Those changes are going to be applied to the upcoming Worlds in Finland (2022), Russia (2023), and Czechia (2024), which will all have their games played on a 60 meters long by 26 meters wide instead of a 60 meter long by 30 meters wide ice surface.
Even though it will be still up to each future World Championship host to decide on the ice width, in order to make the event more attractive for players from the NHL, the narrower ice could prevail in the long term. In addition, it could make it more likely for a senior World Championship to be held once again in North America. The last one was hosted by Canada (Halifax, Quebec City) in 2008.
"The future is having the best players of the world playing on the small ice. Why should we not be playing on the small ice?," IIHF president René Fasel told the media at the press conference on the final day of the 2019 World Junior Championship in Vancouver back in January.
( 27 September 2019 | rlu" )
