Russia is not playing, but the world ranking is rising. How much did the Czechs improve with the title?

The final ranking of the last World Championship in Prague and Ostrava was again reflected in the IIHF World Ranking. The national team improved by four places thanks to the World Championship title. The position of Russia is surprising. Although it has not played internationally since 2022, it improved its overall ranking after this year’s World Championship.

When the IIHF (International Ice Hockey Federation) was wondering what to do after the invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops, it decided to indefinitely exclude Russian hockey teams from all IIHF competitions. However, there was a question of what to do with their position in the world rankings.

The IIHF did not want Russia to drop to lower divisions and, in the event of a return to the world stage, did not want these tournaments to be marred by too wild results. So the idea of freezing Russia’s position in the rankings by adding points, according to the current standings, prevailed.

Only, this is what resulted in the Russians even improving one position after this year’s championship, moving from third to second. They have leapfrogged the Finnish national team, who did not do well at this year’s tournament in Prague and Ostrava. The Finns ended up in the quarter-finals after a bad group stage, where they lost in extra time to Sweden.

The return of Russian hockey players to the international circuit is still out of sight due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. So unless the IIHF intervenes and changes Russia’s regular points allocation to the IIHF rankings, there could be even more bizarre things to come a year from now. If Canada doesn’t win gold, or at least silver, it will drop to second position and the Russians will automatically jump to the top of the rankings.

The Czechs move up four spots

Even though the Canadians left Prague without a medal this time, they currently remain in first place in the world rankings. Russia is second and Finland dropped to third place. The Czech Republic is already in fourth place, having improved by four positions thanks to their home triumph. No one has made a significant move this year.

Switzerland also improved on its final appearance, jumping from seventh to fifth position. The Americans dropped two places. Germany also saw a more significant drop, falling from fifth to eighth. Behind them, the Slovaks are in ninth position.

IIHF WORLD RANKINGS AFTER THE 2024 WORLD CUP

Also interesting is the position of Poland, which despite participating in the elite division of the World Cup is only in the twenty-first position. Ahead of them are Hungary, Slovenia, Italy or Great Britain. Especially Slovenia and Hungary will have a chance to improve next year as they will play a tournament in the elite division of the World Championship.

The IIHF World Ranking currently has a total of 58 members. The most significant move in the last year has been by Mexico, which dropped five positions and currently sits at 42nd place. You might not expect it, but the IIHF World Ranking also includes countries like Mongolia, Georgia and Singapore. The complete rankings can be found on the official IIHF website.

Source