This year’s LATAM Cup featured 52 teams and over 1,100 players from 17 countries, including Argentina, Armenia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Egypt, Greece, Israel, Lebanon, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Venezuela.
The teams competed in seven divisions: Men’s Division I, II and III, a women’s division and the U12, U14 and U16 groups.
Sponsors of the tournament included the NHL, the NHL Players’ Association and the Florida Panthers. The tournament was created in 2018 by Juan Carlos Otero, a longtime Panthers fan, to increase the sport’s exposure in the Hispanic community both internationally and locally.
The growth of the LATAM Cup since 2018 led us to hold this year’s tournament at the Florida Panthers IceDen and the Baptist Health IcePlex, the 2024 Stanley Cup champions’ new training facility in Fort Lauderdale. Rob Knesaurek, NHL senior vice president of community development and industry growth, also performed the ceremonial puck drop before the championship game between the Cuban-American team and Greece.
Most of the countries and territories participating in the tournament aspire to play ice hockey on the world stage, but do not have ice rinks or suitable ice facilities that comply with IIHF regulations and would enable them to participate in sanctioned tournaments or qualify for the Olympic Games.
The hope is that the attention gained by winning or participating in the tournament will encourage sports federations, Olympic committees or private investors in the countries and territories concerned to support the sport of ice hockey, especially by building ice rinks.
Algeria is one of those teams with big ambitions and came into the LATAM Cup determined to prove that winning the inaugural Dream Nations Cup tournament in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on its North American debut in April was no fluke.
This is exactly what Algeria managed to do on Sunday with an 8-3 victory against Egypt, winning the men’s Division II championship.
“I think we proved that we deserved to be here, that we deserved to win. We worked hard and it finally paid off,” said Nassim Boulakdem, assistant coach and alternate captain of the Algerian national team. “We hope this will help us grow faster now and help us with the government in Algeria and I hope it will make more people follow us and want to play hockey.”
