With a throng of media in Columbus this weekend for the NHL All-Star Weekend, commissioner Gary Bettman announced that the World Cup of Hockey will return in 2016.
News of the return of the World Cup of Hockey leaked back in September, but this was our first chance to get all of the details of the tournament.
The tournament, which will take place in Toronto beginning on September 17, 2016, will comprise eight teams: Canada, USA, Russia, Czech Republic, Sweden, Finland, “Team Europe” and “U-23 North American Youngstars”. Yes, Youngstars. Sorry Slovakia and Switzerland, you’re not invited.
The "rest of Europe" and "Under-23 North American" teams are expected to be a one-time phenomenon.
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) January 24, 2015
The plan is for the World Cup of Hockey to be played once every four years, with Team Europe and the U-23 North American team being replaced by two qualifying teams from Europe beginning in 2020.
While having Team Europe and a U-23 North American team appears extremely gimmicky, I am intrigued by it. Team Europe will be able to field a team with the likes of Anze Kopitar, Zdeno Chara, Marian Hossa, Marian Gaborik, Jaroslav Halak Mikhail Grabovski and Christian Ehrhoff.
Here is what Team Europe could look like:
| Thomas Vanek | Anze Kopitar | Marian Hossa | |||
| Mats Zuccarello | Mikhail Grabovski | Marian Gaborik | |||
| Tomas Tatar | Frans Nielsen | Nino Niederreiter | |||
| Mikkel Boedker | Zemgus Girgensons | Jannik Hansen | |||
| Dennis Seidenberg | Zdeno Chara | ||||
| Roman Josi | Mark Streit | ||||
| Christian Ehrhoff | Andrej Sekera | ||||
| Jaroslav Halak | |||||
| Jonas Hiller | |||||
The U-23 team will have the exclusive right to select players 23 and under from Canada and the USA. That means they’ll be able to field a team with the likes of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Alex Galchenyuk, Nathan MacKinnon, Seth Jones, Aaron Ekblad and Connor McDavid.
Here is what the U-23 North American team could look like:
| Jonathan Drouin | Nathan MacKinnon | Alex Galchenyuk | |||
| Jonathan Huberdeau | Ryan Nugent-Hopkins | Sean Monahan | |||
| Mark Scheifele | Connor McDavid | Johnny Gaudreau | |||
| Ryan Strome | Sean Couturier | Boone Jenner | |||
| Seth Jones | Dougie Hamilton | ||||
| Aaron Ekblad | Jacob Trouba | ||||
| Morgan Rielly | Ryan Murray | ||||
| John Gibson | |||||
| Malcolm Subban | |||||
Not bad.
World Cup format: 2 divisions of four teams. Top two in each qualify for crossover semifinal, final is 2-out-of-3.
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) January 24, 2015
While the World Cup of Hockey doesn’t have the prestige of the Olympics, it should be able to offer more top caliber games than the watered-down Olympic tournament provides. Canada played half of their six games in the last Olympics against minnows of the hockey world: Austria, Norway, Latvia.
For the World Cup, Canada could conceivably lose to anyone in their pool and could face a must-win game as early as the second game of the tournament.
The challenge for the World Cup will be to get full fan buy-in to a tournament that quite simply won’t have the same sizzle as the Olympics, particularly for fans in Europe. If they can do that, which will take time, this tournament has a a chance to be a great success. Having a centralized location should help, with hockey fans from other countries traveling to the tournament every four years.
NHL is also considering a Canada vs Rest of the World "Ryder Cup" style event in 2018.
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) January 24, 2015
Also revealed today was that the NHL is considering a Ryder Cup-type challenge, where Canada would play an international team in a best-of-five or best-of-seven series. The tournament would take place in Winter Olympic years, which I assume is the fall-back plan if the NHL decide not to return to the Olympics.
I think the Ryder Cup idea will be a tough sell and might end up looking like a glorified All-Star Game. A better idea? Have a Women’s World Cup of Hockey, invite two teams (Canada and the USA) and have a best-of-seven series. I would watch that.
Bettman said World Cup announcement has no bearing on NHL's future in Olympics.
— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) January 24, 2015
NHL Olympic participation going forward is still very much up in the air, with the NHL wanting more money and influence over the tournament. It is no secret that the NHL has communicated precisely this to the IOC and if they don’t get more, they won’t return. Today’s announcement should show the IOC that NHL isn’t bluffing.
Reuters/Mike Blake