Bettman weighs in on playoff format, 2026 All-Star game and the Trump/Putin USA-Russia talks
Published
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman held court at the league's general managers meetings on Wednesday, taking questions from reporters on a wide variety of topics.
With the playoffs set to begin in less than a month, Bettman gave an emphatic "no" when asked whether the league will consider changes to the current format in the future. The league has run with the current bracketed formats based on division standings for the first two rounds since 2013-14. Prior to that, the NHL used 1-8 seedings in each conference to determine the playoff matchups.
While the NHL remains committed to hold an All-Star event next year at the home of the New York Islanders, Bettman said the format remains up for debate after the 4 Nations Face-Off "raised the bar."
"We're reevaluating 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. "And so we want to make sure whatever we do is up to the standards that we've created."
"We've promised the Islanders an event," he added. "We're focused on what we need to do. I don't want to be pinned down in this moment. We're still going through our cycle of what we're doing in the here and now. I don't want to have speculation."
USA-Russia Series
News broke Wednesday of another potential international event, with U.S. president Donald Trump discussing the idea of a USA-Russia best-on-best series with Russian president Vladimir Putin. Bettman said he only first learned of the idea on Wednesday when the public did.
"I'm not going to speculate or anything else," Bettman said of the potential event. "It is what it is."
The Krelim said Wednesday that Trump supported Putin's idea of organizing games in the U.S. against Russia involving players from the NHL and the KHL. The discussion took place as the two leaders held a call to discuss the war in Ukraine.
2025-26 Season opens Oct. 7
Bettman relayed that the 2025-26 NHL season will begin on Oct. 7. It will be the final season covered under the league's current collective bargaining agreement, with talks on a new CBA set to begin in the first week of April with the National Hockey League Players' Association.
"I'm hoping we can do this quickly, quietly and painlessly," Bettman said of the talks.