NEW YORK — The NHL has canceled an Olympic sendoff event scheduled for February at the New York Islanders‘ arena and plan to hold All-Star Weekend festivities there in 2027, ESPN’s Emily Kaplan reported Tuesday night.
UBS Arena was announced to host 2026 All-Star Weekend when the league figured it would experiment with the event as a jumping off point for players, coaches and staff to gather there and fly out of John F. Kennedy International Airport to Milan.
The massive success of the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament earlier this year led officials to wonder about how much sense it made to have a traditional All-Star Weekend with a skills competition and either a game or the 3-on-3 tournament that has become a fixture for hockey’s midseason event for almost a decade. The NBA altered its format to a U.S. against the world game as a way to mix things up.
NHL officials had said the Islanders would likely get the All-Star Game in the odd-numbered year between the return to the Olympics and the 2028 World Cup of Hockey. The hope is to use the Feb. 5-7 weekend in 2027 for that.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
