Legends sign up for hotly touted three-on-three league

Hoping to emulate the success of Big3 pro basketball, a new three-on-three hockey league called 3ICE is set to debut in the summer of 2021－and it's already signed up a crop of world-class coaches.

Big3 pro hoops, founded by American actor/musician Ice Cube and US entertainment executive Jeff Kwatinez, debuted in 2017 with 18 teams featuring former NBA players and college recruits. It was an immediate hit with fans and TV viewers, but play was suspended by the COVID-19 pandemic in January.

This week, 3ICE announced it has signed deals with eight head coaches for its targeted debut in June 2021: Hall of Famers Guy Carbonneau, Grant Fuhr, Joey Mullen, Bryan Trottier, Larry Murphy and Angela Ruggiero, as well as Ed Johnston and John LeClair.

Between them, the coaches have 28 Stanley Cup championships, 29 All-Star Game appearances and five Olympic gold medals.

3ICE president and CEO EJ Johnston and league commissioner Craig Patrick made the announcement in a media release.

Johnston is the son of former Pittsburgh Penguins coach and GM Eddie Johnston, who won two Stanley Cups as a goaltender for the Boston Bruins and three as an adviser for the Penguins, while Patrick was an assistant coach on Herb Brooks' gold medal-winning 1980 USA Olympic team and won back-to-back Cups as GM of the Penguins in 1991 and'92.

The league will feature a three-on-three format similar to the NHL's overtime tiebreaker. The eight teams will consist of six skaters and a goalie, along with the head coach.

Rather than being franchises in specific cities, teams will compete throughout North America in a nine-stop, bracket-style tournament of 60 games. Played on a full-sized rink, games will consist of two eight-minute halves, using a running clock to maintain end-to-end action.

"Three-on-three hockey has proven to be an incredibly exciting display of speed and creativity and we see the creation of this league based entirely on that," said Johnston.

"We believe we have the best part of hockey, and when you add to that the way fans consume and share content today, we can see a day with 3ICE media platforms and affiliated leagues throughout North America, Europe and beyond."

Patrick told USA Today the league "will thrive on pure skill, creativity, playmaking and scoring".

"What that means for fans is that our events will be all hockey, with no filler. At each stop, fans will get seven games in a single-elimination format. No penalties, only penalty shots. No long intermissions or stoppages for video replays. Just pure excitement.

"It will be even more exciting than the NHL's overtime format because we're going for a lot of speed and skill throughout and we're going to look at different rules that will enable that to happen more frequently."

The league has already signed television deals with CBS Sports in the US and with TSN and RDS in Canada, and has formed a partnership with Getty Images and ASM Global.

"When the puck drops on our inaugural season in June 2021, fans will have the opportunity to enjoy nine hockey-filled summer weekends and be closer to the game and the players like never before," said Johnston.

"This league was created to bring fans one thing: pure, unadulterated excitement. Our players and coaches will be names that are known and loved in the game."