Bringing The World Stage To NHL All-Star Weekend

Why The NHL Should Consider A New Format

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Over the last number of years, hockey fans have been looking forward to the 2022 Olympics. It was set to be the first time that the hockey world would have a best on best tournament in 8 years. Unfortunately, with the current status of COVID, the NHL has backed out of the competition and players will no longer be able to attend.

With this news, some have suggested that it should be of utmost importance for the league to recreate the World Cup of hockey to ensure the current group of superstars have the opportunity to play with, and against, one another whilst representing their country. This notion was quickly put to rest as the league stated require 18 months or so to put on an event of that magnitude.

What now?

Well, why not the All-Star game? Fans have often lost interest in the contest and each year it is a constant debate on how to make the game relevant. The format has been ever-changing and at one point they had an international-like format where Gretzky and Team North America took on Jaromir Jagr and Team World. Let’s go back to it! With the current format already being 4 teams competing in 3 on 3, let’s go with Team Canada, Team USA, Team Russia, and Team Europe.

Sure, the numbers of each team would need some tweaking and maybe a better division of the European teams but you get the just. This is a marquee event for the NHL and their partners. By creating more hype around the event and competition, it’ll finally bring the All-Star game back to must-watch hockey.

Building on this, the NHL is looking to grow the game and leverage their newfound international stars. This would provide a great entry point for foreign fans to get in on NHL action, and the same can be said for international partnerships. If this format were to be successful, why not take the competition international? The planning and resources would be similar to a typical All-Star game but the difference is the experience you’re creating and the markets you’re touching. Picture the All-Star game taking place in Davos.

There’s an endless amount of options of how to improve the All-Star festivities and we can write on and on about it if we wanted to get into further detail. But, for the current timing and the lack of international hockey fans have been able to take in at the highest level, I think this would be a great alternative.

Published: January 28, 2022 - Issue 24 of The Sport Marketeer