One of the NHL and NHLPA’s joint endeavours to grow the hockey-related revenues (HRR) pie has been engaging more and more with markets outside of North America. For the players, part of the incentive is making events like the Olympics part of the regular hockey calendar. For the owners, it’s about more revenue streams.
The NHL’s non-North American hopes and dreams and regulated by Article 24: International Hockey.
International committee
Per Section 24.1(a), the International Committee organizes all “regular” NHL events and jointly-developed international projects and initiatives. In other words, they organize the trips to Europe and Asia for pre-season and regular season hockey, as well as help develop events such as the World Cup of Hockey and organize Olympic participation.