Qualifying tournament could be used for 2024 World Cup of Hockey

It's expected that the IIHF, NHL and NHLPA will hold the next edition of the World Cup of Hockey in February 2024. It's likely to involve eight nations and there won't be a Team North America U23 or Team Europe, as they opt for a more traditional format.

According to TSN's Darren Dreger, there may be a qualifying event in August of 2023 for some European nations. Although, it's still unclear how the spots will be allocated.

There are several ways the IIHF and the NHL could go with this in terms of who gets an automatic berth in the tournament, and who has to play for a spot. Let's take a look at two options, based on my opinion.

Option A: Canada, United States, along with the top-four ranked European nations (by the IIHF) qualify automatically. As of right now, those four European nations would be Finland, Russia (if allowed), Germany, Czechia. That would leave two open spots through a qualifying tournament.

That qualifying tournament could feature the next six ranked European countries, who would be placed into two groups of three. Those six nations would be Sweden, Switzerland, Slovakia, Latvia, Norway, and Denmark. The winner of each group, following a double round-robin, would qualify for the 2024 World Cup of Hockey

Option B: Canada, Untied States, along with the top-two ranked European nations qualify automatically. Those two nations would be Finland and Russia (again, if allowed). That would open up four spots in the qualifying tournament.

The qualifying tournament would feature the next eight ranked European nations, who would be placed into two groups of four. Those eight nations would be Germany, Czechia, Sweden, Switzerland, Slovakia, Latvia, Norway, and Denmark. The top-two in each group, following the round-robin, would qualify for the 2024 World Cup of Hockey.

Hockey fans across the globe should be very excited for the return of the World Cup and for best-on-best international competition, something we haven't had since the 2016 World Cup.

Source: Insider Trading - TSN

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