Last week, as documented on NHLRumors.com, the NHL will proceed with the 2028 World Cup of Hockey, but it will be conducted without the IIHF’s involvement. That was the plan from the beginning when the NHL and NHLPA announced they were bringing back the World Cup of Hockey during the Four Nations Faceoff.
Nobody knew what the format would be for the World Cup of Hockey. But one thing was sure: it was not going to be like the last World Cup of Hockey. There were going to be eight nations playing, not six nations and two makeshift teams. However, adjustments may be made moving forward regarding the teams involved in this tournament.
Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said on @SiriusXMNHL with @DennisTFP and @TheFourthPeriod that a qualifier will be coming for the World Cup of Hockey. It won’t happen in 2028 https://t.co/PkGSxr0KiS
— Jim Biringer (@JimBiringer) August 26, 2025
Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly joined Dave Pagnotta and Dennis Bernstein of Sirius XM NHL Network during the NHL European Media Tour. Daly was asked about the upcoming World Cup of Hockey, how the bid process is going, and what the plan is for 2028 and beyond.
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NHLRumors.com Transcriptions
Dave Pagnotta: “But while we’re on the on the subject World Cup, I believe you’ve started to take, or started already to take heads with respect to host cities. Can you give us a quick rundown of what the vision is in terms of format? Are we going back to the beginning of World Cup with games in different cities, and then on both sides of the pond, and then the final in one location? And how’s that process going so far?”
Bill Daly: “So we’ve actually only had games, stage games in Europe, in one World Cup of Hockey Tournament that was in 2006 (2004) when we had a European pool. But yes, the intention. There’s a couple differences with this World Cup visavis, our last World Cup, for instance, we do envision an invitational tournament of eight teams. I do think we want to move into a situation where we create a qualification round, but that won’t be for 2028.
We’ll have a European pool, we’ll play in one European city, and we’ll have a North American pool playing in a North American city. Think our sense is, right now, it’s just one North American city that will end up hosting the semifinals and the final. I think we’ll have two quarter-final games here in Europe. And kind of, as you said, we’re accepting expressions of interest now, currently for markets in North America and for markets in Europe.
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We’re pretty far along in that process. And then we’ll go into a formal bid process among the finalists, and we hope to make announcements on kind of markets and venues sometime during the course of this upcoming regular season.”
Again, the key point, as documented by NHLRumors.com, is the Russian factor. We know the Four Nations Faceoff was an NHL and NHLPA event. However, it would have been called off if Russia had been able to participate, given that Sweden and Finland did not want them there. The same thing could happen if the political climate doesn’t change.
There is a reason why the IIHF and the IOC have banned Russian athletes from the World Championships and Olympics. Not only would Sweden and Finland not participate, but other nations, such as Czechia and Slovakia, would also bow out. Fair or not, that is what is happening. That is the fear from the NHL if they invite Russia in 2028: if things don’t change, those hockey nations may not participate.
But that is a few years down the road. As Daly stated, there will be a European host city and a North American host city, but down the road, more cities could be involved, similar to 1996 and 2004.
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