A lot of people in here don't seem to comprehend the purpose of this tournament. It's not only meant to be an international hockey tournament. It's meant to feature the largest number of NHL players in a best on best format that suits the NHL schedule and the North American audience. Oh yeah and it needs to be profitable.
People talking about moving this thing to multiple countries just don't get it. They're already throwing the European countries a bone by having some pre tournament games in Europe. To me, that's enough. The NHL and PA do not want crazy travel prior to the start of the NHL season. North America has an abundance of world class facilities in place, so why move it overseas?
In sports, all sports, it's all about money. From a TV rights perspective, the big money is in Canada and the US. Every other nations TV rights probably account for a tiny fraction of what Rogers is paying in Canada. Maybe one day the tournament gets so big that huge money can be generated overseas, but that's DECADES away from happening. So you need games being played to cater to EST.
On top of that you have to accept that the NHL wants this tournament to promote as many of their own players as possible. Again, some people in Europe may not understand or want to hear this, but in North America, nobody cares about players from the K, or the Swedish or Finnish leagues. Whereas people in Europe have to care about the NHL, because that is the undisputed best league in the world. The result is you're not going to see a rush to get teams like Slovenia, Switzerland, Germany, etc to have their own teams.
The NHL made a smart call by having a Team Europe to allow those NHLPA members from those small hockey nations to showcase their talents and also create a competitive team. People have cited times when these lower tier nations have hung tough against the top teams, but from a medal standpoint in best on best none of them have been competitive. Plus the style they need to play to "hang in" is not conducive to drawing people to an arena to watch those games. Imagine how poorly attended a qualifying game between Slovenia and Germany would be in say Philadelphia.
Anyone suggesting a massive increase in number of teams is out to lunch. The PA is not going to agree to playing tons of games just to allow C and D level countries in. Similarly they're not going to authorize massive play in process to make it more "legitimate" to certain types of people. The reality is the depth of hockey worldwide isn't that strong. My qualification process would be simple. If any nation can field a team that is 75%+ of players who were contracted by an NHL team the season prior to the tournament, then they qualify. Until then, if they feel 8 teams are necessary, then you keep the two non nation teams. Personally, I would be okay with only 6 teams, but at the same time Ive loved watching the NA23 team.
The odd thing about the people complaining about this tournament is they don't seem to appreciate the other alternatives. You have a future state of Olympic hockey without NHL participation. That will be a joke of a tournament. You have the World Hockey Championship which its organizers in their infinite wisdom continue to schedule during the NHL playoffs, making it a mediocre on mediocre competition. The NHL and PA has the right to profit from the risk involved with their players putting on a best on best show. You have to accept that the result of that will be a tournament that caters to the NHL and the PA not some negative nancys in Helsinki.
