Could An Expanded Women's World Cup Of Hockey Be Viable Every Four Years?

Professsional women's hockey has one of the longest offseasons of any sport. It does however, open the door for offseason events, particularly on the international stage. This year, the 2026 World Championship will be moved to November to serve as a preseason tournament ahead of the PWHL season.

The 2026 tournament will also, for the first time since the earliest tournaments, see two equal groups, not two tiered groups of the top ten teams in the world. With the event already shuffling between the top 13 nations in the world making appearances in recent seasons, and Russia set to return to international play the pool for women's hockey has never been deeper.Could it be time for women's hockey to open the door a little wider and host a Women's World Cup of Hockey every four years?

Placing it midway between Olympic years would be the obvious fit, and give global fans another reason to cheer. It could also be an opportunity to bring in more nations, expanding the reach to three pools of five, or four pools of four to make a 15-16 team tournament.The event would of course feature the world's top teams in USA, Canada, Czechia, Switzerland, Finland, Sweden, Germany, and Russia.

Those eight nations would be the cornerstone to any new event. Olympic MVP Caroline Harvey discusses being selected first overall in the PWHL DraftThe next tier of nations including Japan, Denmark, Hungary, France, Norway, Austria, Italy, and Slovakia would likely round out a 16 team tournament. There would undoubtedly be lopsided results in pool play, but it would also undoubtedly force participating nations to become more involved in women's hockey development.

Other nations including China, South Korea, Great Britain, and the Netherlands would be among those fighting for inclusion, and there are already Asian and soon-to-be European championships to help decide participants.Women's hockey wouldn't need to follow the same rules as every other tournament. While the top two teams move on to the playo