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NHL players are just now getting paid for participating in the World Cup of Hockey

By Ian Oland

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August 17, 2017 11:25 pm

Eleven months after the World Cup of Hockey concluded, NHL teams are now paying players their share of the profits.

Wednesday, TSN’s Rick Westhead reported that the 184 players who participated in the tournament were paid $86k each. Meanwhile, the NHL players who did not play in the tournament but spent all 186 days on an NHL roster last season pocketed $10k. Players who were not on an NHL roster for the entire season received a pro-rated amount.

The NHL and NHLPA evenly split the $44 million total profit. The Hockey News’ Ken Campbell reports that of the $22 million the NHLPA received, 70 percent went to players who played in the World Cup of Hockey.

After a 12-year hiatus, the World Cup of Hockey returned in September. Team Canada won the eight-team tournament, defeating Team Europe 2-0 in the best-of-three gold medal series.

Nine Capitals players participated in the tournament including Nicklas Backstrom (Sweden), John Carlson (United States), Philipp Grubuaer (Europe), Braden Holtby (Canada), Evgeny Kuznetsov (Russia), Matt Niskanen (USA), Dmitry Orlov (Russia), TJ Oshie (United States), and Alex Ovechkin (Russia). Caps head coach Barry Trotz also served as an assistant coach under Mike Babcock for Team Canada.

The tourney, while leaps and bounds more financially successful than the 2004 event, did not end up being the massive money generator that the NHL and NHLPA originally envisioned. It was also not heavily attended.

More from Ken Campbell:

So it turns out that regardless of what the final numbers are, the World Cup was not quite the cash cow that was originally predicted. A total profit of less than $40 million (it ended up being $44 million) is significantly lower than was projected when the event was first conceived, perhaps as much as 50 percent lower. Does that mean there is room to grow for the World Cup or did both sides overestimate the revenues an event such as this one would produce? That’s probably the question that everyone on both sides are trying to figure out. From the league’s side, that total represents only a little more than $600,000 per team and that’s only if the league distributes the money to the teams.

On one hand, if the World Cup is part of the international hockey strategy going forward, it might need time to grow and gain identity as an event. On the other hand, it was the first off-season best-on-best tournament in 12 years, so there should have been no shortage of hunger for the event. All the games were held in hockey-mad Toronto and we’re led to believe that all the ticket packages were sold out. But there were large swaths of empty seats, even for two-game final between Canada and Team Europe, and the luxury boxes were essentially deserted for the tournament. Tickets were sold for a small fraction of face value on the secondary market and a viewing party outside the Air Canada Centre for Game 1 of the final drew only a handful of people and was cancelled for Game 2.

The NHL and NHLPA have agreed to play the World Cup of Hockey every four years.

“We’re committed to multiple tournaments on a regular schedule,” NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said in March 2016. “Yes, we are committed for ’20.”

But in May, it was reported by TSN’s Gord Miller that if the NHLPA reopens the current collective bargaining agreement in 2020 (when both the NHLPA and National Hockey League have opt-outs), the tournament is unlikely to be played.

The current CBA is set to expire in 2023.

Photo via @capitals