The NHL and NHLPA have released a joint statement regarding the World Cup of Hockey situation.
“Over the last year, the NHL and the NHLPA have been working on plans to conduct the next World Cup of Hockey, the premier international best-on-best hockey tournament, in February 2024. Unfortunately, in the current environment it is not feasible to hold the World Cup of Hockey at that time. We continue to plan for the next World Cup of Hockey, hopefully in February 2025.”
NHL & NHLPA Joint Statement
The NHL and NHLPA had made a promise to NHL players that they’d find a way to create a World Cup of hockey as a makeup to forcing players to miss the Winter Olympics. In an endless mess of situations, it will not be almost an entire decade before the NHL hosts a world tournament of the most elite talent.
There have been rumors swirling for months, which the NHLPA has confirmed today via their statement. The challenge is that we’re losing some of the best years of some of the best players. In addition to missing out on the prime years of folks like Jack Eichel and Trevor Zegras, this is likely the thing that will prevent us from ever seeing players like Patrice Bergeron and Sidney Crosby from lacing them up together again. That is a real shame, as those games are some of the most memorable international moments this past decade.
If the league can pull off a tournament in 2025, we’ll still see some premier talent. It will be faster, higher scoring, and likely a far more skilled game than we saw in the 2010s while the NHL still participated in the Olympics. The challenge for the NHL is when you pull out several superstars due to retirement or age challenges; you lose a generation of hockey fans from having interest.
As the NHL transitions from the superstars like Ovechkin and Crosby, it will become evident that they need this tournament more than ever. No matter what happens in the world, the NHL needs to figure out how to schedule this event for 2025 and get back on a regular schedule where fans have an international tournament to look forward to more than every decade. If not, it will only continue to harm the game we all love.
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