Full rules for World Cup of Hockey released, and it proves the NHL learned its lesson

Over the past 18 months, the NHL has featured at the Four Nations Face Off and 2026 Olympic Games, and with the USA and Canada tied at 1-1, competitiveness in mens best-on-best hockey has never been better in the history of the sport.

After the all-time classic Gold Medal Game between the two teams, fans are incredibly excited for more, and now we know some more details about the next time we'll see it happen.

In February of 2028, an eight team bracket for the World Cup of Hockey will take place between Prague and Alberta, with the NHL once again prioritizing best-on-best hockey moving forward.

As we've always known, the event was set to be an eight-team bracket, and along with the announcement of the host cities, we now know that there will be two four-team brackets for the tournament.

With Russia's status still up in the air, it's likely that those teams will be Canada, United States, Sweden, Finland, Czechia, Slovakia and a combination of two of Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, and now we know more about the format.

According to reports, these two brackets will see the top three teams of each come into a playoff round, with 2v3 battling in each with the teams then heading into a semi-finals battle.

Given how much the game has grown worldwide, things aren't as guaranteed as they once were, and with so much talent, this is the perfect format for the league, with hype once again building for the best-on-best hockey we've been craving for years.

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