IIHF officials met with the NHL and NHL Players Association (NHLPA) in Paris late last month to discuss organising the competition, which would feature at least eight national teams and games spread across North America and Europe.

These initial plans from the NHL and NHLPA were shown to Tardif and IIHF general secretary Matti Nurminen, leading to a meeting with National Federations, Hockey Europe and the Alliance of European Hockey Clubs on August 31 to discuss the World Cup of Hockey.

"Nothing has been agreed yet on the structure and dates of the event as well as the participating teams, this was a briefing session to understand from the NHL and the NHLPA what their initial plans are for the World Cup," said Tardif.

"It is the goal of the IIHF to develop an international playing calendar that works with all our members but also can ensure we have the opportunity to hold best-on-best events to showcase our sport to a wider audience.

"If the World Cup is to be organised we believe that it should be done in close cooperation and partnership between all relevant stakeholders and with clear long-term objectives to grow the game, whereas the current talks are concentrated mainly on the World Cup. 

"We look forward to having more constructive discussions among all the organisations involved."

The World Cup of Hockey was last held in 2016 in Toronto, with tournaments also held in 1996 and 2004.

The United States won the inaugural edition of the World Cup, with Canada claiming victory in the next two.

Previous editions were organised by the NHL and NHLPA, and not the IIHF, so used NHL rules rather than those of the IIHF.

They were able to call on the services of NHL players - widely viewed as the best in the world - which has not been the case at each of the last two Winter Olympic Games.

The NHL season also often clashes with the IIHF World Championship, as was the case this year when Finland won the tournament in May.