European Championship

[Kuracmugger]

With the soccer european championship this year i was wondering what a european hockey championship could look like. The amount of teams participating is hard to evaluate IMO i‘d say around 16-20 that would include 13 Teams from the top divison (all except KZH,CAN and USA,with russia and Belarus 15) 4 DIV 1A Teams and 3 DIV 1B teams. If NHL players participated(then it would probably be best on best since you could only hold it after the WC or before the season like the Olympics qualifiers) there would be huge blow outs but it could eventually grow the game or there could even be some upsets. But i am pretty sure this would be a really exciting tournament without a huge favourite since Sweden,Czechia,Finland,Switzerland,Slovakia or Germany (Russia) could all win this to some degree IMO. What format would you guys propose? i‘d go with probably 4 groups of 5 or 6 with top 2 advancing to the QF.

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[Albatros]

Difficult. Determine the Deutschland Cup and some EHT tournament as the group phase and let the winners play a grand final between each other or something like that.

 

[Eye of Ra]

Remove EHT, then replace it with 1 serious Euro championship held in Feb.

 

[alko]

Please dont. What will change comparing to World Champ? Nothing. Still there will be the same teams on top...

 

[Yozhik v tumane]

Thinks it a ridiculous idea unless… What if every other year there’s a IIHF Euros, with non-NHLers, and make the IIHF worlds more interspersed and hopefully help non-playoff NHLers more keen on seizing the opportunity to represent their country at the worlds, given that they can’t rely on “maybe next year”?

Not at all convinced it’ll work but it’s an idea.

My other proposal is to way over expand the tournament similarly to the UEFA Euros where half the continent now may qualify.

Can’t count Russia and Belarus in just yet so these are my six groups for this 24 team hockey fest, based on IIHF rankings:

Group A
Finland
Kazakhstan
Romania
Serbia

Group B
Czech Republic
France
Poland
Spain

Group C
Sweden
Austria
Italy
Netherlands

Group D
Switzerland
Norway
Slovenia
Estonia

Group E
Germany
Denmark
Hungary
Ukraine

Group F
Slovakia
Latvia
Great Britain
Lithuania

Are you excited?

And I’ll remind everyone that Kazakhstan are UEFA members in international football, and straddles the Ural which separates Europe and Asia geographically, which is why they’re able to participate here.

 

[Eye of Ra]

Are you excited?

yes

 

[ChicagoBullsFan]

Hockey European championship tournament sounds great in theory.
But how IIHF makes that work and when tournamenth should be played.

If NHL players should participate
then only option is somewhere in late June / early July when NHL season is over.
EHT so far is a absolute joke tournament which should've been finished 10-15 years ago

 

[kabidjan18]

So, I think the way you do it is pretty straightforward. There is no IIHF WHC the year of the Euros. I don't even think there should be an IIHF WHC the year of the Olympics, IF (big if), NHL players are present.

I think you the Olympics every 4 years, and that's sort of the big summit hockey tournament, sort of like the FIFA World Cup. Then on off even years, you hold two tournaments simultaneously. "Euros", and the "Americas Cup." For the Euros, it's a 12 team tournament to win the honor of best team in Europe. And the Americas cup is a best of 5 series between Team Canada and Team USA to claim the title of the best team in the Americas. Then, you have the IIHF WHC every odd year. That way, there's no an oversaturation of international commitments. So, for example.

2025 - WHC
2026 - Olympics
2027 - WHC
2028 - Euros/Americas Cup
2029 - WHC
2030 - Olympics
2031 - WHC
2032 - Euros/Americas Cup

So on and so forth.

 

[Albatros]

There are international hockey teams in other continents as well.

 

[Lambo]

Thinks it a ridiculous idea unless… What if every other year there’s a IIHF Euros, with non-NHLers, and make the IIHF worlds more interspersed and hopefully help non-playoff NHLers more keen on seizing the opportunity to represent their country at the worlds, given that they can’t rely on “maybe next year”?

Not at all convinced it’ll work but it’s an idea.

My other proposal is to way over expand the tournament similarly to the UEFA Euros where half the continent now may qualify.

Can’t count Russia and Belarus in just yet so these are my six groups for this 24 team hockey fest, based on IIHF rankings:

Group A
Finland
Kazakhstan
Romania
Serbia

Group B
Czech Republic
France
Poland
Spain

Group C
Sweden
Austria
Italy
Netherlands

Group D
Switzerland
Norway
Slovenia
Estonia

Group E
Germany
Denmark
Hungary
Ukraine

Group F
Slovakia
Latvia
Great Britain
Lithuania

Are you excited?

And I’ll remind everyone that Kazakhstan are UEFA members in international football, and straddles the Ural which separates Europe and Asia geographically, which is why they’re able to participate here.

In any case, there would be a lot of goals scored. Mostly one-sided!

 

[Lartsaman]

2032 - Euros/Americas Cup

So on and so forth.

Americas Cup would be just Canada-USA series.

 

[Kuracmugger]

There are international hockey teams in other continents as well.

I‘d say a USA Canada best of 7 series and an asian championship with maybe 4-6 teams at the same time as the euros would be nice.

 

[Albatros]

I‘d say a USA Canada best of 7 series and an asian championship with maybe 4-6 teams at the same time as the euros would be nice.

But it can not replace the IIHF World Championships or else most international teams will be left without any meaningful competition and those programs will then just fold altogether due to lack of purpose or funding. Or we can create lower divisions for every continental competition, but that will just make international hockey as a whole more complicated, expensive, and less competitive than the current system.

 

[theslatcher]

Hockey European championship tournament sounds great in theory.
But how IIHF makes that work and when tournamenth should be played.

If NHL players should participate
then only option is somewhere in late June / early July when NHL season is over.
EHT so far is a absolute joke tournament which should've been finished 10-15 years ago

EHT allows countries to try out players & give them the opportunity to play themselves onto a Worlds roster. No reason to remove it.

 

[Albatros]

And the individual EHT tournaments aren't going anywhere anyway, as the federations need an annual showcase event for hospitality purposes.

 

[ES]

I would replace EHT tournaments with season-long games where the top eight European countries from previous World Championships would play home-and-away games against each other.

In the Euro Hockey Tour, the most useless games are those that don't involve the host team. Finland and Czechia playing in Switzerland or Sweden and Switzerland having a game in Finland.

This year's top eight would be:
Czechia
Switzerland
Sweden
Germany
Slovakia
Finland
Latvia
Austria

I know that some countries have traditions with their tournaments at certain times of the year, but
even with this format Germany and Finland could still play few home games in early November.

Finland and Sweden traditionally play against each other on Finnish Father's Day and it would be easy to keep that even in this format.

 

[Kuracmugger]

But it can not replace the IIHF World Championships or else most international teams will be left without any meaningful competition and those programs will then just fold altogether due to lack of purpose or funding. Or we can create lower divisions for every continental competition, but that will just make international hockey as a whole more complicated, expensive, and less competitive than the current system.

That‘s true my idea behind the thread was not a realistic idea which could become reality more of an „what if“ we held a european championship hypothetically. And i wanted to point out how close this tournament would be with many nations being able to win.

 

[Albatros]

In the Euro Hockey Tour, the most useless games are those that don't involve the host team. Finland and Czechia playing in Switzerland or Sweden and Switzerland having a game in Finland.

Finland and Czechia played in Prague in front of 17,013 spectators in that particular tournament. Probably the best-attended international hockey game all year.

 

[ES]

Finland and Czechia played in Prague in front of 17,013 spectators in that particular tournament. Probably the best-attended international hockey game all year.

In Prague, involving Czechia so it's OK to have that. But the highest attendance for the non-home team was 4,519 with Finland against Switzerland in Brno.

 

[Albatros]

And the average for the entire World Championships in Finland two years ago was 5,577. It's good to think about improving the product and the EHT does feel stale, but I'm not sure that more travel for all individual games is the answer. Besides the Czech tournament acted as a training camp for the World Championships this year.

 

[WayTooCold]

As long as Russia is banned there's no point for European championship

 

[Dirtyf1ghter]

Useless. It's already complicated to bring together players for a world championship.

We can very well use this championship to award continental medals in relation to the ranking. The 1st European nation wins gold, 2nd silver, 3rd bronze. The best ranked between Canada and USA wins American gold. The 3rd highest ranked nation in America wins bronze.

 

[HolyGhost]

With the soccer european championship this year i was wondering what a european hockey championship could look like. The amount of teams participating is hard to evaluate IMO i‘d say around 16-20 that would include 13 Teams from the top divison (all except KZH,CAN and USA,with russia and Belarus 15) 4 DIV 1A Teams and 3 DIV 1B teams. If NHL players participated(then it would probably be best on best since you could only hold it after the WC or before the season like the Olympics qualifiers) there would be huge blow outs but it could eventually grow the game or there could even be some upsets. But i am pretty sure this would be a really exciting tournament without a huge favourite since Sweden,Czechia,Finland,Switzerland,Slovakia or Germany (Russia) could all win this to some degree IMO. What format would you guys propose? i‘d go with probably 4 groups of 5 or 6 with top 2 advancing to the QF.

It is called the CHL

Champions Hockey League

The Champions Hockey League is Europe’s greatest ice hockey competition and provides 32 teams from 13 leagues with a platform to battle for the ultimate Trophy.

www.championshockeyleague.com

 

[vorky]

I am fine with it, if they hold the tournament on arenas over 10000 seats with at least one arena obligatory over 20000 seats.

 

[Albatros]

I am fine with it, if they hold the tournament on arenas over 10000 seats with at least one arena obligatory over 20000 seats.

The 2027 IIHF World Championships will feature an arena with over 50000 seats.