"Over the last year, the NHL and NHLPA have been working on plans to conduct the next World Cup of Hockey, the premier international best-on-best hockey tournament in February 2024," the NHL and NHLPA said in a statement. "Unfortunately, in the current environment it is not feasible to hold the World Cup of Hockey at that time. We continue to plan for the next World Cup of Hockey, hopefully in February 2025."
There was uncertainty about the potential for Russia to have a team in the World Cup, as the NHL continues to suspend all business relationships there since its invasion of Ukraine in February and aligns with the mandate from the International Ice Hockey Federation that the nation is suspended from all international competitions until further notice.
"We talked about the Russian issue, and we don't have a solution for it as of now," NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Day said in Finland prior to the 2022 NHL Global Series Nov. 4-5. "So we'll have to figure it out."
The 2024 tournament would have featured at least eight national teams and possibly 10, with games played in North America and Europe. The plan was to play all games during a 17-day window in February.
"[Russia is] only one of the number of issues that we're still working on with the Players' Association that has yet to be resolved," NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said at the Global Series in Finland. "Obviously, we're interested in bringing back the World Cup on a regular basis. But to get it up and running the right way, there's so many things that have to be done, which is why we don't have a formal announcement to make."
The World Cup of Hockey was last played in 2016, when all games were played in Toronto. There were also tournaments in 1996 and 2004.
"Essentially we are in an inordinately uncertain environment, and we want to do a number of these things in Europe, and you have reactions from various countries over there as to what's going on, and you want to have the best on best if you can, and this just was not the time to attempt that," executive director of the NHLPA Donald Fehr said Saturday.
