List of international ice hockey competitions featuring NHL players


The following is a list of international ice hockey competitions where National Hockey League players have been able to participate. Most of these competitions were arranged by the NHL or NHLPA.

Summit Series

The Summit Series was an eight-game challenge series between the Soviet National Team and a Canadian professional team.
In the 1972 Summit Series, the Canadian team was made up of NHL hockey players. No World Hockey Association players were included in the event. Two years later, Canadian WHA players competed in the 1974 Summit Series and were defeated by the Soviets. There were however, some former NHLers playing for the WHA in the series.
YearWinnerRunner-up
1972
1974

Super Series

The Super Series were exhibition games between Soviet teams and NHL teams that took place on each NHL opponents' home ice in North America from 1976 to 1991. The Soviet teams were usually club teams from the Soviet hockey league. The exception was in 1983, when the Soviet National Team represented the Soviet Union. Soviet teams won 14 series, NHL teams won 2 series, and 2 series were tied.
In the following summary the winner of a series is in bold.
Year1st Team2nd TeamWLT
1976CSKA MoscowNHL211
1976Soviet Wings MoscowNHL310
1978Spartak MoscowNHL320
1979Soviet Wings MoscowNHL211
1980Dynamo MoscowNHL211
1980CSKA MoscowNHL320
1983NHL420
1986CSKA MoscowNHL510
1986Dynamo MoscowNHL211
1989CSKA MoscowNHL421
1989NHLDinamo Riga421
1990NHLKhimik Voskresensk330
1990NHLSoviet Wings Moscow311
1990CSKA MoscowNHL410
1990Dynamo MoscowNHL320
1991NHLKhimik Voskresensk331
1991CSKA MoscowNHL610
1991Dynamo MoscowNHL322

Canada Cup

The Canada Cup tournament was a major international invitational competition for NHL players before the advent of the World Cup. In the 1976 and 1991 Canada Cups, the Soviet Union teams were missing many of their top players due to personal and political reasons.
YearWinnerRunner-up
1976
1981
1984
1987
1991

Challenge Cup 1979

YearWinnerRunner-up
1979NHL All-Stars

Rendez Vous 1987

In 1987, two matches were held between the USSR and NHL All Stars in Quebec City, Canada in place of the annual NHL All Star Game. Each team won one game and the series was declared a tie.
GameDateWinnerRunner-upScore
1st11 February 1987NHL All-Stars4-3
2nd13 February 1987NHL All-Stars5-3

Ninety Nine All Stars Tour

During the 1994–95 NHL lockout the Ninety Nine All Stars Tour was created by Wayne Gretzky and some of his personal friends, who formed a team and toured Europe for a total of eight games against mainly European competition, and playing games in five different countries.

World Cup

In 1996, the World Cup of Hockey replaced the Canada Cup.
YearWinnerRunner-up
1996
2004
2016 Europe

Olympics

Between 1998 and 2014, the NHL had a break in the season to allow its players to participate in the Olympics.
YearCityGoldSilverBronze
1998Nagano
2002Salt Lake City
2006Turin
2010Vancouver
2014Sochi

IIHF World Championships

Since 1976, there has been no limit to how many NHL players countries can send to the IIHF World Championships, but the tournament is usually played during the NHL playoffs. Because of the NHL lockout in 2004, all NHL players were available to participate in the 2005 Championship. However, many players did not participate because they had not played for a full season, and were therefore not in "game shape."

NHL Challenge

Between 2000 and 2003, a select few NHL teams traveled to Europe to play exhibition games against top division teams in the Swedish and Finnish leagues.
YearWinnerOpponentScore
2000Vancouver CanucksModo5-2
2000Vancouver CanucksDjurgårdens IF2-1
2001Colorado AvalancheBrynäs IF5-3
2003Toronto Maple LeafsJokerit5-3
2003Toronto Maple LeafsDjurgårdens IF9-2
2003Toronto Maple LeafsFärjestads BK3-0

Victoria Cup

The Victoria Cup was an ice hockey tournament organized by the IIHF and intended for teams of the Champions Hockey League and the NHL. The inaugural Cup was a single game playoff between the 2008 IIHF European Champions Cup winners Metallurg Magnitogorsk and the New York Rangers of the NHL. It was held in Bern, Switzerland on 1 October 2008. The Rangers won 4-3.
The 2009 edition of the tournament featured the ZSC Lions, the 2008–09 Champions Hockey League winners, and the Chicago Blackhawks of the NHL. The ZSC Lions defeated the Blackhawks 2-1 in the Hallenstadion in Zurich, Switzerland.
YearWinnerRunner-up
2008New York RangersMetallurg Magnitogorsk
2009ZSC LionsChicago Blackhawks

KHL vs NHL games

Teams of the former Soviet league have not played against NHL teams after the Super Series ended until 2008, when the 2008 Victoria Cup took place in Bern. In 2010 the NHL teams played their first games on Russian and Latvian ice since 1990.