Quote:
Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction
Kind of OT, but is it surprising that most recent IIHF men's ranking has Switzerland in second? Top 3 countries are U.S, Switzerland, then Canada.
The most recent ranking is from May 2025.
https://www.iihf.com/en/static/68775...d_rankings_men
It surprised me, but maybe I don't understand what the rankings actually mean. |
Well Canada didn't medal at the last Olympics. And in the last two IIHF WCs, the Swiss came second (and Canada didn't medal). Here's their outline:
The IIHF World Ranking is a tool to reflect the long-term quality of the countries' national team program. The IIHF World Ranking is based on awarding points for the final positions in the last four IIHF World Championships and in the last Olympic Ice Hockey Tournament. The 2025 IIHF World Ranking published in May 2025 only applies to Men's Ice Hockey. It is thus based on the performance at the 2025, 2024, 2023, and the 2022 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship and at the 2022 Olympic Ice Hockey Tournament (plus the Olympic Qualification for non-qualified teams).
The team that wins the IIHF World Championship gold medal or the Olympic gold medal receives 1600 points. In general, there is a 20-point interval between two ranked positions (for example, 1280 points for the 13th place and 1260 points for the 14th place). As an exception to this principle there is a 40-point interval between gold and silver, silver and bronze, the 4th and 5th position and between the 8th and 9th position in the top division. The reason for the larger intervals for these positions is to give teams a bonus for reaching the quarter-finals, the semi-finals, the final and for winning the gold medal. (The bonus formula can be changed with any alterations to the playing format).
To enable the ranking to accurately reflect current form, the greatest importance is given to results of the last year's competition. To a lesser degree, attention is also paid to results from previous years. The system uses a four-year cycle as the points earned in one year decline linearly within the next 3 years and in the 5th year results are dropped from the calculation altogether.