Its not a marketing gimmick, its a tournament where most of each countries best players will play against each other.
Who cares if money is shared or not...watch the hockey and enjoy yourself. Dont get wrapped up in things you cannot control.
It's a tournament where the NHL teams are re-scrambled across international lines, mostly. But at a time when they're just coming back from the off-season, so not even in game shape yet.
And it's done as a direct result of them not being able to get a share in Olympic money and using it as a way to try to play hardball with the IOC.
I'll reserve the right to have my mind changed by the hockey played on the ice, but on paper it's just an extended format all-star game. I mean, I don't see what the Youngstars or Team Europe have to play for, really - they didn't get selected for a national team (in some cases because their nation wasn't deemed competitive enough), and they'll have to be teammates with international rivals.
I mean think of a soccer tournament where Mexico, Canada and USA (or heck the entire CONCACAF federation), while you had a second team in the tournament made up of the young superstars across Europe. Then the rest of the teams were top national teams.
Do you think that would really go over well and be considered a legit serious tournament?