BRUUUUUUUUIIIIIIINSSSS

and Satellite, we've already been over this before:

Olympics / NHL/Stanley Cup > World Championships

I agree for Olympics (personally, not speaking for the whole nation), but not for the Stanley Cup. I have already said it, you think that Stanley Cup means a lot to European FANS, but it doesn't. Just because it's the procup of the Americans who think that they are the top of the world in everything, doesn't rank it over World Champions ships. (hence the difference between "world" and "national").

PLAYERS do take NHL over World Cup most of the time. But this is because they play for their NHL team and for their personal career. European countries do not have own NHL teams, some countries hardly even have any players in NHL, therefore fans don't care about it as much as World Cup. Not to mention Russia that has KHL, which is ranked higher than NHL in there.
What you are saying is same as saying that if Russians rank KHL over World cup and NHL, it's the same for the rest of the world.

World Champions =/= "Best in the World" even temporarily. It's equal to World League Champions. If there were a hockey match for best in the world (oh wait, there is, it's called the Olympics) then the winner would be considered best in the world. World Champions, especially in sports like this where a very limited number of teams actually participate, is not at all a meaningful term. The same could be said for the NHL, of course.

And that is your personal opinion.

Let's say in soccer, do they rank olympics over World Cup? Nope. Do they have all countries in World Cup? Nope. Because weaker countries didn't even win their way to the world cup, just like in hockey.