MONTREAL — The NHL and NHL Players’ Association have achieved their goal of establishing a calendar of international best-on-best events, announcing Wednesday that they’ve committed to reviving the World Cup of Hockey in February 2028.
That guarantees a regular cadence of best-on-best tournaments following this month’s 4 Nations Face-Off and the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan next February.
The news was announced by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and NHLPA executive director Marty Walsh before Canada’s game against Sweden in the 4 Nations opener at Bell Centre.
“I think this (2028 World Cup) tournament indicates how committed we are, and how excited we and the players are about moving forward with international best on best,” Bettman said.
Beyond earmarking a spot on the calendar for a 2028 World Cup, the league and union haven’t determined what exactly the tournament will look like. Bids from potential host cities still need to be taken, with the possibility of splitting games between Europe and North America as they were in the 2004 World Cup under consideration, according to league sources.
“We will be asking for bids on hosting games,” Bettman said. “We will have a package that’s just about done in the next few weeks.”
Another key detail still to be ironed out is which countries will participate.
The World Cup tournaments played in 1996, 2004 and 2016 each featured eight teams, and Bettman said Wednesday the World Cup will feature at least eight as well. Among the factors that will determine what 2028 looks like are whether Russia has been reinstated and if a deal can be reached with the International Ice Hockey Federation that would allow for a select number of European countries to hold qualifiers to gain entry to the World Cup.
Still, even with only a rough outline of the tournament sketched out, Wednesday’s news was welcomed by players who have been thirsting for this kind of competition. They were denied the ability to compete at the 2018 and 2022 Olympics because of logistical hurdles and the COVID-19 pandemic, respectively, and saw the NHL and NHLPA try and fail to organize World Cup tournaments in 2020, 2021 and 2024.
“It’s great, especially to have that certainty,” Team Canada captain Sidney Crosby said. “I think a number of times that wasn’t the case for certain reasons out of everyone’s control. For guys to have an idea, and for fans to know they’re going to be able to see best-on-best, I think it’s great for everybody.”
Because of the hiatus in top-tier international competition since the 2016 World Cup, the majority of players suiting up at the 4 Nations Face-Off are getting the chance to represent their countries on this kind of stage for the first time.
But with the NHL and NHLPA now in a period where they’ve demonstrated the ability to work together productively — they recently agreed on salary-cap numbers through the 2027-28 season and have started working on an extension to the collective bargaining agreement — a new era of international hockey appears to be upon us.
“It’s incredible,” Canadian forward Brad Marchand said. “As a player, we’re still fans. We really love watching (the World Cup), really love being a part of it. It’s the highest achievement you can achieve personally as a hockey player being part of one of these teams.
“To be able to know that we have this (4 Nations), we have the Olympics and another World Cup coming and it’s going to go on after that, it’ll be great for the game.”
Assistant executive director of the NHLPA Ron Hainsey said this is only the start.
“International play, if you look to soccer, they have so much international play that gets so much attention,” Hainsey said. “We’re not soccer as far as a global game, but we’re not that far behind. I think that’s the long-term goal here, is that this just becomes part of the game over the long term — where fans, players, everyone can look forward to these guys playing for their countries on a regular basis and honestly creating moments like Sid did in 2010 with the Golden Goal here in Canada that last a lifetime. I mean that’s really what we’re trying to do here over the long haul and the players are extremely supportive of it.”
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(Photo of 2016 World Cup of Hockey logo: Mathieu Belanger / Getty Images)
