The NHL commissioner, Gary Bettman, hugging the return to the Olympic Games

The 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Milan will mark the first time in 12 years that NHL players will return to the Games, something that NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman hopes to have a great effect on the League.

“Ultimately, in terms of balance of pros and cons, we decided that it was important to return and be in what is one of the most visible platforms in the world,” Bettman said at the CNBC game planning plan conference Sport and Boardroom in Santa Monica, California, Tuesday.

Before Bettman was appointed commissioner in 1993, the NHL players had not participated in the Olympic Games. After seeing first -hand the effect that participation in the Olympic player in the NBA, Bettman, the League and the NHL players association worked so that the players participated from 1998.

But that participation was arrested after the 2014 Games, which Bettman said it was a reflection of the evolution of the league business and the sports industry in general.

“It was a bit a mixed bag,” Bettman said about the participation of NHL in the Olympic Games. “Although we were closed for two weeks, our players were treated as guests,” he said, adding that the League and its teams “had no control over anything; we did not have the rights to promote ourselves.”

There were also competition challenges, given the number of players that some teams were sending.

Part of what led NHL back to Olympic ice was a change in that relationship. The new NHL and NHLPA agreement with the IOC changes some aspects of its commercial agreement and also updates the living conditions of the players while they are in the games.

But Bettman also pointed out that players were reduced to play at the best national level, something that stood out in the successful confrontation tournament of 4 nations of the League earlier this year.

“It became clear that it was important for our players, who have history and tradition of representing their countries,” he said.

The NHL will stop playing for almost two weeks this season, and Bettman said that Olympic participation “will not be without its difficulties.” The NHL has not yet formally guaranteed that its players will participate in the Games 2030.

“But in general, it should be worth it,” he said.

Disclosure: Father CNBC NBCuniversal has NBC Sports and the NBC Olympic Games. NBC Olympics is the head of US transmission rights for all summer and winter games until 2036.