Quote:
Originally Posted by polak
It doesn't make sense until every player plays for their own country and every country has a shot at qualifying. You know... like a WORLD cup should be? It's a joke that the NHL just decides who is worthy of being in it. A World Cup should never be an Invitational.
It should follow the same qualifying process as the World Championship and Olympics (There are a bunch of DIVs below the top division where teams try and win to get promoted).
And there should be ZERO bias towards taking NHL players and ZERO influence from the NHL regarding individual nations management.
Until it follows that call this the NHL Invitational Cup or some BS.
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Nothing is going to be perfect, but given the two options, I prefer the annual tournament . None of the top teams are too far off what they'd be if it wasn't NHL centric and it gives players the best opportunity to compete for their country by being a pre season tournament. If any of the team EU countries had a realistic shot at the top 4, they'd be competing on their own and Team EU gets more stars into the tournament overall. Countries like Slovenia may not get a fair shake under this system, but we all know the countries that matter. If Slovenia, or whoever, really gets their act together and could field a competitive team, they'd get consideration at that time.
e: just read about that they intend to do seeding in the future, thins out some of my arguments but I'm going to let it stand.