NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said Tuesday the 2024 World Cup of Hockey will return to having a traditional field made up of individual countries. 

The 2016 version of the tournament for the first time had a team North America, made up of Canadian and American players under 23, and a Team Europe with players from Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Norway, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Switzerland.

While a 2024 version of the tournament has not yet been officially confirmed, the NHL and NHL Players' Association have been meeting to plan the event since February.

TSN Hockey Insider Darren Dreger reported last week that a qualifying event could be held in 2023 to determine the field for the 2024 event.

"A play-in event is exactly what’s being discussed by the NHL, the NHLPA, the IIHF, and the various Federations," Dreger said on Insider Trading. "They’re meeting this week in Paris and they’re trying to hammer out some of the details. 

"You could see a play-in event for some of the European teams in August 2023. We’ve talked a lot about what the World Cup will look like in 2024 and again in 2028, it will most likely be eight teams including Canada, the USA, and the six European Federations. Russia, obviously, is to be determined."

Team Canada defeated Team Europe 2-0 in a best-of-three series to claim the title in 2016. The tournament was the last time many of the NHL's stars represented their countries as the league elected not send players to 2018 and 2022 Olympics.

There have been three previous World Cup of Hockey tournaments, with Toronto playing host in 2016 and 2004, and Montreal and Philadelphia sharing hosting duties in 1996. Canada won each of the previous two events, while the United States won the debut tournament in 1996.