The success of the 4 Nations Face-Off event in Feb. 2025 has the NHL thinking twice about its 2026 ... [+] All-Star plans. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) Getty Images Planning for the 2026 NHL All-Star Game remains a work in progress, said commissioner Gary Bettman on Wednesday. “We’re re-evaluating how we want to do things, because I think we’ve raised the bar about as high as you can for an all-star game in any sport,” Bettman said as the league’s general managers meetings’ wrapped up in Florida. “We want to make sure whatever we do is up to the standards that we’ve created.” Last month, the league ran its 4 Nations Face-Off tournament in lieu of a traditional all-star event. The players’ thirst for best-on-best international competition delivered thrilling hockey, was a ratings success, and caught the attention of many observers outside traditional hockey circles. So even though the NHL previously announced that the New York Islanders would host the 2026 All-Star event at their three-year-old home, UBS Arena — envisioning a kick-off to the Milan/Cortino Winter Olympics — it may no longer be possible to put the genie back in the bottle and return to the old 3-on-3 tournament format. “We’ve promised the Islanders an event, and Islander fans deserve events that we promise,” Bettman said. “We’re focused on what we need to do.” MORE FOR YOU ‘The Floodgates Open’—Bitcoin And Crypto Brace For A $9 Trillion Fed Price Flip Google Chrome Attack Warning—Stop Using Your Passwords ‘NYT Mini’ Clues And Answers For Wednesday, March 19 2025 Brings New-Look Draft The NHL is moving to a decentralized draft format after holding its 2024 draft at The Sphere in Las ... [+] Vegas. (Photo by Eliot J. Schechter/NHLI via Getty Images) NHLI via Getty Images Bettman also left the door open for future adjustments to the format of its draft event, as it prepares to go to a decentralized format in 2025. After the 2020 and 2021 drafts were conducted virtually due to the pandemic, teams voted to go back to a decentralized format after finding that they missed the privacy of operating from their war rooms in their home cities instead of on a noisy draft floor, and were frustrated by travel logistics, especially so close to the opening of free agency on July 1. In 2025, the draft event will be held at the Peacock Theatre in Los Angeles on July 27-28. The top 50 prospects will be invited and other prospects will be welcome to attend, and draft pick announcements will be made by an array of celebrities. Players will be able to meet virtually with the clubs that selected them, but each team will also need to have a high-ranking staff member on hand in Los Angeles. “We’ve told them it’s important that there’s somebody that’s there who can convey information, if necessary, in either direction, if there’s a technology problem, or if you know who’s being picked when, or logistics of what needs to be done,” Bettman said. “We’ve said somebody who is competent at a high-enough level and can be trusted needs to be in place — at least one person with us in Los Angeles.” The new format will not necessarily be permanent. “We’ve said, ‘Listen, we’ll go through this experience, and if there’s a surge of interest to go back, we’ll put it back to the clubs again,’” Bettman said. “If there’s a desire to go back because the clubs miss each other — miss being on the floor together — we’ll put it back to a vote again. We can be flexible. This is us, executing the will of the clubs.” Business As Usual Bettman’s other updates on league business were relatively benign. No rule changes are planned, and the schedule parameters and playoff format are expected to remain the same. Bettman also said that discussions with the NHL Players’ Association about a new collective bargaining agreement will begin in the first week of April, and reiterated that he and NHLPA executive director Marty Walsh appear to be aligned on key issues. “I think I’m anticipating, based on everything I’m hearing from Marty, that we’ll have good discussions,” he said. “I’m hoping we can do this quickly, quietly and painlessly.” For now, he’s also hopeful that the tariff war between Canada and the U.S. won’t dramatically impact league business or the projections for rising revenues and a spiking salary cap over the next three seasons. “I think I’m on record as saying, if the Canadian economy is impacted to the extent that the dollar declines — the Canadian dollar, vis-a-vis the US dollar — we do everything in US dollars,” Bettman said. “So that’ll have an impact potentially on our Canadian clubs and (hockey-related revenue). But we’re hoping this is a moment in time and we get through this.” At age 72, Gary Bettman also refuted the notion that his retirement is imminent. “Absolutely not,” he told the assembled reporters with a laugh. “You keep trying to get rid of me. No such luck.” Follow me on Twitter. Editorial StandardsForbes Accolades