Bettman Confirms World Cup in 2028 (At Least 8 Nations)

[just a hockey fan]

So what ? Soviet team was basically always all Russians


I think it will be just fine without teams losing 6-1.

Russia
USA
Canada
Team Europe (without those boycotting)

Sign me up any day

I love when people admit when they despise a country, it's funny how hated Finland truly is by the hockey world

 

[Czechboy]

they will definitely do it soon

Really? There is a Russia will play announcement coming soon?

Can you define soon? Tomorrow? Next week? Next.month?

 

[vorky]

And...? No Russia and lots of tickets sold. If you want to argue that a lack of Russia means less profit then give me an example.

I do not want to jump to this discussion but ...

you are talking about attendance in Prague, fine.

but knowledgeable people, even Tardif IIRC, admit that IIHF is losing money without Russia, russian sponsors etc.

 

[Czechboy]

think it will be just fine without teams losing 6-1

Russia lost 7-3 in the Olympic quarters in 2010 .. right? Then 3-1 in the quarters 4 years later to Finland, right?

 

[Czechboy]

I do not want to jump to this discussion but ...

you are talking about attendance in Prague, fine.

but knowledgeable people, even Tardif IIRC, admit that IIHF is losing money without Russia, russian sponsors etc.

Link please

 

[Zine]

Canada
Czechia
Finland
Germany or Slovakia
Russia
Sweden
Switzerland
United States

Looks about right.

 

[Summer Rose]

Canada
Czechia
Finland
Germany or Slovakia
Russia
Sweden
Switzerland
United States

Looks about right.

Just looking that this, I'm inclined to agree... but I also think it would be fair to have a play-in series between Slovakia and Germany to determine who qualifies for the tournament proper. Maybe punt Switzerland into a three-team tournament that has the top two finishers of it qualify.

 

[ViD]

I love when people admit when they despise a country, it's funny how hated Finland truly is by the hockey world

There’s no hatred towards a country. There’s threats of boycotting for political reasons from Finland and Sweden, if they want to choose not to participate in a hockey tournament solely because of political reasons, while they have Russian team mates, some of them their best mates, I will not miss those countries

 

[ViD]

Russia lost 7-3 in the Olympic quarters in 2010 .. right? Then 3-1 in the quarters 4 years later to Finland, right?

So what, Russia then beat Finland in 2016 rather easily. But the point is that they’re threatening to boycott, for zero hockey reasons, and hence I won’t miss them if that’s their choice

 

[NyQuil]

Sending poor rosters when everyone is available doesn't diminish it. That's a choice. And if Canada had won that I'm positive it'd be counted.lol

The 2005 World Championships Team Canada is an interesting roster.

The goaltending was pretty wild with both Brodeur and Luongo.

You can see how many European-centric players were involved. They relied a lot on past members of Team Canada, sort of an all-star team of previous WC attendees.

You had a lot of returnees from previous World Championships (* for guys on the 2006 Olympic team):

Forwards:
-Ryan Smyth *
-Dany Heatley *
-Kirk Maltby
-Kris Draper *
-Shane Doan *
-Brendan Morrow
-Joe Thornton *
-Patrick Marleau
-Scott Walker
-Brendan Morrison

Defence:
-Wade Redden *
-Chris Phillips
-Ed Jovonovski
-Robyn Regehr *

Goalies:
-Martin Brodeur (albeit way back in 1996) *
-Roberto Luongo *
-Marty Turco

Then you had the guys with no WC experience but who played in Europe during the lockout:
-Rick Nash *
-Mike Fisher
-Dan Boyle
-Sheldon Souray

Then you had a few guys who used 2005 as their first real WC/European experience:
-Simon Gagne *
-Scott Hannan

Team Canada - Ice Hockey World Championships 2005 - Player Stats

Team Canada stats, scoring leaders and demographics breakdown at Ice Hockey World Championships in 2005. Player birth country and age distributions, draft rounds of players in the 2005 tournament.

www.quanthockey.com

1. Previous NHL Season (2003-2004)

So, who was missing as far as the previous NHL season is concerned and their league-wide ranking in scoring:
-Martin St. Louis (1st)
-Joe Sakic (3rd)
-Cory Stillman (8th)
-Brad Richards (10th)
-Alex Tanguay (11th)
-Mark Recchi (14th)
-Jarome Iginla (16th)
-Steve Sullivan (17th)

-And here we have Joe Thornton as the top scoring member of Team Canada at 18th, Shane Doan next at 24th, Scott Walker at 26th

-As far as ranking by points-per-game (due to injury etc.), Marc Savard is at 3rd, Todd Bertuzzi at 28th

-It's harder to grade defencemen, but Scott Niedermayer and Bryan McCabe were on the end-of-season 1st and 2nd All-Star teams respectively

2. Subsequent 2006 Best-on-Best Olympic Roster

So, who was missing as far as the next best-on-best Olympic team is concerned, less than a year later in 2006:

Forwards:
-Joe Sakic
-Vincent Lecavalier
-Martin St. Louis
-Brad Richards
-Todd Bertuzzi
-Jarome Iginla

Defence:
-Jay Bouwmeester
-Rob Blake
-Bryan McCabe
-Chris Pronger
-Adam Foote

(not including Spezza, Staal, Crosby because they had little or no NHL experience in 2005)

3. Conclusions

-The goaltending is as good as it could be. Luongo and Brodeur were consensus best-on-best goalies.

-The forwards were a pretty decent group, interestingly enough. 7 of 13 forwards on the 2006 Olympic team played on the 2005 WC team. Sakic, Iginla and the Tampa Bay Lightning guys are the most obvious omissions based on both prior NHL performance and 2006 Team Canada selection. Bertuzzi is a bit of a special case given his troubles around that time.

-The defence included 2 of 7, in Regehr and Redden, so a few notable omissions here.

-I think it's sort of in between a best-on-best team and a World Championship team.

-However, those tournaments took place in a bit of a lull for Canadian talent IMO, with 2002 as the swansong of the 80s-early 90s superstars (like Lemieux, Lindros and Yzerman) and the later 2000s guys yet to emerge

-As far as future HHoFers are concerned, you're looking at 3 or maybe 4 guys on the 2005 WC team, 2 of whom were goalies: Brodeur, Luongo, Thornton, (Doan / Heatley (if no car crash)).

-By the 2010 Olympics iteration of Team Canada, you're looking at 12 to 16 future HHoFers:
Forwards:
-Jonathan Toews
-Sidney Crosby
-Ryan Getzlaf
-Patrice Bergeron
-Joe Thornton
-Jarome Iginla
-Eric Staal (?)
-Corey Perry (?)

Defence:
-Scott Niedermayer
-Duncan Keith
-Drew Doughty
-Shea Weber (?)
-Chris Pronger

Goalies:
-Martin Brodeur
-Roberto Luongo
-M-A Fleury (?)

 

[Tawnos]

I guess you missed the fact the NHL passed on participating in the past few Olympics and chose to have these dumb insider tournaments INSTEAD

There's no instead here. The same period of time that they didn't have Olympic participation, there were also no other NHL-sponsored international tournaments. They didn't participate in 2018 and 2022 Olympics. There hasn't been an NHL-sponsored tournament since 2016. They are participating in the 2026 and 2030 Olympics, while ALSO having the 2025 4N, and the 2028 and 2032 World Cups.

 

[Summer Rose]

Okay, it wasn't too bad to start, but derailed quickly. Leave the politics out of this.

 

[Czechboy]

So what, Russia then beat Finland in 2016 rather easily. But the point is that they’re threatening to boycott, for zero hockey reasons, and hence I won’t miss them if that’s their choice

If I'm Finnish.. I'm enjoying the shit out of eliminating Russia (in Russia) in the quarter finals of a best on best Olympics a lot more than I would enjoy a 2016 world cup victory.

And you mocked this tourney (which I'm not a fan of either) because of a lopsided loss by Finland. Same thing losing 7-3 in a quarter of a best.on best olymoics would big me a lot more than a drubbing at the 4 nations cup.

Back to the point.. that is back to back quarters final eliminations at the most recent best on best olympics.

Only counters I'm getting are wolrd cup round robin wins and 1981 USSR team.
Ftr..I agree international hockey would be better with Russia in it. I also like a lot of the new Russian generation including a few Dmen coming up.

 

[gitchiemanitou]

Fantastic work by the nhl & players!

The hockey guys are among the highest profile expat Russians in the Usa. Will be great hockey and could be a good opportunity to thaw some ice.

 

[tobu]

Someone on X looked at the depth of players under NHL contract (not necessarily playing in NHL today) for Slovakia, Switzerland and Germany and Germany had the least players under contract, would have to ice half of the team from DHL. But let's see how that changes in 2 years

 

[Czechboy]

Someone on X looked at the depth of players under NHL contract (not necessarily playing in NHL today) for Slovakia, Switzerland and Germany and Germany had the least players under contract, would have to ice half of the team from DHL. But let's see how that changes in 2 years

Based on drafts and junior tournaments... Slovakia is rising, Germany is declining and Switzerland is declining.
Grubauer may be done as an NHL goalie too so no one has a NHL goalie amongst the 3 with Gajan in the lead. Swiss have the best NHL crop right now and it's a damn good crop but not much in the pipe at all. Germans have an amazing 4 but not much in the pipe at all. Slovakia is at an all time low but have some great stuff in the pipe.

Slovak D is also looking to be very good with Nemec, Gernat and Ferhervary for at least half a decade.

 

[_vivelequebec_]

I don't see how we could play 8 teams, unless it includes U23 and World team (which is pretty lame imo). European clubs won't release their players for 2-3 weeks, but AHL could be forced to by the league. That means you could insert Czech Republic (and of course Russia by 2028). Still not enough NHL/AHL players for Swiss, Slovakia and Germany.

You make 2 groups of 3 teams. 2 games by group, 1A plays 2B and 1B plays 2A in the semi. So between 2-4 games by team, you can do it in 10 days.

Czechia would still like to have guys like Zadina or Kubalik...

 

[PanniniClaus]

I don't see how we could play 8 teams, unless it includes U23 and World team (which is pretty lame imo). European clubs won't release their players for 2-3 weeks, but AHL could be forced to by the league. That means you could insert Czech Republic (and of course Russia by 2028). Still not enough NHL/AHL players for Swiss, Slovakia and Germany.

You make 2 groups of 3 teams. 2 games by group, 1A plays 2B and 1B plays 2A in the semi. So between 2-4 games by team, you can do it in 10 days.

Czechia would still like to have guys like Zadina or Kubalik...

I think something will get worked out with the IIHF to allow for non NHL contracted players to be part of this. It is also hard to see Russia and Belarus in before 2030 so fitting the Germans, Swiss and Slovaks in should be easy enough.

 

[vorky]

I think something will get worked out with the IIHF to allow for non NHL contracted players to be part of this. It is also hard to see Russia and Belarus in before 2030 so fitting the Germans, Swiss and Slovaks in should be easy enough.

Forget about IIHF, nobody will negotiate with them.

 

[Albatros]

No IIHF, no 8 teams. No one else can provide that.

 

[KovalchukFistPump]

I actually liked Team Europe. Last World Cup proved that the players can get motivated to play together too. The young stars USA/Canada team was stupid though, as it robs talent from their actual nation's teams.

 

[GKJ]

Just looking that this, I'm inclined to agree... but I also think it would be fair to have a play-in series between Slovakia and Germany to determine who qualifies for the tournament proper. Maybe punt Switzerland into a three-team tournament that has the top two finishers of it qualify.

When they started getting serious about this, the talk was that there would be a qualifying phase. Similar to the Olympics. Hopefully that is what happens.

 

[MessierThanThou]

Germany has a top line and a top 4 D-man and a goaltender or two in the league. Slovakia doesn't have a single first line quality player, much less a Top 4 D-man, or a goalie. I'd say Germany has the edge here. I'd like to see a Czechia-Slovakia team, but I know some people really hated the multi-nation World Cup teams from 2016.

 

[Elvs]

Germany has a top line and a top 4 D-man and a goaltender or two in the league. Slovakia doesn't have a single first line quality player, much less a Top 4 D-man, or a goalie. I'd say Germany has the edge here. I'd like to see a Czechia-Slovakia team, but I know some people really hated the multi-nation World Cup teams from 2016.

While I agree that Germany and Switzerland currently (and likely still in 2028) can ice stronger teams and Slovakia will probably be the "odd man" out from getting an invitation (if there's no qualification), the reality is Slovakia is stronger on defence than up front.

Cernak is absolutely a top 4 defenseman, and a two time Stanley Cup winner in that role. A strong case could be made for Fehervary as well. Nemec is not there yet but it would be dissapointing if he isn't one by 2028.

They also have Maxim Strbak drafted in the 2nd round and this year Luka Radivojevic will likely be another 2nd rounder. Slovakia in 2028 should at the very least be able to assemble a defense group on the level of what Finland has in this tournament.

The major question marks are up front (they desperately need Slafkovsky and Dvorsky to amount into something) and in goal.

 

[Bonk]

The World Baseball Classic does its qualifying tournament a full year before the actual tournament. I wonder if that would work (maybe in September?) to fill out the rest of the field.

Definitely seems like teams other than the big four (and maybe Russia) should have to qualify rather than just be admitted on name or star power.

Downside is you'd have guys miss a portion of training camp and it's possible a team could play in an international tournament several consecutive years.