The top teams in international hockey will converge on Ostrava and Prague, Czechia starting this Friday, 10 May, kicking off the premiere event of the global hockey calendar, the 2024 IIHF World Championship.

Group A, meeting in Prague, sees hosts Czechia, defending champions Canada and the previous years’ champions Finland in a three-way tilt to top the table, highlighting a group also featuring Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Norway and newly-promoted Great Britain. Switzerland should likely round out the group with the final playoff spot, given a lack of NHL star power on the likes of Denmark or Austria, but these squads will look to their European league stars to throw a few surprises at the top contenders.

Group B, meeting in Ostrava, features 2023 Silver and Bronze surprise medalists Germany and Latvia, respectively, going up against heavy firepower from Sweden and the United States, the latter looking to end their 90+ year drought in the same nation they last were world champions. Germany and Latvia will be looking to prove that their success last year was no fluke, but will also face stiff competition from the likes of Slovakia, while the bottom of the group (France, Kazakhstan and newly-promoted Poland) will try to make a splash and upend the expected order and make the medal rounds.

Click here to see the full 2024 World Championship schedule

From the perspective of the IHLC, a few interesting facts related to this year’s World Championship:
– Canada enters as incumbent champions for the eighteenth time, and for the first time since 2017
– this is Prague’s eleventh time hosting, and Ostrava’s fourth; this is the third time that Czechia will host as an independent nation, and eleventh time overall (including Czechoslovakia)
– Canada has won Gold at Czechia’s other two times hosting the World Championship since independence, both in 2004 and 2015; they also captured Gold in the former Czechoslovakia in 1938 and 1959
– Poland and Great Britain return to the Top Division for the first time since 2002 and 2022, respectively, after being promoted from Division IA in 2023
– Canada will look to win their second consecutive World Championship for the first time since 2015 and 2016, the former title won in Prague
– hosts Czechia are looking to win their first World Championship since 2010, and their fourth World Championship on home ice in Prague (1947, 1972, 1985)
– returning tournament award winners to this year’s Worlds include 2023 top forward and All-Star J.J. Peterka (Germany) and tournament All-Star Dominik Kubalík (Czechia)

Canada will enter with the International Hockey Lineal Championship, looking to run the table and win consecutive world titles for the first time in a decade; whether Team Canada can hang on, or a new contender emerges with the 2026 Olympics coming up on the horizon, it should make for a very interesting tournament!

Photo Credit: IIHF Worlds 2023 – IIHF – HHOF – IOC