[News] NHL and NHLPA discussing 2025 international competition and return to the Olympics

[Itse]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

Soccer is U-23 where teams don't even have to release players if they don't want to.

nobody cares about the basketball world championships.

The FIBA World Cup is a huge event. Global TV reach in 2019 was in the billions, shown in pretty close to every country in the world, and hundreds of thousands of tickets sold locally.

[Bubba17]

This is all interesting discussion.

The things not mentioned that will carry the most weight, is what percentage of television money do the NHL owners get, who covers all insurance for the players contracts.

With these two items being the sticking points I doubt if NHL players will be at the Olympics any time soon. The World Cup run by the NHL and NHLPA will proceed more quickly as the owners concerns will be covered. Just my opinon.

[Itse]

Originally Posted by Bubba17

This is all interesting discussion.

The things not mentioned that will carry the most weight, is what percentage of television money do the NHL owners get, who covers all insurance for the players contracts.

With these two items being the sticking points I doubt if NHL players will be at the Olympics any time soon. The World Cup run by the NHL and NHLPA will proceed more quickly as the owners concerns will be covered. Just my opinon.

I don't see a lot of appetite let alone enthusiasm anywhere for the World Cup. There's a reason nothing has happened on that front in ages.

The players seem to be much more interested in the olympics, the fans certainly aren't excited about a World Cup, and I'm starting to think the only reason NHL ever brings up the World Cup is when it wants to distract the players from their desire to play in the olympics.

[Yeah_Baby]

Originally Posted by Itse

I'm starting to think the only reason NHL ever brings up the World Cup is when it wants to distract the players from their desire to play in the olympics.

That and they'd likely benefit more finically from the World Cup of Hockey as an NHL adjacent event rather than IOC.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Yeah_Baby

That and they'd likely benefit more finically from the World Cup of Hockey as an NHL adjacent event rather than IOC.

The NHL just can't figure out what it wants and how to do it. They want guaranteed revenue from a World Cup but every inauguration and/or reboot will have growing pains which the NHL can't afford to have. But they also want to grow the game. They had to make up European and TNA teams to ensure less non-NHL players in the tournament.

The Canada Cup was a Hockey Canada invitational after the Summit Series and had growing pains and really had one memorable tournament in 1987. The rest were forgettable. The NHL and NHLPA tried to mirror that in 1996 to mixed results and then concluded that going to the Olympics would be better for the product, again to mixed success. They couldn't have predicted the situation now where so few "Western" cities want to host the winter games. After Vancouver, people were saying, this is such a success, Vancouver should host it every few editions. Heck, Vancouver doesn't even want it now. They are going to go from Sochi, to Pyeongchang, to Beijing, to Milan. 2030 is maybe Salt Lake again but who knows what the politics will look like. It could end up in France.

[scotty2hotty]

Here's my dream scenario ...

September:

All-Star game and week to serve as the official kickoff to the season

• All of the major trophy winners are recognized and in-attendance
• Everyone is healthy and eager to go
• Bonus of great weather still in every city

Every 4th year - World Cup of Hockey instead of All-Star event

• Hold the tournament in NA only for the first 3-4 events until well-established
• Logistics don't significantly impact the season

January 1:

• Winter Classic in the US
• Heritage Classic in Canada

February:

Stadium Series

Every 4th year - Olympics (alternating 2 years from the World Cup)

• Any player NOT on an active NHL roster can participate
• Will get a fun mix of AHL, Europe Leagues, and Jr players
• Will be a more level tournament and likely more exciting

[Itse]

Originally Posted by Yeah_Baby

That and they'd likely benefit more finically from the World Cup of Hockey as an NHL adjacent event rather than IOC.

Yeah, but "more" clearly isn't the same as "enough to be interesting".

If they believed there is interesting amounts of profit to be made, it would have happened already. Clearly they don't think it's worth it.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by scotty2hotty

Here's my dream scenario ...

September:

All-Star game and week to serve as the official kickoff to the season

• All of the major trophy winners are recognized and in-attendance
• Everyone is healthy and eager to go
• Bonus of great weather still in every city

Every 4th year - World Cup of Hockey instead of All-Star event

• Hold the tournament in NA only for the first 3-4 events until well-established
• Logistics don't significantly impact the season

January 1:

• Winter Classic in the US
• Heritage Classic in Canada

February:

Stadium Series

Every 4th year - Olympics (alternating 2 years from the World Cup)

• Any player NOT on an active NHL roster can participate
• Will get a fun mix of AHL, Europe Leagues, and Jr players
• Will be a more level tournament and likely more exciting

This sounds pretty appealing. The only question is, is the World Cup a tournament or an invitational? If it's a tournament, then you have to set up qualifying and an expanded event. If one day the best player in the NHL is Japanese do you risk him never playing in World Cup? Kind of like Haaland of Norway in soccer. If it's an invitational, you can make up as many fake teams as you want, Europe, Under 23, Northern US, Southern US, Quebec, Ontario, Asia, whatever.

[Reggie Dunlop]

If the "World Cup" can have Team Mix 'N' Match Europeans and Team Players under 25, then you might as well dispense with nationalities...

Call it the Bettman Cup and add

Team Guys Named Mike/Micheal/Mikeal/Michail/Mickey/Michel
Team Shorter that 5'10"
Team No Defencemen
Team Bald Guys

ADDED: Team Waiver Wire All Stars

[scotty2hotty]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

This sounds pretty appealing. The only question is, is the World Cup a tournament or an invitational? If it's a tournament, then you have to set up qualifying and an expanded event. If one day the best player in the NHL is Japanese do you risk him never playing in World Cup? Kind of like Haaland of Norway in soccer. If it's an invitational, you can make up as many fake teams as you want, Europe, Under 23, Northern US, Southern US, Quebec, Ontario, Asia, whatever.

I’m guessing the NHL would want a hybrid.

Say …top 8 countries (the usual suspects) get a bye to the World Cup Final tournament. Other countries have some kind of extended play-in to determine the final 4 or 8 spots. Something like that.

I’m not a fan of the contrived invitational concepts. Renders the tournament essentially meaningless.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Reggie Dunlop

If the "World Cup" can have Team Mix 'N' Match Europeans and Team Players under 25, then you might as well dispense with nationalities...

Call it the Bettman Cup and add

Team Guys Named Mike/Micheal/Mikeal/Michail/Mickey/Michel
Team Shorter that 5'10"
Team No Defencemen
Team Bald Guys

ADDED: Team Waiver Wire All Stars

I would cheer for Team All Defencemen

I want to see the makeup of these teams now. For example, I think Cole Caufield is the shortest player in the NHL.

[Reggie Dunlop]

I think if you ask players, while winning a Stanley Cup as their career goal, they'd consider playing for their country the ultimate honour and privilege (at any level). A tournament with contrived squads arbitrarily cobbled together isn't that.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by scotty2hotty

I’m guessing the NHL would want a hybrid.

Say …top 8 countries (the usual suspects) get a bye to the World Cup Final tournament. Other countries have some kind of extended play-in to determine the final 4 or 8 spots. Something like that.

I’m not a fan of the contrived invitational concepts. Renders the tournament essentially meaningless.

Originally Posted by Reggie Dunlop

I think if you ask players, while winning a Stanley Cup as their career goal, they'd consider playing for their country the ultimate honour and privilege (at any level). A tournament with contrived squads arbitrarily cobbled together isn't that.

That's all good but hockey is not set up right now to have world cups and qualifications. The NHL season is long. Would we want Pettersen running off to try and qualify Norway right now?

[scotty2hotty]

If the tournament final is held in late September …what about a 2 week play-in tournament held in Europe?

10, 15, 20, whatever # of countries play for the last 4 spots to join the top 8 ranked teams in the finals in NA at the end of September?

If ‘growing the game’ is one reason to hold the tournament (after money), then this format might actually have a bigger impact on that as well. I’m sure European countries would fight over hosting this event.

IIHF gets the play-in tournament revenue. NHL gets the tournament final revenue?

Australia VS Japan for the final World Cup Final spot. Bring it on!

[Itse]

The IIHF rankings would work just fine as a qualification method. The key countries are always at the top.

The top 8 right now for example would be CAN, FIN, USA, GER, SWE, SUI, CZE, SVK. Next four would be LAT, DEN, NOR, FRA.

(I didn't include Russia at third place.)

[Bubba17]

Originally Posted by scotty2hotty

If the tournament final is held in late September …what about a 2 week play-in tournament held in Europe?

10, 15, 20, whatever # of countries play for the last 4 spots to join the top 8 ranked teams in the finals in NA at the end of September?

If ‘growing the game’ is one reason to hold the tournament (after money), then this format might actually have a bigger impact on that as well. I’m sure European countries would fight over hosting this event.

IIHF gets the play-in tournament revenue. NHL gets the tournament final revenue?

Australia VS Japan for the final World Cup Final spot. Bring it on!

The NHL has data compiled that shows the Olympics does nothing to "grow the game" and it isn't their priority.

Again, unless the owners get the majority of the money and the rights for hilights from the games they won't be stopping the league to let it happen. IF the players are adamant about going then you can almost guaranty that the owners are going for Non Guaranteed contracts in the next shut down.

[The Fisher Account]

I'm firmly in an eff the Olympics camp.

Too much instability with time zones, political situations and general safety.

Keep this an NHL organized and sponsored World Cup moving forward.

[_Q_]

An NHL-sponsored world cup that takes place in Toronto, on sporadic dates with a U24 team and a "European All-Stars" team is just about the last type of hockey I ever want to watch. The reason why most of us, as well as the NHLPA, get more excited over NHL players at the Olympics is because it doesn't feel gimmicky.

[Rutuu]

Originally Posted by Coach

Really sucks for Flames fan that the move away from INTL tournaments coincided with our team having a lot of potential participants.

USA:
Gaudreau
Tkachuk
Hanafin

CAN:
Tanev? (Prob not, but really would be on any other INTL team)
Giordano
Brodie?
Hamilton?

SWE
Lindholm
Andersson
Markstrom
Backlund
Kylington?

RUS
Zadorov


When your whole core is Olympic calibre players, you should have a good time. I think some international experience for those players could have done wonders for them while they were here.

Your point is taken...but we didn't have to watch McDavid become a Canadian hero. His legacy will forever be tarnished by Bettman being one of the worst commercial commissioners and as Flames fans we should be THANKFUL for that.