NHL considering dropping All-Star Game in favor of international event, per report

The NHL’s All-Star Game has taken many forms over the past few years. Now, according to Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston, the NHL may be looking into scrapping the festival weekend all together in favor of international growth opportunities.

On Saturday evening, Johnston dropped the news during Hockey Night in Canada, in which it’s mentioned that the NHL is making a “real push” to make bigger splashes internationally. While there’s no mention as to what specifically the NHL wants to do overseas, according to Johnston the idea has gotten real traction between the league and the Players Association.

The NHL recently had the Vancouver Canucks and Los Angeles Kings play a pair of preseason games in China for the first time. The league is also not participating in the upcoming 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, as they instead look for bigger and better ways of promoting the league at an international level.

Also reported by Johnston is that the NHL has hired European businessman Jaka Lednik to oversee the league’s European growth strategy.

It’s expected that the NHL and NHLPA will have more meetings on the topic, and others, soon. While the discussions seem to be ongoing, they look to be nothing more than that at the moment and it ultimately might not lead to any changes in the future.

This season, the NHL’s All-Star weekend is set to take place in Tampa Bay on January 27 and 28.