NHL, NHLPA to collaborate with Lega Serie A ahead of Olympics

Before NHL players take the ice at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 in February, some will get the chance to show what they can do on the soccer pitch in Milan in August.

The NHL, NHL Players' Association and Lega Serie A announced plans Tuesday for an unprecedented international cross-sport collaboration that will include the NHL's top European players training alongside players and legends from Italy's premier professional soccer league.

Ahead of NHL players competing in the Olympics in Milan, the city will host the annual NHL/NHLPA European Player Media Tour on Aug. 22. The 2025-26 Lega Serie A season opens the following day, providing an opportunity for players from each league to interact.

On Aug. 23, NHL players will visit the training grounds of several Lega Serie A clubs in the surrounding area and participate in special events highlighting the connections between world-class soccer and hockey players to the fans of each sport. Later that day, they will attend AC Milan's season opener against Cremonese at the famed San Siro Stadium in Milan.

"There's a lot of really cool things that we have planned," said Keith Wachtel, president of NHL business. "Inherently, many of our European players, they grew up playing soccer or football. You see before every game every team plays two-touch. It's something that's well known and common and you see it all the time.

"Now, take NHL players in Milan training and playing with some of the best soccer players in the world and capturing that content and delivering that content to not just the NHL fan base but a much broader fan base who are interested in sports."

Wachtel estimated that 30-40 European NHL players will attend the European Player Media Tour, which is held each August to help promote the upcoming NHL season. The event will be in Milan for the first time to not only promote NHL player participation in the Olympics, but also with the intention of joining forces with Serie A.

"This collaboration with the NHL and the NHLPA allows us to engage with a global audience in new and exciting ways while celebrating the anticipation surrounding the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics," said Andy Mitchell, CEO and managing director of Lega Serie A USA. "By bringing Lega Serie A legends and NHL stars together, we aim to create a synergy that showcases the best of each league, creating an unforgettable experience for fans on both sides of the Atlantic."

Wachtel said he and Serie A's commercial and marketing director Michele Ciccarese initially discussed the idea of working together about three years ago when they met at Soccerex, a global networking event for soccer industry professionals, in Miami. Each was on hand to talk about Supponor, a virtual advertising technology company that has worked with the NHL on its digitally enhanced dasher boards and Lega Serie A on its perimeter signage.

"There, we talked about how we can try and collaborate together," Wachtel said. "They are very entrepreneurial in how they approach their business. We feel we're the same, and we just sort of talked about, 'Hey, what can we do? The Olympics are in Milan. We have to try and do something.' And it kind of slowly was building momentum."

The potential of the partnership crystalized when retired Italian soccer stars Andrea Pirlo and Marco Materazzi attended the New York Rangers-New York Islanders game at Madison Square Garden on March 3. Following the soccer tradition of swapping jerseys after the game, center Mika Zibanejad, an avid soccer fan, exchanged his Rangers sweater for Pirlo's Juventus and Materazzi's Inter Milan shirts.

A photo of the exchange went viral on the social media accounts from the NHL, the Rangers and Serie A.

"It kind of was a proof of concept to show that this can be a big deal," Wachtel said. "The engagement, forget what it did in Italy because that engagement on Serie A's Instagram was unbelievable, but for the Rangers and the NHL site, it was one of our strongest engagements.

"So, we said, 'Hey, we've got to do more of this,' and, certainly, tie it to the Olympics."

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