team here (in Stockholm),” said NHL Chief Content Officer Steve Mayer during his exclusive interview on TFP’s “The Hot Stove” on SiriusXM NHL Network Radio on Saturday.

Mayer, who is continuously strategizing and mapping out the NHL’s upcoming events, has enjoyed seeing the success of these events and with next season’s Global Series games already set, he’s looking ahead to the following season.

“There are certain countries that are more difficult to execute,” Mayer admitted. “We look at all these games as, for us, because of the fact that we’ve done so many of them, they’re pretty easy to pull off. We start talking about next year in everything that we do, outdoor games, All-Star games, the day after it ends.”

As these games are here to stay, the NHL China Games are a little murkier.

After opening the season in 2017 and 2018 in China, the NHL strategically took 2019 off. I’m told the games will be returning to China in 2020, or at least that’s the plan. Given the recent political events going on in China, and the wild backlash the NBA found itself having to deal with, there are security concerns the NHL is reviewing before it officially returns.

While a formal announcement is not planned any time soon, the NHL will follow its previous model and play games in two major cities once they iron out all its details.

Given the international success the NHL has been seeing lately, does that translate into a opening for a return to the Winter Olympics?

Short answer: No.

“I don’t want to sound like a broken record on this subject, but I think going to the Olympics is a challenge for us,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman told reporters in Stockholm on Friday. “I know the players love representing their countries, I know the players like going, I know the players that don't go like having a break in the middle of the season, but from our standpoint, we have found going to the Olympics to be incredibly disruptive to our season, and we don’t get the opportunity, because the IOC won’t permit us, to even promote the fact that we’re going with our players and that we’re shutting down.

“It’s a complicated issue. It’s something the Players’ Association continues to raise with us, it’s something Rene Fasel and the IIHF continues to raise with us, but as I said previously, there’s nothing new to report in that regard because for us, at best, it’s a mixed bag, and again, I think it has some material downsides in terms of what happens to our season.”

I’ve chatted with a few owners over the years and they share the same opinion – they simply don’t want an almost three-week break in the middle of the season, not when the games are being played 13 hours ahead of cities in the east coast of North America.

The NHLPA will certainly battle to allow its players to participate in the 2022 Winter Olympics, but the NHL will stand firm. Which side bends remains to be seen. Bettman also brought up an issue we often forget. If the International Olympic Committee won’t allow the NHL to promote its players or generate its own content from the games (they weren’t even given rights to use highlights in 2014), what’s in it for the League (other than good faith with its players)?

The IIHF has committed to covering the travel and insurance cost of the NHL players, but until the IOC grants the NHL permission to promote the games themselves, it doesn’t sound like 2022 will happen.

For now, the China Games and the Global Series will continue, and the World Cup of Hockey will eventually return – though league sources told me there hasn’t been much progress on that front, either.

The WCH is a joint venture between the NHL and the NHLPA and both sides need to agree to terms if there’s to be tournament in 2021, which would take place in the middle of the season and span roughly one week.

Time’s running out to execute the event in January 2021 and if an agreement can’t get figured out, along with an exact plan – I’m told multiple cities instead of one host city, like in 2016 – it’s possible the event gets moved to September 2021.

But until some sort of progress is made on that front, there’s no need to overthink the matter.

TV TIME

The NHL’s contract with NBC Sports Group expires after the 2020-21 season and you know the NHL is licking its chops at the potential value of its next U.S. television rights deal.

NBC wants to retain the rights, but there’s a good chance it won’t secure national US exclusivity, I’m told. We could very well see a scenario play out that includes regular-season and playoff games returning to NBC, with a ‘game of the week’ type of deal ironed out with another network, like ESPN, for example.

“I believe what’s happening in media, particularly in the United States, represents an opportunity for us to continue to focus on how we’re delivering games,” said Bettman, “whether or not it’s on traditional TV or on streaming platforms, and we’re going to have an opportunity in the next few months or next year to recast or extend, or a combination of recast and extend our current relationship with NBC, which expires after next season. I think there’s a pretty vibrant media marketplace, which will put a good value on the product that we have, and we’ll see what that does.”

What further excites the NHL is the opportunity to work out a separate streaming agreement with another network or streaming service, like Amazon or DAZN, who already own NHL rights in some European countries and have engaged in exploratory U.S. rights talks with the NHL.

It’s too difficult to predict what type of value these deals have, once ink is put to paper, but the prospect of having multiple U.S. networks and streaming services is going to be a huge win for the NHL and Hockey Related Revenues.