2025 IIHF World Championship, Division IV

[TomB]

The Division IV tournament starts in a few days. Participating countries are:

Armenia
Indonesia
Iran
Kuwait
Malaysia
Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan is making their first WC appearance. Armenia making their first in over a decade.

WC D4 - Standings, Teams, Games, Scores, Stats & More

Welcome to the WC D4 page on Elite Prospects. We give you everything you need regarding teams, standings, games, scores and more from World Championship Division 4

www.eliteprospects.com

Malaysia doesn't have a listed roster yet, but that Uzbek roster is very strong for this level. Goaltending is a bit suspect. I predict that the Armenians will finish second. Both teams are carrying multiple naturalized Russians.

Iran and Kuwait will likely finish 3rd and 4th. Could be either order. Malaysia and Indonesia will be punching bags.

 

[ozo]

Uzbekistan is making their first WC appearance. Armenia making their first in over a decade.

Armenia roster is unlikeable until we look at Uzbekistan one. Full on GB circa 1990 vibes, full roster of mercenaries, which is a big shame when we see how decent-ish their U18 team is. Rosters like that make this tournament a joke.

 

[HungryFrank]

why would Uzbekistan be worse than Armenia?

Uzbekistan has 8 dual citizens, Armenia has 16

 

[mattihp]

Does the handedness default to R if there is no data? Otherwise Indonesia is craaazy

 

[ozo]

why would Uzbekistan be worse than Armenia?

Uzbekistan has 8 dual citizens, Armenia has 16

IMO Armenia at least tries pick up players from diaspora looking at the last names and, frankly, nobody goes to Armenia to play hockey for money reason. Uzbekistan has naturalized very high class player due to Humo playing in Kazakh league and the players are pure imports who will crush this level.

 

[SoundAndFury]

Yeah, Uzbekistan is pretty ugly. Some of the best players in the VHL back in the day (Kravchenko, Nazarevich) against pond hockey teams...

Nazarevich is a pretty funny case altogether. A former VHL defenseman of the year he refused to play for his birthplace Ukraine only to suit up for Uzbekistan a few weeks before turning 33 and is now listed as holding Ukrainian and Uzbeki citizenships. I understand Uzbekistan must be paying very well for his services but that's still kinda funny.

On an entirely unrelated note, damn, from the name recognition point that Humo roster is stacked. And they didn't even make the finals.

 

[TomB]

First day is complete:

Indonesia beats Iran 2-1.
Uzbekistan beats Kuwait 13-3.
Armenia beats Malaysia 24-3.

Good for Indonesia to beat the newly relegated team. Other games show that both Uzbekistan and Armenia are far too strong for this level.

 

[JimXVX]

Day 1 Kuwait ship 80 shots and 13 goals to Uzbekistan, who probably weren't even trying. Day 2 Kuwait put 80 shots and 15 goals on Indonesia. Uzbekistan versus Indonesia is going to be interesting, with legit Russian pros taking on beer league calibre beginners.

 

[ozo]

I crapped on both Armenia and Uzbekistan, but their game is the most exciting hockey I've seen in long while.

 

[jonas2244]

You had a stream? I couldn't find one.

 

[HungryFrank]

Better luck next year Uzbekistan. Try designing some nicer jerseys too

 

[ozo]

You had a stream? I couldn't find one.

Yes, there is a nice Armenian stream on youtube.

Oh boy, say what you want about this ragtag Armenian roster, but they sure cared about this game. Insane effort and victory at the end. Players crying on ice all over the place - pretty moving. Hopefully this helps kickstarting the local game some more.

 

[bv29]

With this victory Armenia is probably promoted, which leads to their potential clash with Turkey in a few years. If they ice the same roster for next season or two I just can't see them stop promoting (assuming Turkey will return and maybe stay in D2B), this game against Uzbekistan was D2A level.

 

[SoundAndFury]

I just watched the highlights and looked through the Armenian roster, indeed it's a miracle on ice that very few will appreciate but it's there nonetheless. I guess that delays Uzbekistan's arrival to at least 2A (and more likely 1B at some point) by a year.

 

[ozo]

I guess that delays Uzbekistan's arrival to at least 2A (and more likely 1B at some point) by a year.

Depends on whether Humo continues to exist. Without Humo all these hired guns will probably stop reporting one by one and the team will be forced to use local kids which are not that bad (relatively even to the level of D-2B probably) to, but surely not VHL quality.

Armenia will not face a team as good as Uzbekistan in 3B next year, but their growth is severely limited. this pretty much is what they have - beer league team with players as old as 46 on it, two D-man weighting whopping 130kg, etc I'm sure they might add couple of diaspora players every year, but no groundbreaking talent will be attracted by the level and no salary of Armenian hockey league.