{"id":88773,"date":"2025-08-23T00:48:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T00:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/88773\/"},"modified":"2025-08-23T00:48:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T00:48:09","slug":"nhl-to-organize-2028-world-cup-without-iihf-involvement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/88773\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL To Organize 2028 World Cup Without IIHF Involvement"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NHL appears set to move forward with their plan on organizing a World Cup of Hockey. They\u2019re ready to reach out to international clubs directly, rather than work with the IIHF, per TSN\u2019s Darren Dreger<\/a>. This news doubles down comments that NHL commissioner Gary Bettman made in February.<\/p>\n

The tournament will be an eight-country event and take place during the 2027-28 season \u2013 the year of the next summer Olympics \u2013 shares David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period<\/a>. Pagnotta adds that preliminary matches will be split between one North American, and one European, city \u2013 while semi-final and final rounds will be hosted in North America.<\/p>\n

This news answers the question of what the NHL will do in the Olympics\u2019 off-years. The World Cup will feature a wider cast than the 4-Nations Face-Off that took place this February, though the exact list of countries isn\u2019t quite clear. In addition to the four countries that suited up this winter, both Czechia and Slovakia seem like locked-in options. The NHL could also bring in any one of Germany, Switzlerand, Austria, and Latvia \u2013 who have each reached varying levels of international success over the last few years.<\/p>\n

But Russia will stand as the big uncertainty. Both Russia and Belarus have been barred from participation in IIHF events since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The IIHF upheld that decision for the 2025-26 season and 2026 Winter Olympics. The NHL deciding to go around IIHF involvement does open the door to Russia \u2013 one of the world\u2019s top hockey countries \u2013 getting back into the swing of best-on-best competition. That would likely give aging stars like Andrei Vasilevskiy<\/a>, Igor Shesterkin<\/a>, Nikita Kucherov<\/a>, and Artemi Panarin<\/a> a chance to show their might in their prime years. Commissioner Gary Bettman declined comment when asked, back in March, about if the NHL would entertain playing against Russia in the near future.<\/p>\n

The World Cup tournament itself will serve as an exciting shove into the future for the world\u2019s top hockey talents. High-potential young players like Connor Bedard<\/a>, Macklin Celebrini<\/a>, Lane Hutson<\/a>, and Juraj Slafkovsky<\/a> will be just entering their prime years in 2028, and certainly looking for a chance to prove their country\u2019s might at the top stage. The event will be a great run-up to the 2032 Winter Olympics, where all four players seem ready to play big roles.<\/p>\n

The NHL will intercut the World Cup with All-Star games. Bettman has shared that he knows the All-Star matchup will need to live up to high expectations, after the popularity garnered by the 4-Nations Face-Off earlier this year. In an interview with NHL.com\u2019s Dan Rosen<\/a>, Bettman said that everything will be on the table for the next All-Star event. That will set a high bar for the mid-season breaks next season, though many fans will be looking ahead to an even bigger best-on-best tournament only three seasons away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NHL appears set to move forward with their plan on organizing a World Cup of Hockey. They\u2019re…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,28379,575,7820,85,21418],"class_list":{"0":"post-88773","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-iihf","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-players","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-world-cup"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}