Several interesting tidbits of news came out of the IIHF’s recent semi-annual congress in Rhodes, Greece – such as a new format for the Women’s World Championship and assigning two upcoming U-18 World Championships to the USA – but perhaps the most intriguing was of an imminent proposal to introduce 3-on-3 hockey tournaments at the Winter Olympics – possibly as early as 2030.
“The boost that 3-on-3 basketball, rugby sevens or beach volleyball had on the original discipline was something that they never expected,” said IIHF president Luc Tardif. “It had a huge impact on recruitment and financial opportunity.”
This idea has been in the works for a while, as the IIHF has staged boys’ and girls’ 3-on-3 tournaments at the Youth Winter Olympics in Switzerland in 2020 and in South Korea earlier this year. Adding men’s and women’s 3-on-3 ice hockey tournaments to the Olympic Winter Games could very well happen and it raises some interesting questions.
What would the tournaments and games look like?
Tardif indicated at the congress that there would be eight women’s and men’s teams each and 240 more athletes, which would mean rosters of 15 players per side. These details are, presumably, negotiable.
For logistical reasons, the games would probably be played on regulation hockey rinks, but the rules would probably be different. How long would the games be? Much shorter than a regulation hockey game, one would think. In Olympic 3-on-3 basketball, games are played until one team scores 21 points or 10 minutes elapse. The NHL All-Star Tournament, which has been a 3-on-3 format for a few years now, plays 20-minute games divided into two halves, with the winners of the first two games playing twice in one day.
What about the playing rules?
The NHL and IIHF treat overtime – where 3-on-3 is the default numerical strength – under the same set of playing rules as in regulation time, but it doesn’t have to be that way and it probably shouldn’t if it’s going to be a separate discipline. There have been numerous observations in recent years that some rules designed for 5-on-5 hockey are not optimal for 3-on-3.
This year, the MHL – the top junior league in Russia – instituted a variation of an “over-and-back” rule, barring teams from bringing the puck back to their half of the ice during overtime. Teams that violate this rule twice are assessed a minor penalty. What other rule differences should there be?
Where would the players come from?
Would they come from the same leagues that stock the men’s and women’s 5-on-5 Olympic rosters? If the NHL breaks, would NHLers who don’t make their countries’ 5-on-5 teams play 3-on-3?
Whatever the rules would be, 3-on-3 hockey is still going to have more emphasis on puck possession and speed and less emphasis on size and physical play. Smaller players who aren’t physical enough to crack NHL rosters might excel at the 3-on-3 variant. European teams in particular might be more inclined to select players from their domestic leagues, which are generally more suitable to players deemed too small for the NHL.
Given the importance of player chemistry in 3-on-3 and a probable lack of preparation time, national associations might also consider choosing units of three players that are used to playing together during overtime during the season.
Will there be 3-on-3 men’s and women’s world championships?
This would seem logical. What time of year and how often they would be is up for speculation. And again, where would the players come from?
These are just some of the questions that might be answered when the details of the IIHF’s proposal to the International Olympic Committee become known.
The deadline for submitting proposals for new disciplines at the 2030 Winter Olympics in France is in January 2025, with a decision expected in March. If the IIHF’s proposal isn’t accepted, it would probably refocus on 2034 in Salt Lake City but Tardif, a Frenchman, seems anxious to make this happen sooner than later.
“There is an open door for hockey,” he said. “This is our time.”
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