The World Cup of Hockey 2028 will shine the spotlight on the rich tradition of the sport in the Canadian province of Alberta along with Czechia’s capital City of Prague.
‘NHL’ stated that the National Hockey League (NHL) and the NHL Players’ Association (the labor union for the group of professional hockey players) announced recently that Calgary and Edmonton will be the North American Host Cities with Prague serving as the European host for the eight-team international best-on-best tournament.
The 2028 World Cup of Hockey will be the fourth installment of the World Cup of Hockey by the National Hockey League (NHL). It will be played in February 2028 with 17 games in three Host Cities. The competition will include eight teams from individual countries in North America and Europe.
New York (US)-based the National Hockey League (NHL) is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams, 25 in the United States and seven (7) in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada and is considered the premier professional ice hockey league in the world.
‘NHL’ further stated that the NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, speaking at a presser recently with the NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly, the NHLPA Executive Director Marty Walsh and the NHLPA Assistant Executive Director Ron Hainsey said the NHL “couldn’t be more excited” for the event.
Bettman said at the NHL General Managers (GMs) meetings at the Eau Palm Beach Resort and Spa in Manalapan, Florida, US, “We think all three Cities are going to do great things for this event. We believe this will be a huge success…highlighting the best-on-best that we believe is the best of any sport with the world’s greatest athletes.”
The tournament was first announced via a video featuring David Pastrnak of the NHL team Boston Bruins, who is from Czechia, the NHL team Colorado Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar, who is from Calgary, and the NHL team Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid.
Stated McDavid, “It’ll be nice to play here in Canada, here in Edmonton and in Calgary. We know how passionate the fans are, we see it firsthand most nights and certainly in the Spring. I would expect them to be alive for that. The last two years with the 4 Nations (international ice hockey tournament) and obviously the Olympics (the 2026 Winter Olympics which took place in February this year at multiple sites across Lombardy and Northeast Italy) this year and to have another opportunity in the not-so-distant future is really exciting.”
The 18,400-capacity Scotia Place, the NHL team Calgary Flames new arena in Alberta, Canada, that will open in the 2027-2028 seasons and the 20,000-seat O2 Arena in Prague (Czechia) will each host six round-robin games and one elimination game.
The World Cup Semifinals and Final will be played at the 20,734-capacity Rogers Place in Edmonton, Canada.
Exulted Bettman, “We’re going to be in extraordinarily strong, exciting, state-of-the-art buildings for all of it. So, when you put the whole package together, particularly the Alberta component, it really was a bid that stood out and was gratifying to see.”
The tournament will feature 17 games played over 13 days. The NHL schedule in the 2027-2028 seasons will pause for 17 days to allow for a runway to the tournament and time for the players competing to reintegrate back into their respective teams.
Added Walsh, “It is a great day for hockey, another great day for hockey. When you think about what’s been accomplished in the last two years, the 4 Nations tournament, which was beyond expectations, having our NHL players return to the Olympics this year in February in Milan (Italy) was an incredible experience and now having the World Cup of Hockey working collectively together.”
Scotia Place, the state-of-the-art arena currently under construction, will be in the heart of Calgary’s Culture + Entertainment District downtown.
Prague has hosted the second-most NHL regular-season games outside North America with all nine games held at the O2 Arena.
The tournament will feature two groups of four teams competing in a round-robin format with one pool in Prague and another in Calgary.
The top three teams in each pool will advance into the single-elimination stage.
The first-place finisher will advance to the Semifinals. The second- and third-place finishers in each pool will play in a single elimination to advance into the Semifinals.
The tournament will be operated by the NHL and the NHLPA and the players who are not part of the League will be allowed to participate.
Continued Walsh, “The fan experience is going to be amazing in Calgary and Edmonton and in Prague. People are going to be excited. People won’t go to the game, but they’ll know there’s a tournament in the City. There will be excitement in those places. You’ll have Cities benefiting from revenue, from tourism, from hotels, from restaurants, from shopping, all of that stuff.”
Unlike at the Olympics, the NHL and the NHLPA will be in control of the building, the in-game entertainment, content, the video highlights, and everything else that is public facing.
Commented Commissioner Bettman, “We get to control this from soup to nuts. We get to do it in buildings that we’re completely comfortable with and control. We get to do it in a situation where we have complete access to all the things we need access to. We think we can do a really good job of bringing hockey to another level through the visibility that this event will have and it relates to everything across the board.”
Part of that is the media and broadcast rights. Commissioner Bettman said the League will begin the bidding process shortly – “We know there’s a worldwide appetite. There have been inbound calls from the media platforms wanting to make sure we call them and obviously we’ll talk to our partners in North America, Rogers in Canada and Disney/ESPN and TNT in the States. We think there will be robust interest and hopefully robust bidding.”
This will be the fourth World Cup of Hockey following tournaments in 1996, 2004 and 2016.
The United States won in 1996 with Canada winning in 2004 and 2016.
The League and the Players’ Association also combined efforts to put on the 4 Nations Face-Off last year, the first best-on-best competition since the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.
Canada won the 4 Nations Face-Off which also featured the United States, Sweden and Finland.
The United States defeated Canada 2-1 in overtime to capture the gold medal at the Olympics in Milan on February 22nd.
The World Cup of Hockey will continue the NHL’s calendar of best-on-best international competitions every two years following the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 and preceding the 2030 Winter Olympics in Nice, France.
Concluded Bettman, “We think having an every-two-year rhythm – the Olympics, the World Cup, year off in between – will continue to grow the game and build the property, particularly our property the World Cup. That’s something we’re focused on for the long term. We think it’s important for the game and important to the players.”
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