If we are talking literally golden years, it won't be anyone outside of the Top 6 in the near future IMO.
The best the rest of the pack can hope for is something like Slovakia/Switzerland at the Worlds in 2012 and 2013.
If we are talking about the rest of the pack, I thought it might be interesting to look at some actual stats, as a lot has been said about those teams in this thread.
I only covered the countries which are permanent members of the elite IHWC, so sorry to the likes of Hungary and Kazakhstan.
First let's look at the NHL. The following table list the number of draftees for each country in the years 2011-2015 and the number of players aged 25 and under (players born in 1991 and later qualify) who appeared in the NHL and AHL in the 2015/2016 season.
In terms of the draft, Switzerland and Slovakia are tied for most draftees in this time period (both 14), followed by Latvia with 8 and Denmark and Germany with 5 and 4 respectively.
Switzerland has had the most 1st rounders with 4, followed by Denmark with 2 and Slovakia, Latvia and Germany have also had one.
Switzerland also leads with the number of players picked within the top 100 of the recent NHL drafts with 8, followed by Slovakia with 5 and Latvia and Denmark who have had 4 each.
The bottom of the table belongs to Belarus and France.
Slovakia has had 5 players who suited up for an NHL team thsi season, followed by Germany with 4, while Latvia and Switzerland have had 3 each and Denmark had one.
In the AHL Switzerland led with 8 players, followed by Latvia with 5, Slovakia Germany and Belarus al had 3, while Denmark had one.
France and Norway are the two countries who haven't had a player of this category in either league this season.
At the WJC, Slovakia and Switzerland are the only two countries who have made an appearance at all last 6 elite tournaments. Slovakai edges out Switzerland with 6 top 8 finishes compared to the Swiss 4, both also have 2 top 6 finishes, one of which is a 3rd place for Slovakia.
Germany made 4 appearances at the elite level but had a terrible showing this year. Denmark is the only other team asides from SVK/SUI to reach the top 8. Belarus and France are once again at the end of the table but Belarus' results have improved in the last couple of years, while France is a level below everyone else in this age group.
At the u18 level, Switzerland is ahead of everyone, finishing within the top 8 6 out of 6 times and adding to top 6 finishes including a semifinal berth last year.
Slovakia and Germany both have 5 appearances, Germany has 3 top 8 finishes compared to Slovakia's 2. But while Slovakia has improved its rank each of the last 4 years, Germany's result has declined in each of the past years.
Denmark and Latvia have established themselves as elevator nations in this age group.
Norway, Belarus and France are at the bottom of the table, with Belarus once again displaying a positive trend in the past couple of years while Norway displayed a negative one.
This last table shows the number of players aged 25 and under each country has had in top European leagues this past season. It might not be saying that much given that the results are influenced by several countries having their own KHL teams (case of Belarus, Latvia and Slovakia), Slovakia's proximity to Czech republic and last but not least the fact that the NLA is a Swiss league.
Furthermore both these numbers as well as the NHL/AHL numbers are taken from eliteprospects and might not reflect reality 100%. For example there are 2 SHL players showing for Slovakia (Cehlarik and Jaros) but Fehervary also has played a few SHL games. On the other hand it's possible that some players with a similar number of games are counted. But it would take forever to check it all, so let's just assume that this fact is equally unfair to everyone.
Overall I would say that Switzerland and Slovakia are still the two behind the top 6, with Switzerland having the edge in some areas right now. They are probably still most likely to make it to the medal round and can even make it at the junior levels (Switzerland 4th at the 2015 u18 IHWC, Slovakia 3rd at the 2015 WJC). Latvia and Denmark have their own little group right behind them though, edging their way into being permanent members of the top 10 at the junior levels.
Germany is hard to judge as they are perhaps the most inconsistent. Belarus seems to have made some improvements in the most recent years, while Norway seems to have fallen down.
I would say that both the Norwegian and the French men's NTs have reached their primes in recent years and I don't think that anything indicates that they should be climbing up. But who knows...
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