NHL reveals details of World Cup of Hockey planned for February 2024
The NHL and NHLPA are “moving full steam ahead” with plans to bring back the World Cup of Hockey.
NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly revealed details of those plans today in Paris, during the league’s European player media tour, as reported by NHL.com.
The international tournament, which was last held in 2016, appears destined for February 2024 — with the NHL taking a 17-day break, similar to what it has done for Olympic hockey tournaments in the past.
“We’re out in market already moving ahead with plans for a February 2024 World Cup,” Daly said. “We’re still on schedule.”
The NHL has never staged its own tournament in-season, with previous World Cups and Canada Cups taking place in August and September.
Daly expects eight or possibly 10 countries to participate in the tournament, with games being played in North America and Europe. At this point it’s unclear if Russia would be allowed to participate, as the NHL has suspended all business relationships in the country since it invaded Ukraine earlier this year.
The NHL and NHLPA are compiling a shortlist of cities to host games, Daly said.
“We still want to play one pool in Europe, a preliminary round pool in Europe and a preliminary round pool in North America and move the semi-finals and the final to a different city in North America likely,” said Daly.
It remains to be seen how successful the World Cup of Hockey can be.
The 2016 tournament failed to capture the imagination of hockey fans, despite a star-studded list of players participating. Team Europe and a 23-and-under North American team felt gimmicky in 2016, and aren’t in the plans for future tournaments.
Hockey hasn’t had a true best-on-best tournament since 2014, when the NHL last participated in the Winter Olympics. The NHL opted out of the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang, after it was unable to negotiate a suitable deal with the International Olympic Committee. NHL players were set to return to the Beijing 2022 Olympics earlier this year, but didn’t participate because so many league games had to be rescheduled because of the rise of the Omicron variant last winter.
NHL players are currently set to participate in the next Winter Olympics, taking place in Italy in 2026.
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