GB Men Move Up to #16 In World Rankings

The best two teams at the 2021 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship are also the best two teams in the 2021 IIHF Men’s World Ranking. New world champion Canada defended first place while silver medallist Finland overtook Russia for second place.

The United States and Germany both went up two spots and come in fourth and fifth place respectively. For Germany it’s the highest placement since the introduction of the World Ranking that takes into consideration the results for the World Championships and Olympics of the last four years.

The Czech Republic (6th) lost one spot while Sweden moved down from fourth to seventh place.

The places 8-12 are taken in the same order as before by Switzerland, Slovakia, Latvia, Norway and Denmark.

Kazakhstan (13th) and Great Britain (16th) both moved up three spots at the expense of other teams in this region of the ranking following their performance in Riga.

For many teams outside of the top division there haven’t been IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship tournaments for two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic that caused tournament cancellations. For a fairer ranking and point distribution, the IIHF Council decided that the points for 2021 in case of tournament cancellations are given according to the ranking position of each team in the 2021 Pre-Championship Report – taking into consideration the results in 2018, 2019 and 2020 – rather than by seeding as in the past.

The same rule will also be applied for the 2021 IIHF Women’s World Ranking that will be determined with the conclusion of the 2021 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship in Calgary, Canada.

2021 IIHF Men’s World Ranking

RankCountryPointsMovement
1Canada32350
2Finland31251
3Russia3050-1
4USA29452
5Germany29052
6Czech Republic2895-1
7Sweden2880-3
8Switzerland28150
9Slovakia26700
10Latvia25600
11Norway24900
12Denmark24700
13Kazakhstan23653
14Belarus2320-1
15France2295-1
16Great Britain22803
17Italy2280-2
18Austria2185-1
19Korea2140-1
20Slovenia20850
21Hungary19800
22Poland18850
23Lithuania18500
24Romania18201
25Japan1785-1
26Estonia17051
27Ukraine1675-1
28Netherlands15900
29Serbia15401
30Croatia1515-1
31Spain13850
32China13350
33Australia12652
34Israel12400
35Iceland1200-2
36Belgium11000
37Mexico10650
38Georgia10350
39New Zealand9650
40Bulgaria9350
41DPR Korea8250
42Turkey7450
43Luxembourg6900
44Turkmenistan6601
45Chinese Taipei605-1
46South Africa5400
47United Arab Emirates5050
48Hong Kong, China4600
49Bosnia & Herzegovina3800
50Thailand3400
51Kuwait3050
52Kyrgyzstan2250
53Malaysia1400
54Philippines1050
55Singapore40NEW