The NBA made a massive splash in the North American sports world last season with their in-season tournament. While controversial among fans and players alike prior to the competition, reviews following the money-printing event have been mostly positive.
The tournament has been called “an unqualified success” by Sports Illustrated, and though it wasn’t perfect and there are definitely tweaks to be made like the bold court painting, it looks like the NBA’s in-season tournament is here to stay.
The NHL doesn’t appear to be close to implementing something similar, though the Four Nations Faceoff does echo some of the same themes. However, the NHL doesn’t need to do something as nuclear to the schedule as the NBA did to theirs to have more in-season intrigue and competition.
The In-season Canada Cup
Last year, I wrote about how the NHL could implement in-season tournaments to help grow the game, revenue, intrigue, and fun during the regular season. The NHL hasn’t come around to the idea just yet, but starting this season, we’ll be tracking progress and standings on the in-season Canada Cup!
For those of you tuned into Canadian hockey history, you’ll remember the Canada Cup as an international hockey championship held five times between 1976 and 1992. Usually featuring Canada and the Soviet Union, several other nations participated including the United States of America, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Sweden, and West Germany. Canada won the Cup four times and the USSR once.
My idea is to bring back the Canada Cup in a completely different form.
How the in-season Canada Cup works
Here’s how the tournament works.
The Canada Cup would be awarded to the Canadian team that finished the regular season with the best record against all the other Canadian teams.
This would require no additional games added to the schedule, so the NHL would not have to worry about teams playing an uneven number of games, and it would benefit the NHL and the Canadian teams immensely.
Rivalries between all seven Canadian franchises would be instantly revived and recharged, each game featuring two Canadian teams would have much higher stakes that would lead to a much higher quality of hockey, and fans would be even more invested in these games both in the arena and at home. Despite making up only seven of the league’s 32 teams, the Canadian franchises account for $11B in franchise value, and bring in $1.5B in revenue every single year, according to the latest data from Forbes.
Canadian teams are hugely profitable, and this is an easy way to capitalize on that fandom to generate more revenue.
It would be easy to implement, and has literally no downside.
In-season Canada Cup schedule
This may surprise you, but the seven Canadian teams play each other almost the exact same number of times this season.
Here’s how the schedule looks for the 2024–25 season:
| TOR | MTL | OTT | WPG | EDM | CGY | VAN | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TOR | X | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| MTL | 4 | X | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| OTT | 3 | 4 | X | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| WPG | 2 | 2 | 2 | X | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| EDM | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | X | 3 | 3 |
| CGY | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | X | 4 |
| VAN | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 | X |
| Total | 15 | 16 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 16 | 16 |
Each team plays either 15 or 16 games against the other Canadian teams for a surprisingly balanced schedule. To really make this work, an additional game between Toronto and Ottawa and Winnipeg and Edmonton would be nice, but we’ll just continue based on this schedule.
In-Season Canada Cup Standings
The current standings would look like this:
| Team | Pts | Pts% | GP | W | L | O | GF | GA | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CGY | 4 | 1.00 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 6 | 4 |
| MTL | 4 | 1.00 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 4 |
| WPG | 2 | 1.00 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| VAN | 1 | 0.50 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 6 | -1 |
| TOR | 0 | 0.00 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | -1 |
| OTT | 0 | 0.00 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | -3 |
| EDM | 0 | 0.00 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 10 | -9 |
Surprisingly, the Flames and Canadiens are atop the leaderboard with a perfect 2–0 record against their Canadian opponents through one week of the season. The Flames have scored a whopping 10 goals as well.
The Oilers are at the bottom with zero points and a brutal -9 goal differential.
Your Maple Leafs are sitting in fifth with no points yet, but only a -1 goal differential. If we went by expected wins, the Leafs would be 1–0, bumping down the Canadiens (if only this were true).
The Canada Cup is a no-brainer
This idea would bring back an iconic trophy from hockey’s past, capitalizing on older fan’s nostalgia and igniting a new passion for the Canada Cup among younger fans.
It would require zero changes to the NHL schedule aside from ensuring Canadian teams have the same number of games against the others, and has unlimited benefits.
In my eyes, this type of Cup is a no-brainer. It will grow the game at home, stoke rivalries, and most importantly generate revenue for the NHL. Right now, playoff spots are up for grabs. But as the season wears on, teams who find themselves near the bottom of the standings simply don’t draw as much attention as they can. Montreal and Toronto are going to play each other on April 12, just days before the conclusion of the 2024–25 NHL season. In all likelihood, this game is going to be utterly meaningless. But, with the Canada Cup on the line, it doesn’t have to be.
We’ll be updating the Canada Cup standings every week on the site. Tune in to see how the Canadian franchises are doing and who will take home the illustrious trophy at the end of the season.
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