The executive director of USA Hockey chats about the importance of the world juniors, the upcoming Olympics and the dynamic of having NHLers at the Winter Games.
The Hockey News' Money & Power 2026 hockey business annual is available at THN.com/free, featuring the annual 100 people of power and influence list.
W. Graeme Roustan, owner and publisher of The Hockey News, sat down with special guests for peer-to-peer conversations also featured in the issue, including the executive director of USA Hockey, Pat Kelleher.
Here's their full conversation in The Hockey News' True Hockey Talk:
Read along with an excerpt from their discussion:
W. GRAEME ROUSTAN: This is the Money and Power issue, and we're really focused on the business of hockey, so let's talk about the business side of hockey. The revenues generated from a world-junior tournament in a hockey market like Minnesota have to really bolster the organization.
PAT KELLEHER: It does for sure. But it's not easy, right? There are a lot of games to sell tickets to. But we're fortunate to have the Minnesota Wild as partners. Minnesota Sports and Entertainment is a group that's really driven this. They're the locally based community group that handles big events like the Super Bowl, so they're no stranger to these big events.
But to host the world juniors, it's an opportunity to generate significant revenue for USA Hockey that ultimately we put back into the game. So how do we take advantage? We only have the world juniors every six or seven years. When we hosted in 2011, it was really kind of the watershed for USA Hockey with the world juniors from a business perspective. We hosted it in Buffalo, and we had incredible financial success, so much so that it helped us initially buy USA Hockey Arena. The success of that tournament allowed us to do that and think bigger on some things.
And then, in 2018, we held it again in Buffalo because we had so much success. And they really embraced it. If you recall, we had the very famous outdoor game, the only outdoor game in world-junior history, and that was incredible. And the snow just kept coming. Oh, that was agonizing in that part, but it's an incredible memory now. It was a financial success for the organization, but it also showed that the partnership we have, across the board, with the NHL and the NHL clubs is really crucial to us, and we care so much about it. The Sabres were incredible partners, back-to-back for us in 2011 and 2018, and then this time, we had interest from many other NHL clubs: "How can we bring the world juniors to our community, our building and our fans?" And the push from Minnesota and Minnesotans was significant.
The business side of it is something we have to look at. Let's be realistic, to run an organization and be successful, we have to continue to find revenue and resources. And fortunately, for hockey in the country, our job is to find that revenue and resources and put it back into making the game bigger, better, stronger all the time. So this is a huge opportunity for our organization to host here in Minnesota. We have great partners, great teammates – the University of Minnesota is another one – they will all help us be successful and run a first-class, successful event that will be a great experience for all the athletes that come in. We're excited for the impact it could have.
WGR: But you just mentioned hosting every six or seven years? Wouldn't it be better to have it every second year or, maximum, every third year?
PK: I mean, as long as our staff isn't listening to this. They're the ones who do the work and will be in Minnesota for, literally, a month-plus. It's a lot, and we have to be sensitive to that. This property has grown immensely, and we're not the only ones who want to host it.
Certainly, Canada does a great job with the event. And they really have built it. You've got to give their TV partners and everybody in Canada a lot of credit, and we've benefited from that. But I was in Sweden a couple of years ago, and they did a tremendous job with it. Finland does a great job. The Czechs, too. Everybody wants it, and they know now that there is a business here that is viable to help their federations. So everybody wants it.
Would we like it more often? Sure. Yeah. And I think we'll continue to work on that because, again, I think we'll have great success here in Minnesota as a business and a property and, ideally, also on the ice with our performance. Because winning matters, and it helps boost enthusiasm and generate interest. But it's a challenge because everybody wants to have this event. So hopefully, when we have it again in 2031, we'll have success on the ice and business success. And then, hopefully, we'll work with the IIHF and our other federations to see if we can't get it a little more often.
"To run an organization and be successful, we have to continue to find revenue and resources."- Pat Kelleher
WGR: So let's go on to the Olympics. Right after the world junior tournament, you're on a flight over to Italy right after that.
PK: Within a month. Yep, within a month…We're excited. We have won the most recent men's World Championship, the women's World Championship and the Paralympic sled World Championship. So we're holding the gold medals in all of those from the last year. They don't mean anything moving into those tournaments in the Olympics and Paralympics, but we feel really strong about our teams and programs.
On the women's side, it's been a different process. In every Winter Olympics in the past, our women have gone into a four- to five-month residency program where they train and play together. Now, we have players in college, we have players in the PWHL, and they've come together to play some Rivalry Series games against Canada, but then, similar to the men, they're going to get over there and be thrust into Olympic competition within five or six days of being there. But we're excited. We have a great group. John Wroblewski is our coach. He's done an incredible job the last several years. And we feel our group is in a good spot with youth, with veteran leadership and goaltending. But that won't be easy, either.
And then on the men's side, certainly having the NHL back is the biggest thing. For any hockey fan of any country, to have the best players in the world heading to Milan and heading back to the Olympics for the first time since 2014, is very exciting.
WGR: When I talk to owners off the record, they're not happy about their players going to play in the Olympics. They're just not, because if your star player gets hurt and misses even a week, that could cost you a lot of money. You could miss the playoffs, and that's lost revenue. I know you're not going to talk about owners, but you do know that there's that tension there.
PK: That's been there forever in any international competition. We get that. Even in the world juniors, these players come and play for us for three weeks, then they go back to Boston College or they go back to Michigan. They're their players for the full season. We're grateful and thankful that we can pull them together for a tournament like this.
It's the same in the Olympics. The difference is, you just have a lot of zeros attached to paycheques and revenue for teams. And we get that. I speak to the owners. I talked to (Minnesota Wild owner) Craig Leipold the other day, and we get it. But at the same time, we are extremely grateful and thankful that they're back in the Olympics. Because I get the challenges for an NHL team owner; you shut down and all that. But hopefully, from a USA Hockey perspective, with the players and the people we have assembled on our men's side, we can deliver something that is worthy to the American public, the American hockey fan and the American non-hockey fan who becomes a hockey fan because we have a great tournament at the Olympics. That's what we need to do, and we feel that responsibility.
For more interviews with a deep look into the world of the hockey business, check out The Hockey News' Money & Power 2026 issue, available at THN.com/free.