MANALAPAN, Fla. — The World Cup of Hockey is coming to Alberta.
In a joint NHL/NHLPA press conference, held after the first of three general manager meetings at the Eau Palm Beach Resort and Spa scheduled for this week, commissioner Gary Bettman announced Calgary and Edmonton will host the North American portion of the fourth-ever World Cup.
Bettman, who toured the new Scotia Place construction site earlier this month in Calgary, came away from his visit saying, “I don’t think there’ll be a nicer building anywhere than that.”
The new $1.2-billion event centre, located across from the Saddledome, opens in September of 2027, five months before the World Cup gets underway, and leaders from the NHL and NHLPA agree it — along with Rogers Place in Edmonton and the O2 Arena in Prague, Czechia — will be the perfect place for hockey to be exhibited at its highest level.
“We’re going to be in extraordinarily strong, state-of-the-art buildings for all of it,” said Bettman, “so when you put the whole package together, particularly the Alberta component, it really was a bid that stood out and was gratifying to see.”
The first seven games — six round-robin and one elimination game — of the North American bracket will be played at Scotia Place, while the O2 Arena will host the European bracket for that portion of the tournament.
Then the semifinals and final will move to Rogers Place.
Bettman said the participants for the first World Cup since 2016 have yet to be determined, adding that no decision has been made yet on whether Russia will be among them.
“We’re going to see how things develop. Time will tell,” Bettman said. “There isn’t an immediate need or urgency to make that decision, so let’s see how things play out.”
NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said other logistical elements — from ticketing to scheduling to selling the media rights — will also need to be sorted between now and the Feb. 2028 start date. However, Daly did confirm that the tournament will be held over 13 days, that the NHL will likely shut down operations for 17 days, that the NHL is in positive discussions with the International Ice Hockey Federation about rival leagues lending players to complete various participating teams, and that the final (and possibly all elimination games) will feature five-on-five overtime (if need be) until a goal is scored and a winner crowned.
“It’s NHL rules,” said Daly.
The league will also have control over all intellectual property, which hasn’t been the case during the Olympics since NHLers began participating in them in Nagano, Japan, back in 1998.
The first World Cup was held two years prior to that, and since then, the appetite for international best-on-best has only grown.
The hockey world was starved of it between the 2016 World Cup and the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off, which was the first NHL/NHLPA event that guaranteed international best-on-best would be held in the form of either the World Cup or Olympics every two years.
“It’s great for our players. Our players want this,” said NHLPA director Marty Walsh. “It’s wonderful for our fans. It’s great for the growth of hockey.”
He pointed out how great it’ll be for Prague’s David Pastrnak, who was disappointed Czechia couldn’t be among the teams participating in the 4 Nations Face-Off.
Pastrnak was featured in the video announcement of the host cities, which was released just before Monday’s joint press conference.
Calgary’s Cale Makar and Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid were also featured in the announcement, expressing their excitement for Alberta.
Bettman said the exposure will be huge for the province.
“If you look at the cities of Calgary and Edmonton and the province of Alberta having a great history of tourism — you have the Stampede in Calgary, we’ve spent a few Junes in Edmonton recently, people come to the Canadian Rockies — for the province, this is going to be a way to get even more visibility,” he added.
Walsh, Daly and NHLPA assistant executive director Ron Hainsey all expressed confidence the event would surpass expectations.
“We think we can do a really good job of bringing hockey to another level through the visibility this event will have,” Bettman concluded.
