[Rumour] 2016 World Cup of Hockey in Toronto

[Red Menace]

My U23 NA team (born in 1993 or later) is:
Gaudreau-MacKinnon-Galchenyuk
RNH-MacDavid-Strome
Drouin-Monahan-Huberdeau
Schiefele-Reinhart-Eichel
Bennett-Jenner

Jones-Ekblad
Trouba-Hamilton
Rielly-Murray

Gibson
??

Depending on when the cutoff date is, maybe some 1992 players sneak in to;
Seguin, Johansen, Skinner, Schwartz, Saad, Couturier, Toffoli, Pearson, etc...

Not sure how they are going to find goalies....that will be the big discrepancy for this roster in competing with the older teams.

[polak]

This is such a joke. Don't call it the world cup when you have teams that aren't representing a country who are competing.

So what, who do I cheer for now? Canada? Young Guns? I mean I understand having a "rest of the world" team but the young guns thing is an absolute gimmick.

This could've been a classy, best-on-best tournament. Instead it's a joke.

[Red Menace]

and if they are going to enforce the 23 and under rule for Goalies, i think there is even a chance Jon Gillies makes the team...
Who else is there; Gibson, M.Subban?
maybe Pickard from COL would qualify (1992 birth year)

[calgarygeologist]

Instead of a young guns team I would suggest inviting the previous World Juniors gold medal team to play.

[sureLoss]

Bettman and Fehr have called a press conference for tomorrow. Presumably the official World Cup announcement

[craigwd]

Originally Posted by polak

This is such a joke. Don't call it the world cup when you have teams that aren't representing a country who are competing.

So what, who do I cheer for now? Canada? Young Guns? I mean I understand having a "rest of the world" team but the young guns thing is an absolute gimmick.

This could've been a classy, best-on-best tournament. Instead it's a joke.

Why do you have to root for anyone? Just enjoy the hockey.

[browna]

Originally Posted by transplant99

Morganti and Duhatschek were on with Kerr this afternoon and they echo my thoughts to a tee.

These two teams of euros and youngins are a complete and utter farce. It is truly absurd to have a World Cup and have two entities that arent even countries. What anthems get played? Where does the trophy go if they win? Etc...but even more seriously, how do they expect a bunch of guys from a bunch of different nations to come together for a common cause, when they have nothing in common other than being hockey players? It is assinine.

Why they cant go with 6 teams this time and in the years between this one and the next one have a play-in tourney that would see Switzerland or Germany or Slovenia or whoever WIN spots to get in to make it 8...again borders on insanity.

I doubt I would even invest my time in something so stupid and is nothing more than a gimmick at best and more likely looks like a caricature of something pretty good.

The NHL and the PA are completely missing the target if they go ahead with this.

Agreed.

But the reason they don't care about things like the anthems or trophies or having a play-in for two teams (that no one (in Toronto) is going to care about, and thus the league/networks/sponsors are not able to market to monetize), its that its simply not about hockey as a sport...its about everyone involved making the most amount of money possible at an event where some exhibition style hockey is played.

The NHL, NHLPA, TV networks, sponsors, Hockey Canada, all plan on large profits/gains/increases in market share/credibility. Hockey/National Pride is a distant second and third.

[mikephoen]

On the plus side, there hopefully won't be an All Star game on World Cup years.

[Joborule]

Originally Posted by mikephoen

On the plus side, there hopefully won't be an All Star game on World Cup years.

Why? How is the All-Star game such a negative effect that you prefer there was no game at all when there wouldn't be a scheduling conflict at all, thus no reason to hold off the All-Star game due to the World Cup being playing prior to the season starting?

[sureLoss]

per Burnside the plan for the 2020 World Cup is not to have the Euro all star team or the under 23 NA team, but a qualifying tournament

the NHL and NHLPA didn't feel there was enough time for a qualifying tournmanet for the 2016 world cup

http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/id/12...ournament-2018

It's expected the NHL and the players will have designed a qualifying format that will make the 2020 version of the World Cup of Hockey a true global tournament with teams such as Switzerland, Slovakia and Germany getting an opportunity to qualify for the big tournament in a separate event, likely held in the fall of 2019.

It's believed the league and players will develop a set of regulations more relaxed than Olympic or IIHF rules, allowing players to play on teams based on heritage, etc., and not necessarily place of birth. It's also expected the second in this reborn World Cup of Hockey rotation would include a much heavier European presence, with the qualifying events likely held the year before and some of the preliminary games in '20 taking place in Euro hockey markets.

The league and players did not believe they had enough time to have a proper qualifying system put in place before the '16 event. Further, with the NHL looking for broadcast partners for the World Cup of Hockey -- the event is not tied to current broadcast contracts -- it was believed crucial that as many NHL players were able to take part in the new World Cup as possible to make it more attractive to ticket-buying fans and television viewers (and broadcasters who will pay handsomely to televise the event).

Hence the two made-up teams which would allow top players like Anze Kopitar, Zdeno Chara, Marian Hossa, Jaroslav Halak and others to take part on the Euro squad while rising stars like Nathan MacKinnon, Johnny Gaudreau and possibly star prospects Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel will have an opportunity to play for the Young Guns squad.

[sureLoss]

Damien Cox @DamoSpin
As well as World Cup in 2016 and 2020, NHL looking at a Ryder Cup-style competition for 2018. Want an international event every two yrs

[sureLoss]

official: World Cup Sept 17-Oct 1 2016.

[sureLoss]

Dan Rosen @drosennhl
Commissioner Bettman says the decision to hold a World Cup has no bearing on pending decision to attend or skip future Olympics.

[Cleveland Steam Whistle]

So this is interesting. I will admit, at a World Cup level, having teams like Germany and Slovenia, Switzerland really isn't that competitive and they are boring games. But I don't know how I feel about these 2 non country teams, Other Europe and NA youngsters.

Actually I do think I know how I feel. Don't mind the "other Europe team" hate the idea of a youngster NA team. I think what they should have done is added Slovakia as a solo country, after all they made the semis at the last Olympics, and then done a rest of Europe team, doing away with this silly young NA team.

But easy to be a critic, should be fun to watch.

[savardandjokinen]

It's official

[sureLoss]

Chris Johnston @reporterchris
It's been decided -- every North American 23-and-under will have to play for Young Guns at 2016 World Cup. Not eligible for Team Canada/USA.

[debil]

Ok but then don't call it world cup but rather marketing cup or tv ratings cup.

[drewtastic]

Originally Posted by polak

This is such a joke. Don't call it the world cup when you have teams that aren't representing a country who are competing.

So what, who do I cheer for now? Canada? Young Guns? I mean I understand having a "rest of the world" team but the young guns thing is an absolute gimmick.

This could've been a classy, best-on-best tournament. Instead it's a joke.

I don't know. I think if we look at through the "international hockey" lens, it's true that it seems goofy and gimmicky. But it's not an IIHF-driven event; it's an NHL/NHLPA-driven event. From that perspective, it makes sense to showcase the youngsters as well.

I'm actually quite interested in this format, and am eager to see how it works out. I don't equate this World Cup with soccer's World Cup, for example. Hockey's "World Cup" is the Olympics (at least until the "World Championships" occurs at a time of year when all NHL players are available). This is simply a way to showcase the world's best players from the world's best league, and should feature some pretty damn good hockey to boot!

[Ashasx]

Young stars is a ridiculous gimmick.

[nfotiu]

The only way a world cup could really catch on, is if it started building a tradition. Planning 3 tournaments with 3 different formats is the exact wrong way to do that.