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Edmonton, Calgary and Prague will host the next iteration of the World Cup of Hockey in 2028, the NHL and NHL Players' Association jointly announced on Monday on the heels of a successful return to the Olympics that brought millions of new eyeballs to the sport.
The NHL and NHLPA said they received expressions of interest from 28 cities vying to host, including 18 in North America and 10 in Europe. But for the second consecutive World Cup, no games will be played in the United States - which is the defending men's and women's Olympic, World and Paralympic champion.
Calgary's sparkling new Scotia Place and Prague's familiar O2 Arena will each host seven of the 17-game tournament, scheduled for February 2028. The World Cup of Hockey will then shift to Edmonton for two semifinal games and the championship to be played at Rogers Place. Scotia Place is set to open in Sept. 2027, while Rogers Place has hosted three Stanley Cup Finals - including the pandemic bubble season - and O2 Arena in Prague has hosted NHL regular season games on four occasions.
“There is no international competition in sports that matches the passion, skill, and excitement of hockey’s best-on-best coming together to represent their countries -- last year’s 4 Nations Face-Off and the recent Winter Olympics were just the latest examples,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said.
The 2028 World Cup of Hockey will be scheduled during a 17-day break in the NHL calendar. The tournament will be played under NHL rules, including full Stanley Cup playoff-style overtime for the semifinal and final games, with five skaters aside until a winner is determined. There will be two pools (North American and European) of four teams each. The fourth place finisher in each pool will be eliminated after the round robin; the first place finisher will advanced directly to the semifinal. Second and third place will square off in a one-game elimination with that winner advancing to the semifinal.
The NHL and NHLPA will jointly determine which eight federations are selected for the 2028 World Cup of Hockey, and no decision has been made yet on whether Russia will be represented. However, NHLPA assistant executive director Ron Hainsey dropped a clue at Monday's press conference when he told reporters that the "top eight hockey countries" will take part. At the very least, five can be determined without any guessing: United States, Canada, Sweden, Finland and co-host Czechia. That leaves Russia, Slovakia, Switzerland and Germany as four battling it out for three available spots.
Media rights for the 2028 World Cup of Hockey are currently out for bid, as they are separate from the NHL television rights package. The last World Cup of Hockey was held in Toronto in 2016, then previously in multiple cities in 2004 and 1996, with the NHL and NHLPA now making a commitment for it to be a staple on the international calendar alternating between the Olympics and World Cup every even numbered year.