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WHA announces plan to start with tournament

New league wants to hold six-team event in late May

NBCSports.com news services
updated 10:25 p.m. ET March 22, 2005

The World Hockey Association might be ready to start again after all.

The league announced on its web site Tuesday it will hold a six-team tournament in late May at General Motors Place, home of the National Hockey League's Vancouver Canucks, and either Hamilton or Toronto.

The tournament would be called the Bobby Hull Invitational after WHA commissioner Bobby Hull, a former star with the league during its run in the early 1970s.

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A press conference to announce the details of the tournament was canceled Tuesday. According to the WHA's web site, Hall of Famer Phil Esposito, slated to serve as tournament chairman, is ill and the press conference will be next week.

The web site says the tournament will have a $2 million purse for the winning team and run  from May 20 to June 2 in a round-robin format. The winners of each three-team division will play off in a best-of-five series in Vancouver.

The league also hopes to attract phenom Sidney Crosby to join 67 NHL players listed on the web site as committed to playing in tournament. Among those listed are Jarome Iginla, Nicklas Lidstrom, Keith Primeau, Tony Amonte, Jose Theodore, Dany Heatley, Scott Gomez, Derian Hatcher and Sean Burke.

The games will have some rules different to those used by the NHL. Among them are no center red line, penalized players will serve the entire penalty, regardless if a goal is scored and no icing allowed for short-handed teams.

According to ESPN.com, a group of eastern European investors is interested in buying 49 percent of the WHA and owning one of the league's top North American franchises when play is slated to begin next fall.

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