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2028 World Cup of Hockey awarded to two cities in Canada and one in Europe

Preston Hodgkinson
Preston Hodgkinson
|
Mar 16 2026, 3:56 pm
2028 World Cup of Hockey awarded to two cities in Canada and one in Europe
James Lang/Imagn Images

The 2028 World Cup of Hockey is heading to Alberta.

Rumours around Edmonton and Calgary hosting the event have been circulating for a few months, and it became official on Monday. The NHL announced that the Alberta cities, along with Prague, Czechia, will play host to the 2028 event.

The league employed the help of NHL superstars David Pastrnak, Cale Makar, and Connor McDavid to make the announcement.

Calgary’s Scotia Place, which is currently under construction and scheduled to open in 2027, and Prague’s O2 Arena will host the round-robin games. Edmonton’s Rogers Place will host the World Cup of Hockey semi-final and final.

Rogers Place has hosted a number of big games in recent years, including the Edmonton Oilers’ run to the Stanley Cup Final in 2024 and 2025, as well as much of the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs, when it hosted games without fans during the pandemic.

The NHL revealed in December that it had narrowed down the list of potential host cities to 16, meaning that Edmonton and Calgary had to beat out quite a few venues to be crowned the winners.

Having two world-class NHL arenas within a three-hour drive of each other is a unique advantage for Alberta and likely played a crucial part in this bid.

This is set to be the first edition of the World Cup of Hockey since 2016, when Toronto hosted the entire tournament on its own. Canada came out victorious in that World Cup, sweeping Team Europe in a best-of-three final series.

That tournament featured two gimmick teams in “Team Europe” and an under-23 North American team, which will not be the case for the 2028 World Cup. Instead, the NHL announced last year that the World Cup of Hockey would feature eight countries competing for international glory.

It’s still unclear which eight countries will be competing in 2028, with Russia being the biggest unknown.

The NHL revealed that the nations will be divided into two groups of four, with the top-three teams advancing to the knockout stage. The group winners will receive a bye to the semi-finals, while the second and third-place teams will play in a single-game elimination.

There will be no three-on-three OT in the semi-finals or final, as they will be following Stanley Cup Playoff elimination rules of continuous five-on-five OT. The final two rounds will also feature single-game elimination.

Last season’s 4 Nations Face-Off was widely seen as a test event for an NHL-run international competition, which received wide praise among players and fans. The success of that tournament should give the league confidence in hosting a more significant World Cup-style competition.

More information regarding the scheduling of the tournament and participating countries is expected to come at a later date.

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