Today’s post, as mentioned in the title, is about my ideas for an expanded version of the World Cup of Hockey.
The inaugural World Cup of Hockey was held in 1996, and there have been 3 tournaments overall (1996, 2004, 2016). Before the tournament was re-branded as the World Cup of Hockey it was known as the Canada Cup, which was held 5 times between 1976 and 1991.
The World Cup of Hockey consists of 8 nations in 2 groups of 4. But with my ideas to expand the tournament from 8 to 24, it could have the potential to either be a complete disaster, or a global festival of hockey that could be celebrated by everyone who loves the game across the world. Here is how it would work.
If you are familiar with soccer, the tournament will run almost exactly as the UEFA European Championships.
There will be no qualification, it would simply take too long to narrow down the IIHF’s 81 member nations to 24. The cost of travel, insurance would also be astronomical for some of the smaller nations just starting up their hockey programs. With that being said, the top 24 countries, determined by IIHF ranking will qualify for the tournament.
There will be 6 groups of 4 nations. Instead of how UEFA has 1 nation host the tournament, there will be 6 different host, 1 per group.
Following the round robin, the top 2 nations in each group, as well as the 4 best third place finishers will advance to the round of 16. For the playoff rounds it will be narrowed down to 2 host nations (ideally Canada/USA or Sweden/Finland).
To determine who plays in each group, you have to conduct a draw. The draw contains 4 pots with 6 nations each. They consist of:
Pot A: Canada, Russia, Finland, Sweden, Czech Republic, USA.
Pot B: Germany, Switzerland, Slovakia, Latvia, Norway, Denmark.
Pot C: Belarus, France, Italy, Kazakhstan, Austria, Korea.
Pot D: Great Britain, Slovenia, Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, Japan.
I ran these pots through a list randomizer, and these were the results I got that determined the groups!
Group A: Czech Republic, Slovakia, France, Hungary.
Group B: Canada, Denmark, Korea, Lithuania.
Group C: Russia, Norway, Austria, Poland.
Group D: Finland, Latvia, Italy, Japan.
Group E: USA, Germany, Belarus, Slovenia.
Group F: Sweden, Switzerland, Kazakhstan, Great Britain.
To ensure the best players in each nation are availble, the tournament would likely have to be held over 3 weeks, from about the 3rd week of July, to 2nd week of August. This would give time to NHL players to not only have time off after the Stanley Cup playoffs, but also a few weeks after the tournament to rest up and get ready for training camps.
Thanks as always for reading, I hope you enjoyed this article.
-Cooper.