North American ice hockey’s NHL has announced Canada’s Calgary and Edmonton, as well as Prague in the Czech Republic, as the three host cities for the return of the World Cup of Hockey international tournament in 2028.
Scotia Place, the new home of the NHL’s Calgary Flames starting from 2027, and Rogers Place, home of the league’s Edmonton Oilers, will serve as the tournament’s North American venues, while Prague’s O2 Arena will be the European venue.
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Calgary and Prague will host seven games each, with six of those tie-ups played in a round robin format and the seventh as a knock-out game. Edmonton will host both semi-final games and the final.
The NHL announced the tournament’s return last year as part of its plans to establish a regular cycle of international ice hockey competitions for top players on the back of NHL players returning to the Winter Olympics for the just-completed Milano-Cortina edition.
Under the plans, the league will alternate World Cups and Olympic participation every two years, ensuring top players can compete on the global stage. During those tournaments, the league will shut down to allow players to participate.
At the time, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said a bidding process for host cities and venues would start later that year and that he anticipated at least eight teams participating in the tournament.
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By GlobalDataAnnouncing the host cities, Bettman said: “There is no international competition in sports that matches the passion, skill, and excitement of hockey's best-on-best coming together to represent their countries – last year's 4 Nations Face-Off and the recent Winter Olympics were just the latest example.
“We at the National Hockey League and our partners at the National Hockey League Players' Association can't wait to bring the World Cup of Hockey to 2028 to three spectacular venues in three cities that shine when staging big events.”
International ice hockey competitions with NHL players were a more frequent fixture in the calendar throughout the 1990s and 2000s, but fell away when the league stopped sending players to the Winter Olympics after the 2014 edition and the last World Cup of Hockey in 2016.
The only international option that was left open for NHL players to participate was the IIHF Men’s World Championships, but the tournament is usually held during the Stanley Cup Playoffs, making it difficult for top players to join their respective national teams.
The 4 Nations Face-Off in 2025 became the first international event involving NHL players since the World Cup of Hockey in 2016. The nine-day competition, which featured NHL stars from Finland, Sweden, Canada, and the US, was played in February last year.
The return of the World Cup does not involve the IIHF international governing body, which means only NHL players can compete, and federations will not be allowed to include players competing in European leagues.
The World Cup will also use NHL-sized rinks, rules, and officials rather than international regulations.
The competition has only been played three times since it succeeded the Canada Cup, with the US beating Canada in the final of the inaugural edition in 1996, and Canada triumphing over Finland in the second in 2004.
However, attempts to stage the tournament in 2020 and 2021 were thwarted by labor issues between the NHL and the NHLPA.
A mooted 2022 edition was then shelved due to a clash with the Winter Olympics in Beijing. A decision was subsequently made by the NHL and the International Olympic Committee not to release players for the flagship event due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Then in 2022, the NHL and NHLPA again shelved plans to stage the tournament in 2024.
While the pair did not give a reason for the move at the time, reports suggested it was taken due to issues created by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with questions over whether players from Russia should be allowed to participate.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the country has been banned from international play in all age categories by the IIHF. In February 2025, the NHL and IIHF extended that ban through 2025-26, citing security concerns.
