The NHL announced on Friday that the league, in conjunction with the NHL Players Association (NHLPA) have decided to pass on the World Cup of Hockey in 2024, citing that the current environment is not feasible to hold the event.

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TORONTO/NEW YORK (Nov. 11, 2022) – The National Hockey League Players’ Association (NHLPA) and the National Hockey League (NHL) today released the following statement regarding the World Cup of Hockey:

“Over the last year, the NHL and the NHLPA have been working on plans to conduct the next World Cup of Hockey, the premier international best-on-best hockey tournament, in February 2024. Unfortunately, in the current environment it is not feasible to hold the World Cup of Hockey at that time. We continue to plan for the next World Cup of Hockey, hopefully in February 2025.”

On August 24 NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said the NHL is “moving full steam ahead” and “continuing to have regular meetings” for the return of the World Cup of Hockey tournament in February of 2024. Daly made the comments at the NHL/NHLPA’s European Media Tour this afternoon in Paris, France.

“We’re out in market already moving ahead with plans for a February 2024 World Cup,” Daly said. “We’re still on schedule.”

Daly said the NHL and NHLPA are looking at a short list of markets to host games, including select European cities.

“We still want to play one pool in Europe, a preliminary round pool in Europe and a preliminary round pool in North America and move the semifinals and the final to a different city in North America likely,” he said. “I think that short list would universally encompass more traditional hockey markets.”

But Daly said recently at the NHL’s Board of Governors meetings in New York that a some countries have said they would not participate in the World Cup of Hockey if Russians were invited.

The tournament would likely take place across 15 days in February, with a day on the front end and a day on the back end built in for travel purposes.

The most recent World Cup of Hockey was held in September 2016 in Toronto with Canada defeating Team Europe in the best-of-three final.

Today’s announcement, although not specified, is most likely related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

**Breaking News** 🚨📰
Further to my news earlier ; @NHL and @NHLPA want participation of Russian players in the World Cup Of Hockey, that’s the biggest factor in the delay of the World Cup Of Hockey given the current world events. @espn @NHLNetwork @DraftKings #HockeyTwitter pic.twitter.com/BUscuEGky9

— Kevin Weekes (@KevinWeekes) November 11, 2022

By Jon Sorensen