NHL, NHLPA to hold World Cup of Hockey in 2028
Posted February 12, 2025 6:01 pm.
The 4 Nations Face-Off will give fans a long-awaited taste of best-on-best hockey but the NHL and NHLPA have even bigger plans for the next tournament in 2028.
The league and players’ association announced Wednesday in Montreal that they are moving forward with the next World Cup of Hockey in 2028.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said the league will begin accepting bids from host cities for the tournament soon. He later added that the tournament will take place in February and that the league is hoping to get bids from cities in Europe to host games.
A press release added that the tournament will be played on NHL-sized ice and with NHL rules and officials. Bettman said there will be at least eight teams in the tournament and no melded teams like those featured in the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.
The 2028 World Cup of Hockey will follow NHL players participating in the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy. NHLPA executive director Marty Walsh confirmed that the hope is to have best-on-best competitions every two years but added that it will be taken one tournament at a time.
The last World Cup of Hockey was played in Toronto in 2016 with Canada defeating Team Europe in the best-of-three championship. That eight-team tournament also featured the United States, Sweden, Finland, Czechia, Russia and Team North America, which featured the best Canadian and American under-23 players.
The 4 Nations Face-Off will see Canada, the United States, Finland and Sweden compete in a one-week sprint for glory in Montreal and Boston. The puck will drop on the tournament Wednesday night when Canada clashes with Sweden, followed by the United States facing Finland on Thursday.
All games in the tournament can be seen on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+.
