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STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- He may be the NHL's poster boy, but Sidney Crosby has nothing on teammate Jordan Staal if NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is in search of an endorsement for future season-opening games in Europe.

"As first road trips go, it was pretty cool," Staal said of the Penguins' nine days in Stockholm, Sweden, for the NHL Premiere. "I'll remember the scavenger hunt most. Seeing (Stockholm) from all those different places; who gets to do that?

"But the (Vassa Warship) museum - that was pretty good. It's tough to pick now that I think about it. There were so many good things about coming here.

"All the players really enjoyed this."

Of course, Bettman had no knowledge of Staal's thoughts upon announcing Sunday his desire for another two-city NHL Premiere in Europe next season.

"My hope is, if we can put it together, to do at least what we did this year, if not more," Bettman said.

Bettman and Players' Association executive director Paul Kelly talked Sunday of the many benefits to the league continuing European-based events such as the NHL Premiere games last weekend. The Penguins and Senators played two contests in Stockholm, and the New York Rangers and Tampa Bay Lightning battled twice in Prague, Czech Republic.

Those benefits, each man said, include expanding the league's brand beyond North America by offering hockey-crazed citizens in select European countries a real-life glimpse of stars such as Crosby and teammate Evgeni Malkin, Tampa Bay's Vincent Lecavalier, Ottawa's Daniel Alfredsson and New York's Henrik Lundqvist.

That three of those five players - the marquee names in both cities - are actually European is not a fact that escaped Kelly. It provided the foundation for his differing opinion from Bettman on future international endeavors.

"At the end of the day, players strongly favor international competition," Kelly said, responding to Bettman not committing NHL players to Olympics beyond the 2010 winter games in Vancouver.

As Kelly noted, more than 30 percent of NHL players are European, and...

"They favor the Olympics," Kelly said. "They favor the World Cup. They favor participation in the (International Ice Hockey Federation) world championships."

They also favor NHL expansion east of the Atlantic Ocean.

"I definitely think (Europe could support NHL teams)," Alfredsson said. "There are probably a few cities that could. There's potential. But (logistics are) a big problem, unfortunately."

According to Bettman, logistics are also a problem for the NHL's future beyond Vancouver 2010 - even if Crosby, a leading candidate to captain the Canadian men's team, proves to those games what swimmer Michael Phelps was to the Beijing Olympics.

"The concern with the Olympics is that it disrupts our season," Bettman said. "We lose some of the momentum of our season."

Bettman cited other reasons for guaranteeing only the Vancouver games - specifically, the time difference between North America and the rest of the world.

"When you're halfway around the world in Japan, it doesn't get the same attention in North America as when you're in Salt Lake City," Bettman said. "When you're in Torino, it's not quite like being in Salt Lake City, a little more approximate to Japan.

"It won't be impactful as I am sure being Vancouver will be."

But if the NHL is to have an impact in Europe beyond a handful of season-opening games every year, freeing its players to participate in the Olympics is completely necessary, said Penguins' goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury.

"We have to go," Fleury said. "This trip shows how big hockey is everywhere. The Olympics is the biggest (stage), wherever (the games) are. I think any player wants to go."

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