TORONTO — Get comfy and fall hard for that best-on-best buzz because, barring a massive change in plans, it appears the World Cup of Hockey will be a cyclical event for the foreseeable future.

The league already is getting expressions of interest from parties hoping to latch on to the NHL/NHLPA-run spectacle — rebooted, re-imagined, re-branded after a 12-year absence — for its (probable) second instalment in 2020.

“There have been a whole lot of people who have been interested in participating (in a hosting capacity). And what we’ve told everyone is that after this one is over we’re going to take a hard look,” NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr said Friday afternoon at the swanky Fairmont Royal York hotel.

“We’re going to do, as you would expect, some real evaluations, make some judgments as to when and where, whether we want to try and select a city and negotiate the way we did this time, whether we want to bid, whether we want to do it all in one place or spread it around. So, we’ll see.”

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, who joined Fehr on a hockey business panel at the Fairmont on the eve of the tournament’s first games, echoed his colleague’s vision for the World Cup.

“Our plan is to have this — or our intention is to have this (event) — on a regular basis,” Bettman said, “perhaps every four years.”

Here are three other takeaways from the panel discussion and the two interview scrums that followed:

PROUD TO BE FIRST IN VEGAS (JUST DON’T ASK ABOUT THE NFL)

The NHL is heading to Las Vegas for the 2017-18 season. No ifs, ands or buts.

Being the first major pro sports league in Sin City is a point of pride, too, with Bettman on Friday boasting about the NHL’s clear grasp of the Vegas market and its quirks.

“I think part of the issue is I’m not sure the other leagues understand Las Vegas as we have come to understand it,” he said. “There are 2.1 million people in Greater Las Vegas. They are, for the most part, not what you see on the strip when you go there and visit for a weekend. There are communities, there are families who put their kids in school, and they’re looking for the same things that you get in other cities.”

On Thursday, US $750 million in Nevada public money was recommended to be approved for a stadium-building project. Nothing happens overnight, of course, but the NHL may, one day, have company.

“We’ll be fine in Vegas,” Bettman said when asked to react to the NFL news. “I have no idea what the NFL is going to do and it has no impact on our plans.” All right, then.

Meanwhile, the NHL franchise’s moniker is still a work in progress.

The smart money appears to be on the Vegas team adopting a nickname focused around the word “Knights” — think Silver Knights, Golden Knights or Desert Knights.

Bettman says there has been no firm timeline extended to Bill Foley, the club’s majority owner, in regard to announcing a name.

“We’re working on it jointly,” he added. “Developing a name isn’t like picking (a name) out of a hat. There are a whole host of issues that need to be dealt with, not the least of which is trademark protection.”

BETTMAN EXTENDS OLIVE BRANCH TO FANS?

Let’s chalk this up as a shimmy in the right direction.

Last winter, Bettman offended a segment of the sport’s supporters when he opined that salary cap information (player salaries, contract terms, etc.) is not of particular interest to NHL fans.

When the topic of the NHL/NHLPA potentially launching a salary cap-related website was broached by Yahoo Sports, Bettman said he doesn’t “think it’s a resource we need to provide because I’m not sure fans are as focused on what players make as they are about their performance on the ice.” He added the media cares more about this info than the fans.

This would have been a non-story if it were not for the massive popularity of GeneralFanager.com, CapFriendly.com and, before it was shuttered due to the loss of its founder to cancer, CapGeek.com. (Oh, and the fact that literally every move an NHL team makes in the modern era relates to the salary cap.)

On Friday, Bettman conceded slightly.

“There may be (avid fan interest),” he said. “But we don’t think that we (the league) should be the authoritative source on what our clubs are doing with their player contracts. That’s a club decision. There are obviously sites that speculate, but none of them have confirmed information. We think it’s fine the way it is.”

Reading between the lines, we can draw two fair conclusions.

First of all, it is highly likely there are some teams not interested in releasing private information to the public. Makes perfect sense.

Secondly, Bettman seems to be misjudging these respected independent operations. These sites are very diligent. They may not be an official resource, but surely they do not “speculate” by posting questionable info online.

JERSEY ADS GOING OVER WELL ... SO FAR



A benefit of hosting a half-gimmick, half-serious event such as the World Cup is that new revenue-generating initiatives can be rolled out without protest.

For this tournament, the NHL/NHLPA has embarked upon jersey advertisements (small patches rented out by SAP software company) and digitally enhanced dasher boards (aesthetically pleasing ads).

Both money makers have been billed as experiments that may or may not transition into regular NHL territory (i.e. non-World Cup games). Time to test the waters, indeed.

“So far there hasn’t been any negative reaction to (the ads). It wouldn’t surprise me if some people had some reactions to it, because it’s fundamentally non-traditional,” Fehr said. "That being said, the players, and everybody else, are in the modern world and none of the sports look the way they did 25 (or) 50 years ago. You have to adapt on an ongoing basis.”

Fehr is spot-on in his outlook. The NHLPA’s membership is hundreds deep, so the presumed baby step toward commercializing NHL sweaters — although Bettman on Friday insisted it “isn’t the first step” — obviously won’t be praised universally.

Team USA forward Blake Wheeler, an initial critic of the ads, may have softened his view.

“I think there’s ways to do it without tarnishing kind of the look of the jerseys,” Wheeler said Friday after practice. “Hopefully there can be a good balance.”

jmatisz@postmedia.com