If the World Cup of Hockey is to return in 2016, it could have a very different look.

TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun reports that a meeting between the National Hockey League, the NHL Players' Association and the International Ice Hockey Federation on Monday brought up the possibility of mixed teams being added to the next incarnation of the event.

While nothing has been finalized, one of the proposals would see one or two mixed teams, with one possibly comprised of players from European nations to compete alongside the six traditional hockey powers: Canada, the United States, Russia, Sweden, Finland and the Czech Republic.

A European All-Star team would comprise the best players from Slovakia, Switzerland, Germany, Latvia and other smaller hockey nations.

The six nations slated to ice individual teams for the 2016 World Cup formed the field for the Canada Cup competitions, held regularly between 1976 and 1991. The field was expanded out to eight nations when the tournament was re-born as the World Cup of Hockey, including Germany and Slovakia for the 1996 and 2004 competitions.

Switzerland and Slovakia were listed seventh and eighth in the world in the last IIHF rankings, released in April. Slovenia and Latvia finished seventh and eighth, respectively, at the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia while Austria, Slovenia and Norway also qualified for the 12-team Olympic tournament. The 16-team 2014 IIHF World Championship saw France, Denmark, Italy, Belarus, Germany and Kazakhstan compete.

A European All-Star team could see a forward group including: Anze Kopitar (Slovenia), Thomas Vanek and Michael Grabner (Austria), Marian Hossa, Tomas Tatar and Tomas Jurco (Slovakia), Nino Niederreiter (Switzerland), Mats Zuccarello (Norway), Mikkel Boedker and Frans Nielsen (Denmark), Zemgus Girgensons (Latvia), Mikhail Grabovski (Belarus) amongst others. The defence corps could see the likes of Zdeno Chara, Andrej Sekera and Andrej Meszaros (Slovakia), Dennis Seidenberg and Christian Ehrhoff (Germany), Roman Josi and Mark Streit (Switzerland) while the goaltenders could include Jaroslav Halak (Slovakia), Jonas Hiller (Switzerland) and Frederik Andersen (Denmark).

Two players from the possible "European All-Star" nations were also selected in the top 10 of the 2014 NHL Draft, including Edmonton Oilers' centre Leon Draisaitl (Germany) and Winnipeg Jets' draftee, left winger Nikolaj Ehlers (Denmark).