World Cup of Hockey won't be held in 2024

There will not be a World Cup of Hockey in 2024. 

The NHL and National Hockey League Players’ Association announced that in a joint release on Friday afternoon. 

“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.”

The NHL and NHLPA, and the IIHF were expected to meet this week at the Hockey Hall of Fame Induction to discuss such things. 

The NHL had been hoping to hold a best-on-best international tournament in 2024 that would both fill NHL players appetites for Olympic Hockey and drive revenue for the league. But the “current environment” mentioned in the release is an admittance that Russian's invasion of the Ukraine altered NHL plans. 

The NHL was looking at alternative plans for Russian players, potentially having them play without a Russian flag, but other European countries were staunchly against that. 

To be frank, the reality of a World Cup in 2025 still hinges on Russia's geo-political decisions.