The Graeme Roustan Show: Luc Tardif

The Hockey News' Money and Power 2025 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 IIHF president Luc Tardif.

Here's their full conversation in The Graeme Roustan Show:

Read along with an excerpt from their discussion:

W. GRAEME ROUSTAN: I saw you last year at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. You’re back here this year at the Hockey Hall of Fame. How much time do you spend on the road?

LUC TARDIF: You should ask that to my wife. It’s difficult because I’m still living in France and the office is in Zurich. We organize 40 IIHF events every year. I’m not watching all the events, but I’m on the road maybe half of the time. Another part at the office and another part at home. That’s the job, and I like it.

WGR: You’ve done this position now for several years. Are you finding that it is what you expected it to be?

LT: It was a hard time because COVID approached us quickly. After that, we had to organize a lot of competitions and postpone others. When you organize 40 events, it’s not easy, but we went through. For example, the Olympics in China was a really difficult situation, but we went through. When we came back from China, it was the war in Ukraine. The geopolitical situation did not make things easy. The war in Israel also came after.

It wasn’t only the IIHF involved in that. It involved every president of an international federation, company or owner of a club. I expect an easier time coming, but we got some satisfaction with the Olympics agreement with the NHL for 2026 and 2030. Now, things are back. There are a few things to solve, but our activities are coming back like it was before.

WGR: From where I sit looking at your position, you have 85 countries in multiple languages and multiple different economic situations. Correct?

LT: Multiple cultures.

WGR: Then you have, on top of that, wars, fighting, economic embargoes, all these different things. Do you sometimes feel like you’re running the United Nations?

LT: It’s a political job, so that means you have to deal with this. We are the IIHF, so that means you can have conflict everywhere. We have to stay away from politics, if possible. Make your decision more about our sport in order to protect our competition. But politics, you sometimes have to deal with it. We cannot solve problems all over the world, but we have to deal with it and make sure that the athletes themselves don’t feel guilty. They are not guilty of anything. But sometimes you have to make some hard decisions.

WGR: You talked a little bit about the situation that we’re all facing today, and you mentioned the Ukraine war, which was unexpected. It came out of nowhere. And clearly, Russia wants to be back in international competition. They’re very vocal about that. Part of your mandate and job is to oversee these 85 countries that are involved, and there are strong opinions about whether Russia participates or not. What is the position, right now, of the IIHF insofar as Russian participation?

LT: Usually we make a decision in February. We have to answer the question, “Is it too early to bring back Russia and Belarus to our competition?” We wait until the last moment because the teams that play in the championship in Sweden and in Denmark, they have to understand the process of relegation and promotion. If we bring back Russia and Belarus, that means there are four teams. We still have to play with 16 top teams. That means, every time, we wait until the last moment to make that decision. This year, in February, we will make a decision for the World Championship in Switzerland in 2026.

With the Olympics, that’s an IOC decision. But we had a meeting with the IOC and said, “You have to make a decision because the organization committee will have to sell tickets.” And it’s important to know who’s playing. So far, the IOC accepts individual participation under conditions. That was the case in Paris. But for team sports, the recommendation is, for the moment, no access.

WGR: Are you spending a lot of your time speaking about the 2026 and 2030 Olympics? Is participation on people’s minds a lot right now?

LT: All the hockey fans were excited because we haven’t had a best-on-best competition since Sochi 2014. What’s good is we’ve now got an agreement for Milano-Cortina and France in 2030. Also, the Olympics after that will be in Salt Lake City. We didn’t discuss that, but I will be surprised if NHL players won’t be going there. So, three times in a row, I think the players will be there. And after that, it will be easier.

WGR: It’ll be forever. I can’t see that changing much at all. Now, a lot of people are talking about the World Cup. What can you talk to us about the structure of the tournament and how it’s coming together? You have the NHL, the NHLPA, then you have the international community. They all have to sort of come together, and they all have to win. It has to be good for everybody. It’s difficult to do that, isn’t it?

LT: It’s difficult. I was in a meeting this afternoon, and that’s what we tried to find, a kind of win-win solution. The IIHF, that’s our job. We had success, and that was not so easy for the Olympic Games. I think we can use the same method and bring everybody together around the table. But that’s a little bit more complicated because we have a marketing partner to promote the World Championship. We are a non-profit organization, but the World Championship brings us the money to make all the development activities financially possible. All the World Championships for all the other divisions, the women’s U-18, under-20. We use it for that. That’s why that’s precious for us.

WGR: Let me ask you a little bit about Ukraine. They have a whole series of problems that a lot of other members don’t have, like the exodus of players. A lot of players, young boys and girls, have left the country. Their program has suffered from pre-war. It’s a difficult situation, and I know you feel for them. I know you care about all your organizations, but what’s your sense of how they’re doing?

LT: It doesn’t matter which competition, they still want to exist. For example, the athletes were there during the Olympic Games. They do everything, and sometimes they practise in conditions that we cannot even imagine. We’ve decided that they’ve got five teams, and they want to play in the World Championship. That’s difficult to prepare. The first year, almost all the members of the IIHF helped us to financially organize all the training camps to help them be prepared and be in the best condition. We’ve been doing that for three years. The NHL helps us, too. We are focused on the national team, not the leagues. It works well, and they compete well. But it’s difficult for them, as they’ve lost a lot of players. They are completely involved in the war, but it’s fantastic what they’re doing. They fight for their land, but outside of that, they want to show they’re still alive. I think that’s our job to help them as much as we can.

For more of the text Q&A with Tardif and more interviews with a deep look into the world of the hockey business, check out The Hockey News' Money and Power 2025 issue, available at THN.com/free.