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Canada tops World Ranking
Canada tops World Ranking
Olympic & World Champion takes over
PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC - MAY 17: Canada's Sidney Crosby #87 and Taylor Hall #4 celebrate with teammates after a second period goal against Russia during gold medal game action at the 2015 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship. (Photo by Andre Ringuette/HHOF-IIHF Images)
It’s the first time since 2010 that Canada is atop the ranking based on the World Championships and Olympics of the last four years. Just like back then, Canada leads both the Men’s and Women’s World Ranking.
Click here for the 2015 IIHF Men’s World Ranking.
Click here for the 2015 IIHF Women’s World Ranking.
With its golden finish in Prague, Canada earned enough points to overtake Sweden, Finland and Russia, which is now ranked second after reaching the final.
Sweden, which was ranked first for the last three years, dropped to third place after being ousted in the quarter-finals. Also, Finland fell two places, and is now fourth.
Bronze medallist USA overtook the Czech Republic for fifth place. Switzerland (7th) and Slovakia (8th) retained their positions to complete the top-8 teams of the 2015 IIHF Men’s World Ranking that together with host Korea will be automatically qualified for the 2018 Olympic Winter Games.
Three more teams for the Olympics will be determined through a four-stage qualification event. Belarus (9th), Latvia (10th) and Norway (11th) earned the right to host the three Final Olympic Qualification tournaments on home ice 1-4 September 2016.
With the World Ranking known, the groups for the 2018 Olympics are almost complete. Defending champion Canada will play the Czech Republic, Switzerland and host Korea in its group.
Continue readingClick here for an overview of the Olympic Games and Qualification.
The 2015 IIHF Men’s World Ranking also determined the groups for the 2016 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Russia that will be played at the newly built Ice Palace in Moscow and at the Yubileiny rink in St. Petersburg, which will be renovated for the event.
Host Russia will be seeded with Sweden and the Czech Republic among other teams in Moscow. Both North American teams will play in St. Petersburg, as will Finland, which may enjoy a home-ice atmosphere in Russia’s second-largest city. St. Petersburg is only a three-and-a-half-hour train ride away from Helsinki.
Ticket sale will start in autumn 2015. More information will be released on IIHF.com soon.
Groups 2016 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship
| Group A | Group B |
| (in St. Petersburg) | (in Moscow) |
| Canada (1) | Russia (2) |
| Finland (4) | Sweden (3) |
| USA (5) | Czech Rep. (6) |
| Slovakia (8) | Switzerland (7) |
| Belarus (9) | Latvia (10) |
| France (12) | Norway (11) |
| Germany (13) | Denmark (15) |
| Hungary (19) | Kazakhstan (17) |
Click here for an overview of all events in 2016.
Groups 2018 Olympic Winter Games Men’s Ice Hockey Tournament
| Group A | Group B | Group C |
| Canada (1) | Russia (2) | Sweden (3) |
| Czech Rep. (6) | USA (5) | Finland (4) |
| Switzerland (7) | Slovakia (8) | Qualifier 1 |
| Korea (12) | Qualifier 3 | Qualifier 2 |
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