The broadcast rights of the World Cup of Hockey were officially unveiled Wednesday in what is just another in a series of announcements that the NHL and the NHL Players' Association will make about the tournament in the next 18 months.

Bit by bit, the return of this best-on-best event, the first since 2004, will begin to reveal itself in more detail.

The NHL and NHLPA used the All-Star Game in Columbus in January to announce the return of the event itself in September 2016 and Wednesday let it be known that ESPN (U.S.) and Sportsnet (Canada) will be the event's official broadcast carriers, but there's still so much more we want to know.

For starters, the North American 23-and-under team remains a work in progress, although NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr did put one question to rest Wednesday.

There has been debate about whether the "Young Guns" team should have an exact 50-50 split of Canadian and American players, or should the best players simply be picked and forget about any Canadian and American quota.

"I am quite confident that it will be the best possible team and that there will be representation from both countries. But there are no fixed numbers," Fehr told ESPN.com. "I don't expect that to be an issue."

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman wasn't as firm on that same question, but did say that it was discussed, among other issues with the Young Guns team, in meetings recently between USA Hockey, Hockey Canada and, of course, the NHLPA and NHL.

Because, don't forget, it's the league and union running this tournament. They have final say on everything, not the international federations.

That includes just who should be the GM and who should be the head coach for this 23-and-under team. Which is why you should expect people from NHL clubs to be both running the team and coaching it.

"Ultimately, it's going to be subject to our and the players' association's approval," said Bettman. "I don't want to foreclose any discussion, but as I sit here today not focusing on any particular candidate, I believe it is probably going to be NHL personnel."

Training camp sites are still being discussed as well but have not yet been decided upon; Buffalo, New York, seems like a logical place for the USA camp, given its new HarborCenter complex. The World Cup of Hockey will be held at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Sept. 17 to Oct. 1, 2016.

But what seems clear is that the 23-and-under team, given its dual Canadian/American composition, likely won’t share a camp with either Team Canada or Team USA. A neutral site seems to be the leading idea right now.

"I think it'll probably be separate," agreed Fehr.

The teams returning to the tournament will be the United States, Canada, Sweden, Finland, the Czech Republic and Russia. People are still adjusting to not having Switzerland and Slovakia rounding out the eight-team tournament and instead having these new entries: an all-star squad made up of players from other European countries and the North American kids.

The initial reaction when word leaked out earlier this season was nothing but negative. But fans and media seem to have softened.

I personally still feel that you play for the flag on the front of your uniform in these tournaments, and nothing else, so I'm still not sold on the concept. And if you were going to have a new, unique entry, as I've written before, I would have been more in favor of simply icing a second Team Canada. What's the first thing we do after Canada announces its Olympic team but create a B team, and it looks pretty darn impressive as well, reflective of the deep pool of NHL talent still generated by the two-time defending Olympic champions.

In any case, nobody cares what I think.

Bettman on Wednesday defended the two wild-card entries.

"The pan-European team gets players who wouldn't otherwise have an opportunity to participate, an opportunity to participate. And competitively, that team would be better than any seventh or eighth team that we could take from a country," said Bettman. "The 23-and-under team is going to be the one that captivates your attention, it's going to be the team that will fascinate people. It could be the sleeper in this tournament."

Hey, maybe it will grow on me.

As far as the future of the tournament itself, both the league and NHLPA have hopes that the event will fuel the interest of other cities both in Europe and the U.S. to want to host the 2020 World Cup.

"What I hope will happen after this one, is that it will have been as a big success and a big boost for the city and a big party and will have a fair amount of interest on both sides of the Atlantic," said Fehr, who has been passionate about growing the NHL-NHLPA brand overseas. "Now, if this is to go on indefinitely, sooner or later of course you're going to go to Europe. Whether it's the next time or the time after, I don't really know, but I would expect we'll be looking hard at every opportunity."