World Cup of Hockey

World Cup of Hockey

Current season, competition or edition: 2016 World Cup of Hockey
Logo of 2016 event
Sport	Ice hockey
Founded	1992
No. of teams	8
Most recent champion(s)	Canada (2nd title)
Official website	www.wch2016.com

The World Cup of Hockey is an international ice hockey tournament. Inaugurated in 1996, it was the successor to the previous Canada Cup, which ran from 1976 to 1991. The tournament occurred twice on an irregular basis, with the United States winning in 1996 and Canada winning in 2004. A third edition was played in 2016, after which the tournament will, for the first time ever, be held on a regular basis every four years, alternating biannually with a planned all-star series between North America and Europe.

The World Cup of Hockey is organized by the National Hockey League (NHL) and the National Hockey League Players' Association (NHLPA), unlike the annual World Ice Hockey Championships and quadrennial Olympic tournament, both run by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). World Cup games are played under NHL rules and not those of the IIHF, and the tournament occurs prior to the NHL pre-season, allowing for all the NHL's players to be available, unlike the World Championships, which overlaps with the NHL's Stanley Cup playoffs.

The World Cup of Hockey was preceded by the Canada Cup, which began in 1976 in a combined effort from Doug Fisher of Hockey Canada and Alan Eagleson of the NHL Players' Association. Taking inspiration from soccer's FIFA World Cup, Eagleson proposed a new tournament that would bring together all the top hockey–playing nations. After successful negotiations with hockey officials from the Soviet Union in September 1974, Eagleson began arranging the Canada Cup tournament, which debuted in 1976. It was the first international ice hockey tournament that allowed hockey nations to field their top players, as the Winter Olympics was a strictly amateur competition and the annual World Championships clashed with the Stanley Cup playoffs.