World Cup of Hockey to Feature "All Star Teams"

[boxiebrown]

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck-daddy/world-cup-of-hockey-could-include-euro--young-stars-all-star-teams-015730909.html

The World Cup of Hockey, set to return in Sept. 2016, has a numbers issue.

There are enough NHL stars to populate six national teams: Canada, the U.S., Russia, Sweden, Finland and the Czech Republic. But it’s an eight-team tournament; do you bring in Switzerland? Germany? Slovakia? Latvia? None of them have the numbers to be total NHL rosters, without any Euro league or KHL players, and that’s the goal for this tournament: Have it controlled by the NHL and the NHLPA, and populated with its players. (Good luck with Russia, by the way.)

The solution? To have the other two teams in the tournament be all-star teams.

As Chris Johnston of Sportsnet reported on Monday, the NHL is considering a Ryder Cup-style European All-Star team that would be comprised of players from nations that aren’t represented in the Big Six. Anze Kopitar, Marian Hossa, Marian Gaborik, Zdeno Chara, Jaroslav Halak, Jonas Hiller, Nino Niederreitter and others would star on this squad.

The other squad will also be an all-star team comprised of North American NHL players. I’ve heard two different concepts for this team, both of them intriguing:

North American Young Stars: Players under a certain age (let’s throw out 24 years old as a possibility) that don’t make the Canadian or American teams band together and try to take out their elders.

North American ‘B’ Team: Like something out of a Disney movie, all the North American players that were cut from the Canadian and American teams join together in a ragtag team of ‘B’ players.

Both of these rosters could be opened up to players outside of North America, but this is the concept I’ve heard.

In any case, it’s clear the NHL is not going with two other national teams to fill out the World Cup tournament.

This is just a terrible, terrible idea. Random "all-star" teams have no place in a legitimate international tournament. The "B" team and young players team are especially stupid. Any format which could lead to Canadian or American players competing against Team Canada or Team USA is just transparently ridiculous.

[Watermelons]

The Euro team made of players from smaller countries doesn't sound too bad but I agree that a team of NHL all stars defeats the purpose of an international tournament. However, at the same time wouldn't it be cool to see a "Canada B" team form? People here complain all the time about so many good Canadian players not making the Olympics squad and that Canada should have multiple teams. Why not? It'll be a good way to let more players gain exposure in a elite level tournament and likely attract more fans and revenue for the NHL.

However, I don't like how they are planning on leaving out other players outside of the NHL. Sure, the event is run by the NHL and the NHLPA but there's so many good hockey players outside of the NHL. Big events like the Olympics, and the FIFA World Cup don't leave out players because of what teams they play for.

[boxiebrown]

The Euro team made of players from smaller countries doesn't sound too bad but I agree that a team of NHL all stars defeats the purpose of an international tournament. However, at the same time wouldn't it be cool to see a "Canada B" team form? People here complain all the time about so many good Canadian players not making the Olympics squad and that Canada should have multiple teams. Why not? It'll be a good way to let more players gain exposure in a elite level tournament and likely attract more fans and revenue for the NHL.

However, I don't like how they are planning on leaving out other players outside of the NHL. Sure, the event is run by the NHL and the NHLPA but there's so many good hockey players outside of the NHL. Big events like the Olympics, and the FIFA World Cup don't leave out players because of what teams they play for.

I literally do not think there is a single person in the world who would think "You know, I wasn't going to watch the World Cup of Hockey, but now that Canada's entering a 2nd team, I'm in!"

[2SKATES1STICK]

Makes as much sense as dividing the NHL into unequally sized conferences, penalizing teams years after the fact for signing league-approved contracts, and the department of player safety.

par for the course it seems.

[250Integra]

I wouldn't mind 1 International team (comprised of cuts and players from small countries) and one North American players team (comprised of Canadian / American cuts).

[Watermelons]

I literally do not think there is a single person in the world who would think "You know, I wasn't going to watch the World Cup of Hockey, but now that Canada's entering a 2nd team, I'm in!"

It's more about players who are good but not quite good enough to be the top 23 in their respective country getting a chance to play in a international tournament.

Let's look at Columbus for example. A Euro team featuring European players could mean that Bobrovsky gets a chance on the team, while a North American B team could mean that Johansen has a chance to play on the team.

A small-market team that had zero players in the tournament now suddenly has their two biggest players representing two separate teams in the tournament. Fans of the Blue Jackets immediately have a lot more incentive to watch their players in the tournament. That immediately pulls in revenue more revenue. Revenue from ticket sales, jersey sales and so on.

As Canucks fans we might not realize that hockey isn't the biggest sport in all places in the world. Canada is a hockey-crazed country, sure. But in the states there is the NBA, MLB and the NFL to compete with. Why should fans in smaller markets watch the world cup of hockey when their players aren't even on the team? There are so many more alternatives.

Edit: My bad. Bobrovsky would be on team Russia. I misinterpreted a sentence in the article that was questioning whether Russia would be in the tournament or not

[Jägermeister]

God I hope the NHL stays in the Olympics.

[Kazmanian Devil]

It's more about players who are good but not quite good enough to be the top 23 in their respective country getting a chance to play in a international tournament.

Let's look at Columbus for example. A Euro team featuring European players could mean that Bobrovsky gets a chance on the team, while a North American B team could mean that Johansen has a chance to play on the team.

A small-market team that had zero players in the tournament now suddenly has their two biggest players representing two separate teams in the tournament. Fans of the Blue Jackets immediately have a lot more incentive to watch their players in the tournament. That immediately pulls in revenue more revenue. Revenue from ticket sales, jersey sales and so on.

Why would Bobrovsky not be on Russia's roster?

[Watermelons]

Why would Bobrovsky not be on Russia's roster?

I guess I misinterpreted the article. There was a sentence that I thought was questioning whether Russia would be in the tournament or not. My bad

[Ghostsof1915]

How about the Olympics only and dump the World Cup.

The Canada Cup was fine because Canada wasn't allowed to have pro players in the Olympics. But since they've changed the rules it makes no sense for a World Cup.

But it's money I guess.

[boxiebrown]

It's more about players who are good but not quite good enough to be the top 23 in their respective country getting a chance to play in a international tournament.

Let's look at Columbus for example. A Euro team featuring European players could mean that Bobrovsky gets a chance on the team, while a North American B team could mean that Johansen has a chance to play on the team.

A small-market team that had zero players in the tournament now suddenly has their two biggest players representing two separate teams in the tournament. Fans of the Blue Jackets immediately have a lot more incentive to watch their players in the tournament. That immediately pulls in revenue more revenue. Revenue from ticket sales, jersey sales and so on.

As Canucks fans we might not realize that hockey isn't the biggest sport in all places in the world. Canada is a hockey-crazed country, sure. But in the states there is the NBA, MLB and the NFL to compete with. Why should fans in smaller markets watch the world cup of hockey when their players aren't even on the team? There are so many more alternatives.

That's fair. But the idea of having a game between Team Canada and a CAN/USA franken-team just makes my skin crawl. This is supposed to be about crowning the best hockey nation in the world, right? How can you have multi-national teams in the tournament? It defeats the entire purpose, in my opinion.

And I can't imagine the Canadians on the CAN/USA team would feel great about playing against Team Canada in the final, in Toronto...

Man, I hate this idea.

[Watermelons]

That's fair. But the idea of having a game between Team Canada and a CAN/USA franken-team just makes my skin crawl. This is supposed to be about crowning the best hockey nation in the world, right? How can you have multi-national teams in the tournament? It defeats the entire purpose, in my opinion.

And I can't imagine the Canadians on the CAN/USA team would feel great about playing against Team Canada in the final, in Toronto...

Man, I hate this idea.

Yea I agree with you in that sense. Which is why I mentioned also in my first post that I would prefer players from all leagues involved in this. It's the World Cup of Hockey. Not some amateur tournament. Just because the NHL is running it doesn't mean that players from other players should not be invited.

Look at big world events like the Olympics or the World Cup. Do they discriminate players based on what league they play in? No. That's part of why they are so popular. Everyone is invited. Everyone has a chance to play, hence "world". Whereas the new World Cup of Hockey is only including people from the NHL. I thought that's what we have the NHL All Stars games for. Might as well rename the World Cup of Hockey to the "NHL All Stars Tournament"

[boxiebrown]

How about the Olympics only and dump the World Cup.

The Canada Cup was fine because Canada wasn't allowed to have pro players in the Olympics. But since they've changed the rules it makes no sense for a World Cup.

But it's money I guess.

Yeah, the idea is that the NHL still wants to have a best-on-best tournament, but wants to control timing, location and revenue. So this is supposed to replace the Olympics.

I'd be totally fine with that, if the NHL could just do it without shooting themselves in the foot. Seriously, this tournament should be incredibly easy to stage. Invite the big 6 plus Slovakia and Switzerland, two groups of 4, round robin, playoffs. THERE I DID IT.

Messing with multi-national all star teams and "B" teams is just messing with something that wasn't even close to broken.

Did anyone watch the 2010 Olympic tournament and think "man, if only there was an arbitrary all-star team here, then this would be REALLY good hockey"

[Kazmanian Devil]

Just bring these 8 in my opinion:

Canada

USA

Russia

Sweden

Finland

Czech Republic

Switzerland

Slovakia

The most successful hockey nations of the last decade or so. Let them bring players from whatever leagues they want. Seems pretty simple.

[boxiebrown]

Yea I agree with you in that sense. Which is why I mentioned also in my first post that I would prefer players from all leagues involved in this. It's the World Cup of Hockey. Not some amateur tournament. Just because the NHL is running it doesn't mean that players from other players should not be invited.

Look at big world events like the Olympics or the World Cup. Do they discriminate players based on what league they play in? No. That's part of why they are so popular. Everyone is invited. Everyone has a chance to play, hence "world". Whereas the new World Cup of Hockey is only including people from the NHL. I thought that's what we have the NHL All Stars games for.

I think you're misinterpreting the article, I don't think anyone is suggesting that the NHL will prohibit Russia from bringing KHL guys.

But I agree, this should just be a standard, best-on-best international tournament. Don't try to fix what ain't broke.

[boxiebrown]

Just bring these 8 in my opinion:

Canada

USA

Russia

Sweden

Finland

Czech Republic

Switzerland

Slovakia

The most successful hockey nations of the last decade or so. Let them bring players from whatever leagues they want. Seems pretty simple.

YES, EXACTLY! This is literally SO SIMPLE. God the NHL has some dummies working for it.

[Watermelons]

I think you're misinterpreting the article, I don't think anyone is suggesting that the NHL will prohibit Russia from bringing KHL guys.

But I agree, this should just be a standard, best-on-best international tournament. Don't try to fix what ain't broke.

From the article:

"There are enough NHL stars to populate six national teams: Canada, the U.S., Russia, Sweden, Finland and the Czech Republic. But it’s an eight-team tournament; do you bring in Switzerland? Germany? Slovakia? Latvia? None of them have the numbers to be total NHL rosters, without any Euro league or KHL players, and that’s the goal for this tournament: Have it controlled by the NHL and the NHLPA, and populated with its players. (Good luck with Russia, by the way.)"

I might have misinterpreted. But if so, then why would they even have to to consider adding two NHL all star teams? Even if there are two teams that can't be fully populated by NHL players, the majority of the players in the tournament would still be from the NHL. So they wouldn't need to add in two teams comprised of NHL all stars if they didn't want to exclude players in other leagues from the tournament?

[boxiebrown]

From the article:

"There are enough NHL stars to populate six national teams: Canada, the U.S., Russia, Sweden, Finland and the Czech Republic. But it’s an eight-team tournament; do you bring in Switzerland? Germany? Slovakia? Latvia? None of them have the numbers to be total NHL rosters, without any Euro league or KHL players, and that’s the goal for this tournament: Have it controlled by the NHL and the NHLPA, and populated with its players. (Good luck with Russia, by the way.)"

I might have misinterpreted. But if so, then why would they even have to to consider adding two NHL all star teams? Even if there are two teams that can't be fully populated by NHL players, the majority of the players in the tournament would still be from the NHL. So they wouldn't need to add in two teams comprised of NHL all stars if they didn't want to exclude players in other leagues from the tournament?

Well i don't think it's about "excluding" altogether as much as it is about maximizing the number of NHL players. Which is why they wouldn't want to invite smaller teams like Slovakia and Switzerland. But I agree, either way it is stupid.

[Watermelons]

Well i don't think it's about "excluding" altogether as much as it is about maximizing the number of NHL players. Which is why they wouldn't want to invite smaller teams like Slovakia and Switzerland. But I agree, either way it is stupid.

Then again, it is the NHL and they do a lot of stupid stuff. Probably the reason why the NHL is the 4th most popular league in the states after the NFL, MLB and the NBA.

- Unequal conferences that result in some teams having a better chance at making the playoffs

- Deciding to punish teams AFTER they signed perfectly legal contracts and then reducing the punishment for the Devils after Kovalchuk left

- Expanding teams to markets that have zero interest in hockey over hockey-mad cities (and using the revenue from big name teams to subsidize)

- Inconsistent suspensions and fines for dirty plays (likely the worst department of player safety in all major sports leagues?)

- The most inconsistent reffing ever...and it gets even worse in the playoffs. It's so obvious at times that the NHL is trying to fix the outcomes of games

And the list goes on and on.

[Tragoedia]

A team comprised of cuts doesn't sound that appealing to me, but a team of players from countries who aren't represented does. There are a number of players out there good enough from countries who lack the quantity to make a competitive team. Canada B sounds lame though. A team with Hossa, Kopitar, Chara, and Halak could be competitive. The question is the 8th team. What would the 8th team look like?