World Hockey Summit:

[cusimano_brothers 1,655]

From TSN:

It might be a little on the expensive side, and it might take place during one of the last prime weeks of summer, but organizers of the world hockey summit believe fans will be rewarded for their attendance.

The four-day event opens Monday in Toronto, featuring some of the sport's most influential figures discussing pressing issues in an open public forum. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and IIHF president Rene Fasel will host separate question-and-answer sessions, while Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brian Burke and Detroit Red Wings counterpart Ken Holland headline an impressive list of panellists.

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Player development, international transfers and a global agenda will also be among the issues up for discussion through the week. Canadian hockey veteran Hayley Wickenheiser, Ottawa Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson and Tampa Bay Lightning general manager Steve Yzerman will be among those chatting on Monday.

NHL agents Pat Brisson and Don Meehan are set to participate in a panel on Monday night discussing the role agents play in drawing European talent to the Canadian junior system. That is the same night NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly and KHL chairman Vyacheslav Fetisov will sit at the same table to talk about international contract issues.

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And now, the bad news:

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The summit is open to anyone willing to spend $450 for admission. A special package is available for Monday night's event at the Hockey Hall of Fame, a Hot Stove session on sale for $150, with tickets available by phone or at the door.

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From Toronto Star :

If the NHL wants to move into Europe, it will likely have to run over Rene Fasel with a Zamboni first.

The normally diplomatic Fasel, head of the International Ice Hockey Federation, used the stage on the on-going World Hockey Summit to take a few verbal jabs at anyone who believes Europe might be fertile ground for NHL expansion.

Fasel, essentially, dared the NHL to try it.

“This is our territory and I will fight like hell and not allow anybody to come from abroad. I think in Europe, we are strong enough to do something on our own and then have a competition between Europe and North America,” said Fasel during an afternoon question and answer session.

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“I don’t think an NHL division in Europe would fly,” he said. “If they have a lot of money to invest, they could try but as long as I’m sitting on my chair, I would never allow that.”

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Fasel said he’d rather see Russia’s KHL and league’s from other countries such as Sweden, Finland and Germany work towards a European club champion. Then have that champ play the Stanley Cup champion.

“That would be for the hockey fan. That would be music,” he said.

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And now, the bad news:

Apparently, they have had no problem at all selling tickets.

[cusimano_brothers 1,655]

I was really surprised by:

As a side note, Fasel, surprisingly, came out in favour of playing hockey on a smaller ice surface as opposed to the wider rinks that are the norm in Europe. He said watching the 2010 Olympics convinced him of that.

“After Vancouver, I will tell you honestly I like the small rink very much,” he said. “I was skeptical but what I saw in Vancouver, the intensity of the games . . . unbelievable. It was really great. We have to find a solution.”

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From Toronto Star :

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There was lots of similar pulse-raising stuff through the day, but it was Bettman, artfully maneuvering through a midday question and answer session, who brought a dose of reality to what he called the “rarified air” in a crowded ballroom at the Sheraton Centre.

Bettman stressed that no decision has been made on the NHL’s participation at Sochi in 2014 and, really, there’s no rush. He noted there were issues, a litany of them, to be addressed by both the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) before the matter is even considered by his league’s board of governors and a decision is made in conjunction with the NHL Players’ Association.

“We haven’t said, ‘No.’ Anybody who suggests that we’ve made a decision or that I’m anti-Olympics doesn’t get it,” Bettman told the gathering of delegates.

“What we’ve been simply saying is, it’s a mixed bag and it has been all along. We need to evaluate and re-evaluate and we’ll decide at the appropriate time.”

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Maybe the biggest issue to the League, although it might not be publicly acknowledged as such, is money; money from the IIHF to offset money not made during the League's shutdown. What Mr. Bettman means to say is this:

"We don't make nickel one off the Olympics and that has to change if you want us back."

However, I don't think that's going to happen.