The cards are dealt: THIS is how the Slovakian group at the 2027 World Hockey Championship looks like!

At next year’s world championships in the German cities of Düsseldorf and Mannheim (May 14-30, 2027), Slovak hockey players should meet in the basic group with Switzerland, Finland and Sweden. Their other opponents should be Latvia, Austria, Slovenia and a newcomer to the elite category of the World Cup, Ukraine. It was decided by the position in the rankings of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), which could no longer be influenced by the results of Sunday’s bronze medal match and the final of this year’s championship in Zurich.

For the first time in history, the organizers of the World Cup 2026, the Swiss, reached the top of the ranking, having made it to the finals for the third time in a row. The second place belonged to the USA and the third to Canada, which could still jump over the overseas rival if it won the bronze. However, it did not change the fact that these teams will meet each other in Group B. The fourth and fifth places belong to Finland, respectively. Sweden, with whom eight Slovaks will also play in the same group.

The division of teams into World Cup groups is based on the current IIHF ranking, which takes into account the results of the past five major tournaments (World Cup and Olympic Games), with the greatest weight given to the just-ending world championship. The Slovaks took 9th place, but also thanks to the fourth place from the 2026 Olympics in Milan, they jumped up two places in the rankings compared to last year from tenth position. Russia and Belarus have had their ranking positions frozen since the military invasion of Ukraine, and have since been eliminated from IIHF tournaments.

The groups are assembled according to a predetermined deployment key. In the A-group there are teams from positions 1, 4, 5, 8, 9, 12, 13 and 16, in B-group there are teams from positions 2, 3, 6, 7, 10, 11, 14 and 15. However, the organizer has the right to change one team and decide in which group the home team will play.