TORONTO — Two powerful men from opposite sides of the hockey world bumped into each other just outside the main conference room. They chatted for a few minutes as they walked down the hall, shook hands and demonstrated what organizers hope will be a lasting impact of the world hockey summit.
International Ice Hockey Federation president Rene Fasel would not have seen Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brian Burke until the next world championships, but they spent more than five minutes together in a lobby sprinkled with delegates from across the hockey world as the four-day event was drawing to a close.
“When we started to build the agenda, it was like herding cats with everybody,” Hockey Canada president Bob Nicholson said during a break Thursday. “The sessions have been good, but more importantly, what’s happened in the hall — in the discussions and in the networking that’s gone on — has just been fantastic.”
Sessions began with a series of so-called “Hot Stove” panels on Monday night, and they continued through the week. Issues ranged from the NHL’s involvement in the Olympics to raising the age at which children are taught to bodycheck to the difficulty of retaining elite junior players in Europe.
None of the talk was binding, but it was a start, according to several high-ranking participants.
“I think we came in saying we didn’t expect anything to be enacted immediately, or come out of this,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said. “It was more a way of identifying issues and having discussion on those issues. My view is, over time, there will clearly be some things that were discussed at his conference that will happen in our league.”
One of the most contentious panel discussions unfolded on Wednesday afternoon, after NHL commissioner Gary Bettman had repeatedly described his league’s involvement in the Olympics as a “mixed bag.”
The gathering had its roots in a summit hosted by Hockey Canada 11 years ago, after both the men’s and the women’s team washed out of the Winter Games without a gold medal. Nicholson said he would be open to a summit after the Olympics every four years, but added the idea had not been widely discussed.