Which 8 countries should have a spot in a "real" world cup?

[Eye of Ra]

As we all know, World Cup aka Canada Cup always had 8 nations. The last World Cup was a gimmick tourny with 2 fake teams.

Which 8 nations should be in it? Dont include fake teams like Team Europe etc.

Imo:

Canada
USA
Russia
Czech
Finland
Sweden


then there is 2 spots left. Slovaks, germans and swiss all have fair arguments. But i guess latvians do too. And a best possible team denmark might actually be the 7th best nation in the world.

With that said, i would give last 2 spots to:

Denmark
Slovakia

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[kudla]

The legend is back

 

[WarriorofTime]

Canada, USA, Russia, Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Switzerland.

These are the 8 that never get relegated at the world juniors. Germany may be able to knock off Slovakia or Switzerland in a couple years, they do pretty well at the senior level but I'd like to see some more consistency at the junior level from them.

 

[Eye of Ra]

Canada, USA, Russia, Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Switzerland.

These are the 8 that never get relegated at the world juniors. Germany may be able to knock off Slovakia or Switzerland in a couple years, they do pretty well at the senior level but I'd like to see some more consistency at the junior level from them.

im not talking juniors here

 

[WarriorofTime]

im not talking juniors here

Yeah, those are the 8 I'd pick at the senior level. You could also do 6 automatic (cut off at Czech Republic) and make Slovakia, Switzerland, Germany and Denmark battle for the last two spots (and once you opened it up to 10 the Latvian and Norweigan hockey federations may start complaining)

 

[Lambo]

Canada
USA
Sweden
Finland
Russia
Czech

Quali-Round for the last 2 places:

Switzerland
Germany
Slovakia
Denmark

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Canada
USA
Sweden
Finland
Russia
Czech

Quali-Round for the last 2 places:

Switzerland
Germany
Slovakia
Denmark

I like the idea of qualification for the last two spots, but make it an eight team qualification. Teams like Latvia, Belarus, Austria, Norway probably would take exception to Denmark being awarded that spot in the four team playoff.

 

[Hanji]

Canada
Czech Republic
Finland
Russia
Slovakia
Sweden
Switzerland
United States

 

[WarriorofTime]

I like the idea of qualification for the last two spots, but make it an eight team qualification. Teams like Latvia, Belarus, Austria, Norway probably would take exception to Denmark being awarded that spot in the four team playoff.

Yeah, Denmark is a pretty weak link in that group IMO.

I'll say it and keep saying it, to be a real international tournament, a real qualification process is a must IMO.

I know most of these nations are crap and don't have real professionals let alone a squad good enough to go up against the world's best, but having a process in place is what allows countries to progress. Below is how the qualification process looks for the 2022 Olympics. If the World Cup is meant to be a serious replacement, and not just a money hungry cash grab, there should be a partnership with the IIHF (a world governing body that has the interests of ALL membership federations in mind and not just Canada and USA serving the interests of a private hockey league based in those countries) to have some sort of process that replicates this. And yes, that means the NHL sharing some of the wealth which will trickle down a bit to these small membership federations. The NHL will get their cut too and they deserve it, since their talent is the main draw for these tournaments, I'm not worried about them but there does have to be an actual effort and spirit of cooperation here. The NHL overplayed its hand massively in 2016 and thought it could slap on Canada jerseys on NHL players, get a gimmick to throw some other young talent like Matthews and McDavid in there, put a tournament in Canada and they would make lots of money, well they didn't. I'm glad one of the gimmick teams made it all the way to the Best of 3 Final.. nothing against those guys, they were good players and I'm sure they tried their best, but it exposed what a sham the whole thing was from the part of the NHL. Did they learn their lesson? Who knows, I'm not too optimistic.

 

[Albatros]

IIHF Ranking top 4 and the regional best of for example Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Oceania.

Australia
Canada
Finland
Korea
Mexico
Russia
South Africa
United States

 

[holyprime]

IIHF Ranking top 4 and the regional best of for example Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Oceania.

Australia
Canada
Finland
Korea
Mexico
Russia
South Africa
United States

The best-on-best snobs are going to love this

 

[Czechboy]

Big 5 plus Czechs

I like the idea of a qualifier for final 2 spots

If not... holy cow would that be hard. Eg. the Denmark best on best squad is damn good. The Swiss best on best squad is damn good. I love my Slovaks. Latvia would be a solid contender too.

 

[Czechboy]

Actually, the best on best Swiss squad should be included. I forgot about the German's but they could ice a damn good team too - Grubauer, Drai and Seider is a hell of a start!

 

[Lartsaman]

Just make it a 10 team tournament with two groups of 5.

Canada
Sweden
United States
Russia
Finland
Czech Republic
Switzerland
Germany
Slovakia
Denmark

Group winners gets bye to semis, second and third of each group will face each other at "quarters" and so on.

 

[member 305909]

I am in favour of the old Canada-cup style 6 team tournament but since Germany is not a top 6 country they need to expand it to 8 teams.

 

[JETZZZ]

Current IIHF rankings:

1 Canada
2 Finland
3 Russia
4 USA
5 Germany
6 Czech Rep
7 Sweden
8 Switzerland

Boom. There is the field of 8.

 

[Cowumbus]

Actually, the best on best Swiss squad should be included. I forgot about the German's but they could ice a damn good team too - Grubauer, Drai and Seider is a hell of a start!

Riehel, Peterka, Stutzle too

 

[Dingo]

canada cup had 6 teams originally
anyways
pick the top 8 based on the last best on best, then after the next one, the bottom team gets the boot and is replaced by the top missing team from the worlds immediately before the next WCup.

or just go back to 6 and use the same formula. It will very likely always be Can, USA, Russia, Sweden, finland...... and then one of Czech, Slovak, Swiss, Germany, rotating in and out for years.

 

[Dingo]

I am in favour of the old Canada-cup style 6 team tournament but since Germany is not a top 6 country they need to expand it to 8 teams.

germany could well oust the Czechs on good years.

 

[garbageteam]

6 teams would be my first pick. Keep it simple and short and just have the best teams go at it. But if we wanted to be purists and use IIHF rankings Germany would get in at the expense of Sweden this year.

Then I'd go with 8. Qualifiers would be ideal over pre-game friendlies anyway, but if they weren't willing to do that the cleanest thing to do is to just pick the top 8 ranked countries, which means Germany and Switzerland are in for the forseeable future, Denmark and Slovakia are out.

IIHF Ranking top 4 and the regional best of for example Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Oceania.

Australia
Canada
Finland
Korea
Mexico
Russia
South Africa
United States

Ridiculous in practice but I love this idea, just like the other international sports. If we wanted to actually spitball it I'd go top 5 IIHF plus 1 EU, 1 Asia and 1 rest of the world. That would give us

Canada
Finland
Russia
United States
Germany
EU qualifier (Sweden/Czech)
Asia qualifier (Kazakhstan/Korea)
Wild Card/Rest of the world (Australia/Mexico/South Africa)

 

[Fjorden]

Canada, USA, Russia, Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Switzerland.

These are the 8 that never get relegated at the world juniors. Germany may be able to knock off Slovakia or Switzerland in a couple years, they do pretty well at the senior level but I'd like to see some more consistency at the junior level from them.

Take the big 6.
Canada,USA, Russia, Finland, Sweden and Czech republic.

And then a play in for the last two spots in two groups of four. Each group winner qualifies. Germany and switzerland highest seeded in each group.

Group 1: Germany, Denmark, Norway, Belarus
Group 2: Switzerland, Slovakia, Latvia, Kazakhstan

 

[Eye of Ra]

Current IIHF rankings:

1 Canada
2 Finland
3 Russia
4 USA
5 Germany
6 Czech Rep
7 Sweden
8 Switzerland

Boom. There is the field of 8.

this is becuse of wc

no way germany is acutally better than sweden and czech

 

[Eye of Ra]

6 teams would be my first pick. Keep it simple and short and just have the best teams go at it. But if we wanted to be purists and use IIHF rankings Germany would get in at the expense of Sweden this year.

that would be nuts.

imagine all those del players getting to play instead of swedens and czech nhl stars .

dont take the iihhf rankings too serious.

 

[THE JAM]

IIHF rankings are pretty important, it could decide a tie-breaker who is in and who is out if several teams end up on same points and goal difference

 

[GermanSpitfire]

Call me biased but i’d have Germany in there above the Swiss and Slovak’s