Paris, France - Players from the prestigious National Hockey League will compete at next year's Milan/Cortina Olympics, marking their return to the Winter Games for the first time since 2014, after an agreement signed by the NHL and the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) on Wednesday.

"This is a tremendous day for international ice hockey and for fans across the globe," said IIHF president Luc Tardif.

"Bringing the best players in the world back to the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 is a major step forward for our sport."

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NHL commissioner Gary Bettman added that the collaboration would "bring the best hockey players in the world to the Olympics and make this happen in a way that benefits the game globally".

Players from the NHL, widely regarded as the best in the world, were absent from the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang in 2018 and Beijing in 2022, the body considering those markets as uninteresting on a commercial level.

Ice hockey at the 2026 Olympics will be staged in Milan and feature 12 teams: Italy, Canada, defending champions Finland, the US, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, France, Slovakia, Latvia, and Denmark.