{"id":163383,"date":"2025-08-19T01:31:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T01:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/163383\/"},"modified":"2025-08-19T01:31:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T01:31:11","slug":"nhl-analyst-calls-for-champions-league-style-global-tournament-to-replace-world-cup-of-hockey-nhl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/163383\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL analyst calls for Champions League-style global tournament to replace World Cup of Hockey | NHL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"NHLAnalyst Mark Lazerus proposes a Champions League-style tournament for NHL teams (Getty Images) The NHL<\/a>\u2019s next big international showcase may not look like the World Cup of Hockey after all. While the league has already confirmed plans for a 2028 edition, analyst Mark Lazerus believes fans deserve something bolder\u2014a club-based global midseason tournament that mirrors soccer\u2019s UEFA Champions League.<\/p>\n

A Champions League-style format for hockey clubs instead of national teams<\/p>\n

Lazerus argued that fans are hungry for top-tier international hockey but not necessarily in the traditional country-versus-country format. Instead, he envisions NHL franchises facing elite overseas clubs in competitive matchups.\u201cI want a UEFA Champions League or Club World Cup-style global midseason tournament between teams, not between countries,\u201d Lazerus said. \u201c\u2026And I want them to mean it.\u201dHe painted a picture of marquee showdowns like the Florida Panthers taking on Sweden\u2019s Fr\u00f6lunda or the Edmonton Oilers squaring off against SKA St. Petersburg. The appeal, he says, lies in the uniqueness of NHL teams battling clubs that dominate Europe and Russia, offering fans fresh rivalries beyond the usual regular-season grind.Lazerus pointed to February\u2019s 4 Nations Face-Off\u2014featuring Canada, USA, Sweden, and Finland\u2014as proof that fans crave more international events. \u201cIf the 4 Nations Face-Off showed us anything, it\u2019s that people are clamoring for high-quality international hockey,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Could this idea reshape hockey\u2019s global future?<\/p>\n

While commissioner Gary Bettman remains committed to alternating Olympics and World Cups, Lazerus believes a club-based event would generate greater fan engagement and financial upside. He noted that millions tune in for soccer\u2019s Champions League final, and though hockey won\u2019t hit those numbers, it could surpass the modest cable ratings of NHL regular-season games.\u201cThey can sure get more than the 600,000 or so who watch a regular-season game on cable in the dog days of the season,\u201d Lazerus said. He suggested holding the event every other February, filling the gap between Olympic years, and boosting teams\u2019 \u201cnational and international profiles \u2014 not to mention their bottom lines.\u201dAlso Read: Matthew Tkachuk injury update: Panthers star unlikely to sit out full season despite surgery option and Olympic concerns<\/a>For now, the World Cup of Hockey remains on the NHL\u2019s schedule. But if fan demand and creative ideas like Lazerus\u2019 keep gaining traction, the league may face mounting pressure to rethink how international hockey fits into its future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Analyst Mark Lazerus proposes a Champions League-style tournament for NHL teams (Getty Images) The NHL\u2019s next big international…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":163384,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[377],"tags":[28320,28321,5,3718,28324,6436,28323,4,28245,28322,17918],"class_list":{"0":"post-163383","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hockey","8":"tag-champions-league-style-tournament","9":"tag-global-midseason-tournament","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-hockey-fans","12":"tag-hockey-rivalries","13":"tag-international-hockey","14":"tag-mark-lazerus-nhl-analyst","15":"tag-nhl","16":"tag-nhl-franchises","17":"tag-nhl-international-events","18":"tag-nhl-world-cup-of-hockey"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115052850918177395","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}