WThe 2016 NHL Winter Classic was an outdoor regular season National Hockey League (NHL) game, part of the Winter Classic series, played on January 1, 2016. The game, the eighth Winter Classic, saw the Montreal Canadiens defeat the Boston Bruins, 5–1, at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, a significant event in one of the NHL's best-known rivalries. A Bruins and Canadiens alumni game was also played on December 31, 2015. The Boston Pride women's professional hockey team played before the alumni game against Les Canadiennes of the Canadian Women's Hockey League to a 1–1 tie in the first ever 2016 Outdoor Women's Classic.
WThe 2017 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships was the 41st edition of the Ice Hockey World Junior Championship. The main tournament was co-hosted by the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec and the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario. This was the twelfth championship that Canada had hosted. Montreal and Toronto also jointly hosted the 2015 edition. The tournament consisted of 30 games between 10 nations.
WThe 2016 IIHF U18 World Championship was the 18th IIHF World U18 Championship, and was hosted by Grand Forks, North Dakota, USA. The tournament was played in April 2016.
WThe 2016 NHL Entry Draft was the 54th NHL Entry Draft. The draft was held on June 24–25, 2016 at the First Niagara Center in Buffalo, New York. The first three selections were Auston Matthews going to the Toronto Maple Leafs, Patrik Laine going to the Winnipeg Jets, and Pierre-Luc Dubois going to the Columbus Blue Jackets.
WThe 2016 IIHF World Championship was the 80th such event hosted by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), being held in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, Russia, from 6 May to 22 May 2016. Canada entered the tournament as the defending 2015 champions. Hungary returned to the Championship after a 6-year absence, and Kazakhstan after a 1-year absence.
WThe 2016 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships was the 40th Ice Hockey World Junior Championship. It was hosted in Helsinki, Finland. It began on December 26, 2015, and ended with the gold medal game on January 5, 2016. This marked the sixth time that Finland has hosted the WJC, and the hosts defeated Russia 4–3 in overtime to win their fourth title in history and second in the last three years. Belarus was relegated to Division I-A for 2017 by merit of their tenth-place finish, while Finnish right winger Jesse Puljujärvi earned MVP and top scorer honors.
WIce hockey at the 2016 Winter Youth Olympics was held at Kristins Hall in Lillehammer, Norway from 12 to 21 February. The difference between the Youth Olympic program for ice hockey and the Winter Olympics was the addition of a skill challenge for each gender.