What: An NHL-managed international competition featuring most of the big hockey nations, plus some All Star-type teams.
Why: The NHL and the owners – well, most, anyway – have long been unhappy about their players participating in the Olympics. This despite players and fans loving the tournament, and despite the incredible exposure for the game that an Olympic tournament, and particularly a successful one for America, brings to a sport that, let’s face it, isn’t the most visible across most of the United States.
A cynical views is this: the World Cup of Hockey is a way for the NHL to control revenue, which they cannot do at the Olympics, where the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) runs the show and gets the cash. It’s also a golden way for the NHL to force their way into European markets, and if the tournament is even halfway successful, you’re going to see some big cities over on the continent throwing squillions at the NHL for the right to host the event.
When: The tournament will run through September and October of 2016
Who: The NHL announced that Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Russia, Sweden and the United States will all field national teams. There will also be a Team Europe squad, made up of the best players outside of the European nations who will have their own teams, and a North American ‘Young Stars’ team, featuring only players 23 and under.
Each team will be made up of twenty-three players: twenty skaters and three goalies. Teams must announce at least sixteen of their roster selections before March 1, 2016, and the rest before June 1, 2016.
The League also confirmed that, yes, non-NHL players will be eligible to play in this tournament, so you can expect to see a bunch of KHL players on the Russian squad, which has been the Russian Federation’s want – for better or worse – during the last few Olympic tournaments. Other counties, such as the Czechs, have been known to dip into some local league talent, too.
Even so, the NHL estimate that somewhere around 90% of players will be NHL regulars.
Where: Despite early talk about playing games in a number of Canadian cities, it was announced today that Toronto’s Air Canada Centre, home of the country’s most scrutinised franchise, the Maple Leafs, will host the entire tournament. We can only hope that the atmosphere in the building will be far more raucous than it is for your regular Leafs games.
Format: Eight teams will be divided into two groups of four. A round-robin format sees each team play three games within their group. Then, we’ll see the top two from each group earn head into the semi-finals, where they’ll meet an opponent from the other group.
How does the Young Stars concept work? As I detailed above, this is an intriguing squad, to be made up of players 23 and under at the cut-off date, which is rumoured – but not yet confirmed – to be 1 September 2016. The NHL indicated that players in this team don’t necessarily have to be playing in the NHL, as long as they are North American-born.
As far as off-the-ice operations, Hockey Canada and Hockey USA will combine talent for coaches, general managers and those other important front-office gigs. That’s right, the US and Canada combining. That will be an interesting mix of talent, without even touching on the playing roster.
How does the European team concept work? This team will be stocked by players who aren’t born in either the Czech Republic, Finland, Russia or Sweden. That means we’re likely to see (mostly) NHLers from Slovakia, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, France, Denmark, Norway, Latvia, Belarus…and pretty much any other European nation who breeds hockey players.
It’s an intriguing idea, which will allow players from smaller nations to play in this tournament, on what strikes me as being a pretty good team, but you wonder how much emotion these guys would have, playing for an All-Star outfit, as opposed to actually representing your country. We shall see.
What About the NHL season? Well, there’s bound to be some sort of overlap, given that the new Collective Bargaining Agreement says that camps need to run 20 days, and the season generally opens in early October. Some players will likely miss out on some days at training camp, but if they’ve played nigh on a month’s worth of top-flight hockey, they’re going to be coming into camp late, yes, but definitely raring to go, and fitter than perhaps they would normally be at that time of the year.
All in all, it might be more of a blessing than a disguise for teams.
What Does This Mean for NHL Olympic participation? Well, whilst nothing has been announced, it can’t be good. There’s been persistent rumour since the middle of the Sochi 2014 tournament that the NHL is frustrated by the situation – as I said above – and owners don’t like their star players going to play, fearing that an injury in the Olympic will wreck their franchise’s season.
My guess is that the owners’ concerns about that are secondary as far as the NHL is concerned. The League wants the cash that the IIHF get hold of at the moment, and they want to do things on their terms. Which, of course, is exactly what’s going on here with the World Cup of Hockey.
Whether the NHL’s television deal with NBC, who also paid a fortune to televise the Olympics for a long time to come, will figure into Olympic participation, who knows? I’d like to see both. Some players world, too, I’m sure – especially those who won’t be representing their country, but a Euro All-Star squad. The Olympics are about the only chance these pros get to play for their birth nation, given that the yearly IIHF World Championships falls during NHL playoffs.
My Verdict: I’m still not sold on the concept. I’d prefer the Olympics. I don’t like the idea of these All-Star teams – Euro and Young Stars – against guys actually playing for the country. I wonder if the guys not wearing their flag or national colours on the ice will be as motivated as, say, the Russians or Canadians?
Lots of water to flow under the bridge yet. I guess we’ll see.
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