Jens Asbjørn Bøgen
16 nations will face off to fight for the honor of being the Ice Hockey World Champions of 2025.
16 nations will face off to fight for the honor of being the Ice Hockey World Champions of 2025.
The puck is dropping
It’s time for the 2025-edition of the World Championship in Ice Hockey! The first puck drops today, Friday may 9th, when Sweden and Denmark will co-host the championship.
16 nations, 1 winner
The 16 competing nations are split into two groups for the prelimenary round using the seedings based on the 2024 IIHF World Ranking at the end of the World Championship of last year.
Preliminary Group A
The eight teams of Preliminary Group 8 will be playing in the Swedish Capitol of Stockholm in the Avicii Arena. The nations in this group are Canada, Finland, Sweden, Slovakia, Latvia, Austria, France and Slovenia.
Preliminary Group B
The other Preliminary Group, B, will be playing in Herning, Denmark in Jyske Bank Boxen. The eight nations in Group B are Czechia, Switzerland, United States, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Kazakhstan and Hungary.
Sweden – seeding 7
Lucas Raymond of Detroit, Filip Forsberg of Nashville, Jonas Brodin of Minnesota, Jakob Markstrom of New Jersey. The Swedes are bringing a terrifying roster to the World Championships, and having the support of thousands of fans at home will no doubt give Sweden an extra push. In 2024, the Swedes took bronze after four years without a podium, and this year they are hoping to bring home the gold like they did in 2018.
Denmark – seeding 11
Making the quarter-finals in both 2010 and 2016, the Danes will fight with all they’ve got to repeat that goal for the third time – this time in front of a home crowd. The Danes have lost some NHL-names recently, but with forwards such as Nicklas Jensen playing in Rapperswil-Jona, Switzerland, and Patrick Russel playing in Linnkoping, Sweden, opposing defences will still have to bring their A-game.
Austria – seeding 13
A 10th place at the 2024 World Championship was the Austrians best result since 2003, and most Austrians will to this day dream abou the miraculous comeback against Canada, when the Austrians managed to come back from trailing 6-1 ad sending the game into overtime. Many of the players play in the home league or in Switzerland, but the Austrians will no doubt be exited to have former Detroit-center Marco Kasper in the roster this year.
Canada – seeding 1
Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon, Marc-Andre Lfeury, Ryan O’Reilly – should we go on? The Canadians are poised for a medal looking at their roster, and with Dean Evason, who played on the 1997 Gold-winning Canadian team, as head coach, you know the strategy will be World Class – especially coming of a six win streak as his “other” job as head coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets in the NHL
Czechia – seeding 4
Czechia is the reining world champions after winning the title for the seventh time in 2024, catapulting national team head coach Radim Sulik to fame. Add to this the superstar Boston winger, David Pastrnak, along with Colorado ace Martin Necas as well as Vancouvers Filip Hronek and you have a possibel title contender in 2025 as well.
Finland – seeding 3
Gold, silver, gold between 2019 and 2022 sounds terrifying for any opponent, but the Finns may not be as scary as that in 2025. The last two years, they finished 7th and 8th, their worst results in 30 years. That being said, the Finns have a huge amount of talent in the roster, including Nashille-goalie Justus Annunen, Chicago-forward Teuvo Teravainen and Juuso Parssinen of the Rangers.
France – seeding 14
Ever since being promoted to the top level (2008), the French have consistently proven that they’re meant to be here. With a veteran roster they will have to potential to do damage to unsuspecting opponents with players such as Sacha Treille, Tim and Kevin Bozon and former St. Louis Blues-player Alexandre Texier.
Germany – seeding 8
Seven of the last eight world championships have seen the Germans advance from the Preliminary Round with the silver medals in 2023 being the highlight. With NHl-veterans such as Seattle-goalie Philipp Grubauer, Detroit-defender Moritz Seider and Ottawa-forward Tim Stultze, the Germans will be a force to be reckoned with.
Kazakhstan – seeding 15
The Kazakhs have stopped relying on neutralized players the last couple of years – and this decision has tested the depth of the national team. Two of the teams biggest profiles are injured and not participating in the world championships, meaning names such as captain Roman Starchenko and Nikitia Mikhailis to be the offensive threats of the Kazakhs.
Latvia – seeding 10
The Latvians took home a bronze medal in 2023, and since then they have been building a solid roster of young players. Springle in some experience with the likes of Kaspar Daugavins and Ralf Freiberg and younger players such as Glebs Prohorenkov and Filips Buncis will get the support they need to really shine.
Norway – seeding 12
Gone are the days of Norway being a stable in the semi-finals, but you would be wise not to underestimate the Norwegians. Minnesotas Mats Zuccarello is out of the roster, as is AHL-prospects Emilio Petterson and Michael Brandsegg-Nygard, giving the head coach, Tobias Johansson, plenty of issues to deal with this year.
Slovakia – seeding 9
Slovakia is heading to the World Championship without their usual coach, Craig Ramsay due to a pneumonia. The team will instead be coached by Vladimir Orszagh, and even though Slovakia has made the quarter-finals three of the last four years, 2025 might too big of a challenge when aiming to repeat that result.
Switzerland – seeding 5
Three silver medals in 13 years says it all. The Swizz are not to be taken lightly in hockey anymore, and with New Jersey-captain Nico Hischier and teammate Timo Meier leading the offence, defensive lines will have to stay sharp for all 60 minutes of playing to keep the puck out of their own net.
USA – seeding 6
The U.S. have not won a world championship since 1933 (!!!), if you exclude the two Olympic gold medals of 1960 and 1980, when the Winter Olympics was counted as the World Championships. On paper, the Americans have a strong team with lots of depth, and coach Ryan Warsofsky will have plenty of choices having Boston-goalie Jeremy Sqayman, Nashville-defender Brady Skjei and Utahs Clayton Keller in the roster – just to name a few.
Hungary – seeding 18
Hungary qualified for the world championships by advancing to the top division after a year of absence. Their biggest issue is scoring, as they Magyars only put the puck in the net 15 times in 5 games to top Division IA last year – with six of the goals being scored in the same game. Key players to look for are Istvan Sofron, Istvan Bartalis and Balazs Sebok.
Slovenia – seeding 19
The other team being promoted for 2025, and Slovenia will no doubt have their hands full fighting to stay at the top level. Lacking a deep talent pool (Slovenia only has 97 registeret adult male players), and with Anze Kopitar being unavailable, Slovenia will have to fight with all they’ve got to avoid relegation.