The top teams in international hockey will converge on Stockholm, Sweden and Herning, Denmark starting this Friday 09 May, kicking off the premiere event of the global hockey calendar, the 2025 IIHF World Championship.

Group A, meeting in Stockholm, sees hosts Sweden challenging for the top of the group against two top contenders, perennial rivals Finland, and a Canadian squad that has been boosted in recent days by the additions of Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon and Marc-André Fleury to their roster. Slovakia, who will be missing much of their usual NHL firepower, will be contending with the likes of Latvia and France to try to play spoiler for the last quarterfinal spot, while Austria and Slovenia will likely be the ones duking it out to avoid relegation.

Group B, meeting in Herning, sees the hosts Denmark facing off against the 2024 Gold and Silver medalists in Czechia and Switzerland, respectively, who will also be contending against an upstart American squad looking for their elusive first World title since 1960. The Lions will hope that the home ice advantage will help propel them to the quarterfinals at the expense of the likes of Germany and Norway, who will also have minimal NHL support to their roster, while Kazakhstan and Hungary will be the likely minnows of the group, fighting to stay in the Top Division in 2026.

Click here to see the full 2025 World Championship schedule

From the perspective of the IHLC, a few interesting facts related to this year’s World Championship:
– Sweden enters as incumbent champions for just the sixth time, and for the first time since 2015
– this is Stockholm’s tenth time hosting since 1949, and Herning’s second; this is the twelfth time that Sweden will host, and just Denmark’s second time, after Copenhagen and Herning co-hosted in 2018
– of the eleven previous times Sweden has hosted the World Championship, Soviet Union / Russia has won the most Gold medals (6: 1954, 1963, 1969, 1970, 1981, 1989, 2012); Sweden has only won once on home ice (2013); they have ironically also won the only World Championship hosted in Denmark (2018)
– Slovenia and Hungary both return to the Top Division for the first time since 2023, after being promoted from Division IA in 2024
– Czechia will look to win their second consecutive World Championship for the first time since their “three-peat” of wins in 1999, 2000 and 2001, following their historic 1998 Olympic Gold Medal victory
– the only returning 2024 tournament award winner to this year’s Worlds is media All-Star Roman Červenka of Czechia; however, perhaps the biggest returning name is Canadian forward and Triple Gold Club member Sidney Crosby, returning to his first Worlds in a decade

Hosts Sweden will enter with the International Hockey Lineal Championship, opening the tournament against Slovakia at Avicii Arena on 09 May. Whether they can repeat the magic of 2013 en route to another Gold medal at home, or if a new contender emerges in the shadow of the 2026 Milan Olympics, remains to be seen for what should be a great tournament!

Photo Credit: IIHF Worlds 2024 – IIHF – HHOF – IOC