With the World Cup of Hockey set to follow next year's Olympics, the new Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers rinks could be candidates for NHL/NHLPA's next big tournament
After a thrilling rekindling of the Canada vs. USA hockey rivalry last week, the 4-Nations Face-off certainly caught the attention of the fans who have been craving best-on-best international hockey since the end of NHL Olympic participation in 2014 and the less traditional one-off World Cup of Hockey in 2016.
Well, the fans are going to get more of what they want. Not only are Canada and Team USA meeting in Thursday's 4-Nations final, the NHL and NHLPA announced last week they were committed to the staggered addition of the World Cup of Hockey two years after each Winter Olympics are held — starting with the winter of 2028.
That timing could be good for Calgary, with the Flames scheduled to open their brand new, state-of-the-art event center — Scotia Place — in the 2027-28 season. Incidentally, the Edmonton arena Rogers Place hasn't hosted a significant NHL event yet in its relatively short existence.
“We couldn’t be more excited about making a reality Olympics-World Cups-Olympics-World Cups on a regular schedule of the best hockey players in the world representing their countries," NHL Commissioner Bettman said before the opening of the 4-Nations Face-off. "We know the full-blown World Cup — of which this (the 4-Nations Face-off) is simply a sampler — is going to be sensational.”
Bids on hosting games will be open fairly soon and insiders have suggested Calgary/Edmonton would be a favorable option given the opportunity to highlight their newer event centers.
It would also help if the Calgary Flames rebuilding plan works as they have hoped with an eye on being more competitive by the time they replace the Saddledome and the new arena opens its doors.
“The hockey meccas of Toronto and Montréal stand out," Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff said last week. "However, there has been buzz recently about a New York/New Jersey bid, support in Minnesota and Chicago, as well as a potential Edmonton/Calgary play, with the Flames’ new Scotia Place slated to open in Oct. 2027.”
