(Sunrise) The new 4 Nations Showdown tournament will be presented in February, and four of these matches will take place in Montreal, at the Bell Center.
This was confirmed by Gary Bettman on the sidelines of the first game of the Stanley Cup final, Saturday evening at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise.
This new tournament – a sort of modified version of the Hockey World Cup tournament, last presented in 2016 – will feature four teams: Canada, the United States, Sweden and Finland.
The competition, presented from February 12 to 20, 2025, will begin with four games at the Bell Center, and will then move to Boston, with the last three games taking place at TD Garden, including the final on February 20.
“Montreal and Boston are two emblematic cities, and it was important for us to be present both in Canada and in the United States during this tournament,” explained Bill Daly, number two in the National Hockey League. We have 32 teams, but these are two cities that stood out. »
The tournament will begin in Montreal on February 12 with a first match, pitting Canada against Sweden. Then, the Bell Center ice will host matches between the United States and Finland, Finland and Sweden, and finally, between the United States and Canada.
The composition of the teams is obviously not known at the moment, but as of June 28, the four teams involved will each have to reveal the names of the first six players chosen.
“The Bell Center is one of the greatest places in hockey history, and Montreal is an incredible city,” said Marty Walsh, executive director of the NHL Players’ Association. It’s going to be incredible to show games there, as well as at TD Garden, where we will show two games on Presidents Day, February 17. »
As for the reason for such a tournament in such a format, which for the moment replaces the previous eight-team World Cup, Gary Bettman was somewhat evasive, citing among other things the more limited number of players from other countries.
Russian players, absent from International Ice Hockey Federation competitions due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, will also be absent.
“You can only do what you can under the circumstances, and whether it’s this tournament or the World Cup, people are going to have an opinion about what could have been done differently,” he said. explained the NHL commissioner. But all the time spent on this project led us to believe that it was the best option at this time. »
The salary cap increases
The NHL salary cap will increase by $4.5 million to $88 million next season. The league and the NHL Players’ Association made the announcement on Saturday.
This is the first significant increase in several years. Increases of one million, to $82.5m for 2022-23 and $83.5m for 2023-24, had taken place following the financial consequences of the pandemic.
The salary floor next season will be $65 million. Clubs will be able to hire free agents from 1er July.
With The Canadian Press