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Greg Wyshynski
The NHL and NHL Gamers’ Affiliation have launched their host metropolis choice course of for World Cup of Hockey 2028, formally marking the return of the worldwide best-on-best match.
WCH 2028 will probably be an eight-nation match scheduled for February 2028. In contrast to the final World Cup in 2016, which the 23-and-under Group North America and Group Europe for unaffiliated worldwide gamers, this version will solely function nation-specific groups.
The occasion is anticipated to function round-robin and quarterfinal video games in two host cities, with the semifinals and championship sport at present anticipated to happen in a kind of cities, “topic to closing host metropolis choice,” based on the NHL. The match is anticipated to final 12 days with 17 video games.
“The World Cup of Hockey is a showcase of worldwide hockey on the highest stage, and we’re thrilled to start the host metropolis choice course of for 2028,” stated NHL commissioner Gary Bettman in an announcement. “This match presents cities an opportunity to be a part of one thing really world, whereas delivering significant financial and cultural advantages in return.”
The host metropolis choice course of is worldwide in scope and “open to all cities with enviornment amenities that would meet NHL competitors requirements.” The NHL and NHLPA will attain out to some potential websites, however the course of is open to any bidder. The NHL is in search of cities that meet the baseline necessities for amenities but additionally “current a compelling and distinctive imaginative and prescient for the match.”
The deadline for expression of curiosity pitches is July 18 for North America and July 30 for worldwide markets. The NHL and NHLPA will decide which bids transfer on to the subsequent part. The Request for Proposal course of launches in August 2025. Ultimate host metropolis choices are anticipated to be introduced in Q1 of 2026.
“The World Cup of Hockey 2028 will carry collectively the perfect gamers on the earth, representing their nations with pleasure,” stated Marty Walsh, Government Director of the NHLPA. “We look ahead to working with cities that wish to assist form the way forward for worldwide hockey and encourage a brand new technology of hockey followers.”
This would be the fourth version of the World Cup of Hockey, having been beforehand held in 1996, 2004 and 2016, which Group Canada received.
The World Cup’s return is a part of an aggressive enlargement of the NHL’s worldwide calendar. Bettman has stated the imaginative and prescient is to alternate between the NHL’s participation within the Winter Olympic males’s hockey match and a World Cup each two years. The NHL is collaborating within the 2026 Milano-Cortina Video games, the primary time its gamers will compete within the Olympics for the reason that 2014 Sochi Video games.
Within the intervening years, the NHL and NHLPA are anticipated to current occasions that would resemble the 4 Nations Face-Off, their profitable midseason match held final February in Boston and Montreal.
“We could not be extra enthusiastic about making a actuality: Olympics, World Cups, Olympics, World Cups on a daily schedule of the perfect hockey gamers on the earth representing their nations,” Bettman stated in February. “We all know the full-blown World Cup goes to be sensational.”
There are some points to be ironed out about World Cup of Hockey 2028, together with how groups will qualify and whether or not Russia will probably be allowed to take part in any respect. For the reason that invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia has been banned from worldwide play in all age classes by the Worldwide Ice Hockey Federation, a ban that has been prolonged via 2025-26.
“I would like to see our Russian gamers enjoying in these tournaments once more,” Walsh stated in February. “They’re unbelievable hockey gamers. The problems are political. Not political so far as the NHLPA; it is world politics we have now to get via. I am hoping that as we get nearer to the Olympics, nearer to the World Cup, we’ll begin seeing Russian athletes again within the competitors.”
The World Cup of Hockey is not going to contain the IIHF. It is anticipated the NHL may go with worldwide leagues to fill out rosters for groups that do not have a full complement of NHL gamers. For instance, there are solely three Slovakian defensemen and one Swiss goaltender who appeared in NHL video games final season.
ESPN’s Emily Kaplan contributed to this report.