Could best-0n-best hockey finally find its way back to Vancouver, 18 years after Sidney Crosby&#8217;s golden goal sealed Canada&#8217;s victory at the 2010 Winter Olympics?
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On <a href="https://www.sportsnet.ca/podcasts/32-thoughts/">Friday&#8217;s edition of 32 Thoughts &#8211; The Podcast,</a> Sportsnet&#8217;s Elliotte Friedman revealed that Vancouver is among a number of Western teams interested in hosting games for the return of the <a href="https://canucksarmy.com/news/nhl-announces-return-world-cup-hockey-2028-2032">World Cup of Hockey in 2028.</a>
However, he notes that with the NHL showing interest in hosting games in Europe, it may pose complications for holding games in the West:
<blockquote>&#8220;I&#8217;ve heard there&#8217;s interest is West North America. I&#8217;ve heard Seattle is interested, I&#8217;ve heard Edmonton is interested, I&#8217;ve heard Vancouver is interested. One of the biggest challenges is if you want to put games in Europe, then all of a sudden, you&#8217;re really far away from each other. There is a bias towards the Eastern United States or Eastern Canada if you&#8217;re gonna have games in Europe. I don&#8217;t know how they are going to feel about the idea of Europe and Western Canada.&#8221;</blockquote>
Earlier this week, NHL commissioner <a href="https://www.nhl.com/news/world-cup-of-hockey-to-return-in-february-2028">Gary Bettman announced</a> that the World Cup of Hockey is set to return 12 years after it was last contested, with cities having the option to bid for games. The announcement coincides with confirmation that NHL players will continue to participate in the Olympics, with the goal of having best-on-best hockey every two years, alternating between World Cup and Olympics tournaments.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
Gary Bettman officially announces the 2028 World Cup of Hockey.
Olympics and World Cup are going to rotate every two years starting in 2026 Olympics, 2028 WCH, 2030 Olympics, 2032 WCH, etc.
Locations TBD, bids will be solicited by NHL/NHLPA.
&mdash; Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) <a href="https://twitter.com/frank_seravalli/status/1889817111922630893?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 12, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
One example the NHL could look to for hosting a tournament in different regions is the <a href="https://www.mlb.com/world-baseball-classic/history/2023">2023 World Baseball Classic,</a> which was held jointly in Taiwan, Japan, and the United States. Pool play was played in four cities, with each group assigned one of Taichung, Tokyo, Phoenix, or Miami. The knockout round was then split between Tokyo and Miami – with teams remaining in Asia or America, depending on where their pool games were staged. After a multi-day break, the semi-finals and finals were then held at LoanDepot Park in Miami. While the international status of many of these players facilitated this style of tournament, it shows the feasibility of staging a competition in this way and offers the NHL something to consider when looking at Western markets.
Vancouver&#8217;s home stadium, Rogers Arena, was re-branded as Canada Hockey Place for the 2010 Winter Olympics, hosting nearly all the men&#8217;s games and the final four on the women&#8217;s side. The rest of the games were hosted at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre (fka UBC Thunderbird Arena) under the name of UBC Winter Sports Centre.
The upcoming World Cup is <a href="https://x.com/RobTheHockeyGuy/status/1889818218858160462">confirmed to feature eight nations and no gimmick teams,</a> like the U-23 North America or the Rest of Europe teams that featured in the last edition.
Up to now, the competition has taken place three times on an irregular schedule, hosted jointly by Philadelphia and Montreal in 1996, then twice by Toronto in 2004 and 2016. Canada is the defending champion from that final contest nine years ago, with Crosby being named MVP with a tournament-high 10 points.

Could best-0n-best hockey finally find its way back to Vancouver, 18 years after Sidney Crosby's golden goal sealed Canada's victory at the 2010 Winter Olympics?
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On <a href="https://www.sportsnet.ca/podcasts/32-thoughts/">Friday's edition of 32 Thoughts - The Podcast,</a> Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman revealed that Vancouver is among a number of Western teams interested in hosting games for the return of the <a href="https://canucksarmy.com/news/nhl-announces-return-world-cup-hockey-2028-2032">World Cup of Hockey in 2028.</a>

However, he notes that with the NHL showing interest in hosting games in Europe, it may pose complications for holding games in the West:
<blockquote>"I've heard there's interest is West North America. I've heard Seattle is interested, I've heard Edmonton is interested, I've heard Vancouver is interested. One of the biggest challenges is if you want to put games in Europe, then all of a sudden, you're really far away from each other. There is a bias towards the Eastern United States or Eastern Canada if you're gonna have games in Europe. I don't know how they are going to feel about the idea of Europe and Western Canada."</blockquote>
Earlier this week, NHL commissioner <a href="https://www.nhl.com/news/world-cup-of-hockey-to-return-in-february-2028">Gary Bettman announced</a> that the World Cup of Hockey is set to return 12 years after it was last contested, with cities having the option to bid for games. The announcement coincides with confirmation that NHL players will continue to participate in the Olympics, with the goal of having best-on-best hockey every two years, alternating between World Cup and Olympics tournaments.

https://twitter.com/frank_seravalli/status/1889817111922630893

One example the NHL could look to for hosting a tournament in different regions is the <a href="https://www.mlb.com/world-baseball-classic/history/2023">2023 World Baseball Classic,</a> which was held jointly in Taiwan, Japan, and the United States. Pool play was played in four cities, with each group assigned one of Taichung, Tokyo, Phoenix, or Miami. The knockout round was then split between Tokyo and Miami – with teams remaining in Asia or America, depending on where their pool games were staged. After a multi-day break, the semi-finals and finals were then held at LoanDepot Park in Miami. While the international status of many of these players facilitated this style of tournament, it shows the feasibility of staging a competition in this way and offers the NHL something to consider when looking at Western markets.

Vancouver's home stadium, Rogers Arena, was re-branded as Canada Hockey Place for the 2010 Winter Olympics, hosting nearly all the men's games and the final four on the women's side. The rest of the games were hosted at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre (fka UBC Thunderbird Arena) under the name of UBC Winter Sports Centre.

The upcoming World Cup is <a href="https://x.com/RobTheHockeyGuy/status/1889818218858160462">confirmed to feature eight nations and no gimmick teams,</a> like the U-23 North America or the Rest of Europe teams that featured in the last edition.

Up to now, the competition has taken place three times on an irregular schedule, hosted jointly by Philadelphia and Montreal in 1996, then twice by Toronto in 2004 and 2016. Canada is the defending champion from that final contest nine years ago, with Crosby being named MVP with a tournament-high 10 points.

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