NHL officially announces World Cup of Hockey return in 2016

The World Cup of Hockey tournament will back in 2016.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman held a press conference Saturday in Columbus during the NHL All-Star weekend to discuss the current state of the NHL and some upcoming big events.

The first of which was the announcement of next year’s schedule for outdoor games. It was officially announced that the Boston Bruins will host the Montreal Canadiens at Gillette Stadium in the Winter Classic. The Stadium Series will be back as well, as the Minnesota Wild will host the Chicago Blackhawks at TCF Bank Stadium on the University of Minnesota Campus, and the Colorado Avalanche will host the Detroit Red Wings at Coors Field, home of the Colorado Rockies.

Bettman also touched on the current state of the league, discussing the parity in the league and the quality of play, saying that it is tremendous and it may have never been stronger. He also touched on next year’s cap, saying that the depreciation of the Canadian dollar will not affect the cap and it will be somewhere around $72 million next season.

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The final announcement from Bettman was the big ticket item, the World Cup of Hockey. Bettman officially announced that the World Cup of Hockey tournament will return in September, 2016 in Toronto, Ontario.

The World Cup of Hockey was disbanded after 2004. There have been talks for several years now to bring back the tournament as a possible replacement for NHL participation in the Olympics. However, during this press conference, Bettman noted that the re-emergence of this tournament has no bearing whatsoever on whether the NHL will participate in the 2018 Winter Olympics.

The team format for the tournament will be a bit different than it has been in the past. It will still consist of 8 teams, including Canada, the United States, Russia, Sweden, Finland, and the Czech Republic. In addition to the two North American teams and the big four European teams, there will be two wildcard teams. The first will be Team Europe, which will comprise of players from all the other European nations not yet represented from the big four. The second will be the North American Youngstars, which will comprise of the best Canadian and American young prospects that are ages 23 and under.

Each team will consist of 23 players, 20 skaters and 3 goaltenders. Each nation must submit a roster of at least 16 players, including at least 2 goaltenders, that will represent their team by March 1, 2016, with the full roster being announced no later than June 1, 2016.

The eight teams will be split into two groups of four and play a round-robin within their respective groups. The top two teams in each group will advance to a single-elimination semi-final round. The final will be a best-of-three series between the two semi-final winners.

I’m ecstatic that the World Cup of Hockey will be returning and I believe it will be good for the NHL, but I’m not sold on these two wildcard teams.

For one, what happens if Team Europe or the North American Youngstars win? What anthem do they play during the ceremony? Second, do they really think putting together a team full of kids ages 23 and under and playing them against full-grown men is a good idea? They really won’t stand much of a chance.

The World Cup of Hockey is about representing your country. While I see what the league is trying to do in getting more players involved in the tournament who normally wouldn’t be able to participate, it needs to be kept to single-nationality teams. There’s no national pride in playing for a team that is comprised of multiple countries.

H/T to NHL.com for the information.

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