RALEIGH, N.C. — The NHL is going international with a significant change to the format of its All-Star weekend next season.Buoyed by the success of the 4 Nations Face-Off in February 2025 and the Milan Olympics earlier this year, the NHL and NHL Players’ Association will select teams of 11 players representing four countries for a rebooted three-on-three All-Star tournament: Canada, USA, Finland and Sweden. A fifth team covering the rest of the world will round out the field for the Feb. 5-6 event at UBS Arena in Elmont, N.Y.“Our fans like All-Star,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said before Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final. “Our All-Star has worked well. We haven’t had some of the issues that some of the other leagues have had. Yes, we even blew ourselves up with 4 Nations by taking it to a whole new level, but there was never anything wrong with the All-Star format that we had been using for the last few years and we think what we’ve laid out for you today is going to be fun and entertaining, and that’s really what it’s all about.”The winning team will claim a $2 million prize.The NHL’s 2027 All-Star weekend will also feature a reimagined skills competition comprised exclusively of players aged 25 and under. Ten young stars will participate in four of the first six events: fastest skater, hardest shot, passing challenge, one-timers, stickhandling and accuracy shooting. Players will earn points based on their placement in each event.The top four players will then advance to a shootout, facing one of four All-Star goaltenders, before the final two compete in the obstacle course finale. The winner will take home a prize of $1 million.“I think being creative every year with little twists here and there makes it great for the fans and the players,” said NHLPA executive director Marty Walsh. — Chris JohnstonThe Russia questionIn the aftermath of a statement from the International Ice Hockey Federation last week seemingly opening the door a crack for the return of Russia in international tournaments, the NHL and NHL Players’ Association are keeping a close eye on it.They have no choice as the next best-on-best event in the sport is the NHL/NHLPA 2028 World Cup of Hockey in Prague and Calgary/Edmonton, and there will need to be a decision on Russia’s inclusion (or not) at least one year before then.“We’ll obviously be following how they (the IIHF) approach that process and what they do, and it’ll be relevant to what we do,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said at Tuesday’s state of the union news conference.To which commissioner Bettman added: “I don’t think there’s complete clarity on what they’ve (the IIHF) done and what it means, so that’s why we’re going to have to wait and see further.’’But even if the IIHF ends up opening the door to a return to play for Russia, the question we asked Daly was how the NHL was going to handle a potential boycott by countries such as Finland, Sweden or Czechia objecting to a return for Russia. Those hockey federations have long maintained their stance that they’re against Russia coming back while the war in Ukraine is still happening.Daly said he actually spoke with the IIHF on Tuesday morning about this very issue.“They don’t anticipate a problem with the Swedes and Finns, necessarily, or the Czechs right now, in terms of a boycott if it comes to that,” Daly said. “But we’re getting a little too far ahead of ourselves because they haven’t made any determinations with respect to whether any of the international tournaments scheduled for ’26-27 the Russians are going to participate in. We’re going to monitor what goes on there. We’re not going to be bound by it, but we’re going to monitor it and it’ll be relevant to our process in determining the World Cup of Hockey. But obviously the decision that came down I think is probably helpful longer-term if what you’re looking for is potential Russian participation.”