Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin want the United States and Russia to face off on the ice.
Peace in the war in Ukraine wasn’t the only item on the agenda when the President of the United States and his Russian counterpart talked via telephone on Tuesday afternoon — apparently hockey also was a topic of conversation.
In a readout from the call released by Putin’s office at the Kremlin, the second-last line indicated that Trump is on board with the idea of having Team USA take on the Russian players in a competition.
Specifically, those players would come from the National Hockey League and the Russian Kontinental Hockey League. The two agreed to discuss the matter further down the road.
“Donald Trump supported Vladimir Putin’s idea to organize hockey matches in the USA and Russia between Russian and American players playing in the NHL and KHL,” the Kremlin stated in a news release posted on Putin’s website after the meeting.
The Russians have been banned from all International Ice Hockey Federation events since the country began its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. That ban has included the IIHF world junior championship along with the world championship held in the spring.
Whether that ban will include the 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Italy next February is up to the International Olympic Committee.
Last month, the National Hockey League shut down for two weeks to host the 4 Nations Face-Off with representatives of Canada, the United States, Finland and Sweden participating. Representatives of Russia weren’t invited because of the political atmosphere.
Trump was vocal in his support of the Americans and even called Team USA the morning of the final against Canada at TD Garden in Boston to wish the club good luck before Connor McDavid scored the winner in OT.
Whether American players would even be interested in this kind of series remains to be seen. The series would be subject to approval from the NHL owners along with the NHL Players Association and representatives of the KHL.
League officials told TSN’s Chris Johnston they had no comment during the NHL general managers’ meetings taking place in Florida.
“We have just become aware of conversations between President Trump and President Putin,” the league said in a statement. “We were not party to those discussions, and it would be inappropriate for us to comment at this time.”
This also comes with Washington Capitals superstar Alex Ovechkin only eight goals away from surpassing Wayne Gretzky as the NHL’s all-time leading goal-scoring mark of 894 in his career.
Ovechkin is at 887 goals heading into Tuesday night’s game against the Detroit Red Wings.
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