The 2024 IIHF World Hockey Championship is set to get underway on Friday, May 10th from Prague and Ostrava, Czechia and this year’s tournament is set to be one to remember for a very long time.
With the National Hockey League returning to a more consistent best-on-best international calendar starting in February 2025 with the Four Nations Faceoff featuring Canada, Finland, Sweden and the United States, those countries are using this tournament as an opportunity to evaluate players before finalizing their rosters later this year for the big event early next year.
For Canada and the United States, their management groups have been working hard to ensure that at least some of their top players not in the Stanley Cup Playoffs attend the tournament to show that they’re serious about representing their country on the international stage.
Because of this, rosters for Canada and the United States are loaded with talent and even some of the countries not involved in next year’s Four Nations Faceoff have their best players in attendance for the World Championship in Czechia. As I mentioned earlier, it’s going to be a tournament to remember for quite a while and we’re in for some incredible hockey over the next few weeks.
With Hungary and Slovenia being relegated from the 2023 World Championship, Great Britain and Poland have been promoted for this year’s tournament. This marks Great Britain’s fourth appearance in the top division of the World Championship in the last five tournaments. Meanwhile, Poland returns to the top division for the first time since 2002 and only the third time in the last 35 years.
Before we dive into my predictions and who I think fans should be keeping an eye on for each of the 16 participating nations, let’s take a look at the countries that will be in Czechia for the 2024 IIHF World Hockey Championship and what the groups look like.
Group A (Prague)
| Nation | IIHF ranking | 2023 result |
| Canada | 1st | Gold |
| Finland | 2nd | 7th |
| Switzerland | 7th | 5th |
| Czechia (hosts) | 8th | 8th |
| Denmark | 11th | 10th |
| Norway | 12th | 13th |
| Austria | 15th | 14th |
| Great Britain | 20th | Gold – Division 1A – Promoted |
Group B (Ostrava)
| Nation | IIHF ranking | 2023 result |
| United States | 4th | 4th |
| Germany | 5th | Silver |
| Sweden | 6th | 6th |
| Slovakia | 9th | 9th |
| Latvia | 10th | Bronze |
| France | 13th | 12th |
| Kazakhstan | 14th | 11th |
| Poland | 22nd | Silver – Division 1A – Promoted |
3 Players To Watch on each team
- Austria: Marco Rossi, Thomas Raffl, Dominic Zwerger.
- Canada: Connor Bedard, Dylan Cozens, Owen Power.
- Czechia: Michael Spacek, Roman Cervenka, Matej Stransky.
- Denmark: Oskar Fisker Molgaard, Patrick Russell, Mikkel Aagaard.
- Finland: Konsta Helenius, Oliver Kapanen, Hannes Bjorninen.
- France: Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Tomas Simonsen, Sacha Treille.
- Germany: JJ Peterka, Nico Sturm, Maksymilian Szuber.
- Great Britain: Liam Kirk, Ben Bowns, Cade Neilson.
- Kazakhstan: Nikita Mikhailis, Maxim Mukhametov, Roman Starchenko.
- Latvia: Martins Dzierkals, Rihards Bukarts, Oskars Batna.
- Norway: Michael Brandsegg-Nygard, Petter Vesterheim, Patrick Thoresen.
- Poland: Krzysztof Macias, Patryk Wronka, John Murray.
- Slovakia: Juraj Slafkovsky, Simon Nemec, Pavol Regenda.
- Sweden: Victor Hedman, Felix Unger Sorum, Rasmus Dahlin.
- Switzerland: Philipp Kurashev, Andres Ambhul, Calvin Thurkauf.
- United States: Cole Caufield, Trevor Zegras, Luke Hughes.
My Preliminary Round Predictions
| Place | Group A | Group B |
| 1st – QF | Canada | United States |
| 2nd – QF | Switzerland | Sweden |
| 3rd – QF | Czechia | Germany |
| 4th – QF | Finland | Slovakia |
| 5th | Norway | Latvia |
| 6th | Denmark | Kazahkstan |
| 7th | Great Britain | France |
| 8th – Relegated to D1A 2025 | Austria | Poland |
The action will kick off tomorrow morning at 10:20 am ET with a pair of games – Switzerland vs Norway & Slovakia vs Germany, before Czechia takes on Finland and Sweden battles the United States in the afternoon games at 2:20 pm ET. Stay tuned for more coverage throughout the tournament right up until the medals are handed out on Sunday, May 26th!
Day 1 schedule (Friday, May 10th)
- Switzerland vs Norway (10:20 am ET/4:20 pm local)
- Slovakia vs Germany (10:20 am ET/4:20 pm local)
- Czechia vs Finland (2:20 pm ET/8:20 pm local)
- Sweden vs United States (2:20 pm ET/8:20 pm local)