The NHL and NHL Players’ Association announced Friday the plans for a 2024 World Cup of Hockey have been pushed to at least 2025.
The NHL and the NHLPA had been working on the next World Cup of Hockey over the last year and were looking to schedule a tournament in February 2024.
“Unfortunately, in the current environment, it is not feasible to hold the World Cup of Hockey at that time,” said a joint news release from the NHL and NHLPA. “We continue to plan for the next World Cup of Hockey, hopefully in February 2025.”
The NHL and NHLPA met with the IIHF in Paris in September where they announced the intention to organize a 17-day tournament in February 2024. It was said to feature at least eight national teams with games played in North America and Europe, although nothing had been agreed on the structure, participating teams and exact dates, said IIHF president Luc Tardif in September.
Toronto hosted the last World Cup of Hockey in 2016, where Team Canada beat Team Europe in the best-of-three final. It was the first time hockey had a best-on-best international tournament since the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
Since the NHL chose not to send players to the Winter Olympics in 2018 and 2022, the next possible World Cup in 2025 could be the first time in nine years that the best international teams made of their top players could face off against each other.
