Tiers of International Hockey

[namttebih]

At a best on best level, I believe that there are 5 tiers at this point in history.

1ST
Canada

2ND
Russia
USA
Finland
Sweden

3RD
Czech
Slovakia
Switzerland
Germany

4TH
Latvia
Denmark

5TH
Norway
Slovenia
UK
France
Belarus
Austria
Italy
Kazakhstan

Canada goes into every tournament as the favorite. I'm not saying that they can't be beat, or that it will always be this way. Right now Canada is in a tier of their own.

Second tier has teams that expect to medal and the only other teams that if they did win a gold, it wouldn't be a complete shock.

Third tier are competitive. Most likely fall short of a medal, but wouldn't be shocked if they did. Feast on lower tier teams, while struggling with top tier.

Latvia and Denmark are anomalies. Staples in the top division. Shocked to win a medal, but would also be shocked to be relegated. Can give top tier teams a hard time on a game to game basis, but are still prone to getting blown out by them. Get most of their points from the call ups from DIV 1A

The rest are the revolving door between the top group and DIV 1A. Might beat a tier 4 team. Most points come from playing other tier 5 teams.

Click to read more...

 

[NyQuil]

Canada is in a tier with Finland, Sweden and the United States.

Russia is sort of N/A at the moment but I would probably include them in the top tier.

From a best-on-best talent perspective, I really don’t see a lot separating Canada from the US at the moment, so if you put a gun to my head and told me to further divide it up, I’d have them together, but I'd rather not.

The state of Canada's goaltending makes me uncomfortable about putting them alone above the other top teams.

Second tier includes the Czechs, Slovakia, Switzerland, Germany, as you have it.

It's pretty hard to evaluate teams based on best-on-best results as there hasn't been a real competition since 2016 (unless you count the World Juniors which tends to favour teams with large hockey populations because of the age restriction), in which case you're pretty much looking at their rosters on paper.

Tiers (teams in no order):

1ST
Canada
Russia
USA
Finland
Sweden

2ND
Czechia
Slovakia
Switzerland
Germany

3RD
Latvia
Denmark
Slovenia

4TH
Norway
France
Belarus
Kazakhstan

5TH
UK
Austria
Italy

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

Canada is simply all alone at the top its way too easy total snooze fest.

So happy for the germans tho huge win this year

 

[Dofs]

Canada is in a tier with Finland, Sweden and the United States.

Russia is sort of N/A at the moment but I would probably include them in the top tier.

From a best-on-best talent perspective, I really don’t see a lot separating Canada from the US at the moment, so if you put a gun to my head and told me to further divide it up, I’d have them together, but I'd rather not.

The state of Canada's goaltending makes me uncomfortable about putting them alone above the other top teams.

Second tier includes the Czechs, Slovakia, Switzerland, Germany, as you have it.

It's pretty hard to evaluate teams based on best-on-best results as there hasn't been a rea. competition since 2016 (unless you count the World Juniors which tends to favour teams with large hockey populations because of the age restriction), in which case you're pretty much looking at their rosters on paper.

Tiers (teams in no order):

1ST
Canada
Russia
USA
Finland
Sweden

2ND
Czechia
Slovakia
Switzerland
Germany

3RD
Latvia
Denmark
Slovenia

4TH
Norway
France
Belarus
Kazakhstan

5TH
UK
Austria
Italy

Slovenia doesn't belong in that tier.

 

[NyQuil]

Slovenia doesn't belong in that tier.

Well, unlike the teams below, they have an actual NHL superstar, so I gave them credit for that.

But it's no big deal, you can move them around if you want.

 

[Albatros]

When it comes to highest-end scoring, a roster based on points-per-game and save percentage in the NHL this season would look like this:

Tkachuk (USA) - McDavid (CAN) - Pastrňák (CZE)
Robertson (USA) - Draisaitl (GER) - Kucherov (RUS)
Stützle (GER) - MacKinnon (CAN) - Rantanen (FIN)
Panarin (RUS) - Pettersson (SWE) - Marner (CAN)

Morrissey (CAN) - Karlsson (SWE)
Hughes (USA) - Makar (CAN)
Dahlin (SWE) - Heiskanen (FIN)

Ullmark (SWE)
Gustavsson (SWE)

It's not an uneven mix between a number of top countries.

 

[NyQuil]

The problem with European countries is that may be more affected by variance in depth owing to their smaller player populations.

At the highest skill levels, they have always been well-represented.

 

[Eye of Ra]

Its not rocket science.

Canada, USA, Russia and Finland is the big 4.

Czechia, Germany, Switzerland, Slovakia, Sweden is next.

 

[Aaaaaaaaaaaaa]

Today?

USA and Canada are top tier. If there was a World Cup, I honestly think the Americans would beat us. Our goaltending is garbage right now.

 

[hypereconomist]

Canada is in a tier with Finland, Sweden and the United States.

Russia is sort of N/A at the moment but I would probably include them in the top tier.

From a best-on-best talent perspective, I really don’t see a lot separating Canada from the US at the moment, so if you put a gun to my head and told me to further divide it up, I’d have them together, but I'd rather not.

The state of Canada's goaltending makes me uncomfortable about putting them alone above the other top teams.

Second tier includes the Czechs, Slovakia, Switzerland, Germany, as you have it.

It's pretty hard to evaluate teams based on best-on-best results as there hasn't been a real competition since 2016 (unless you count the World Juniors which tends to favour teams with large hockey populations because of the age restriction), in which case you're pretty much looking at their rosters on paper.

Tiers (teams in no order):

1ST
Canada
Russia
USA
Finland
Sweden

2ND
Czechia
Slovakia
Switzerland
Germany

3RD
Latvia
Denmark
Slovenia

4TH
Norway
France
Belarus
Kazakhstan

5TH
UK
Austria
Italy

Tiers 1 and 2 make sense. However, move Norway, France, and Belarus up into the third tier, move Slovenia down to the 4th tier, and combine the fourth and fifth tiers.

France has been in the top division for 13 of the past 14 years. Their roster is getting quite old, but they had some good players that are NHLers or fringe NHLers in recent years with Roussell, Da Costa, Bellemare, Auvitu, Texier, etc. They're at least on par with Denmark and Latvia.

Same for Norway, who has been good enough to stay in the top division for the past 18 years. Norway's roster is also getting quite old, but they also have some good players that are NHLers or fringe NHLers that keep them relatively competitive (e.g. Zuccarello, Thoresen, Holos, the Olimb brothers, etc.).

Same for Belarus who have enough depth and top talent (i.e. an NHLer or two and some foreign mercenaries) that have consistently kept them in the top division for the past 15 years.

Slovenia has constantly bounced back and forth between the top division and 1A. They just don't have enough top-end talent or depth to stay up in the top division like Latvia, Norway, and France consistently do.

 

[Hanji]

Top 20 nations. Tiers in alphabetical order.

1st
Canada
Finland
Russia
Sweden
United States

2nd
Czechia

3rd
Germany
Slovakia
Switzerland

4th
Denmark
Latvia

5th
Belarus
France
Norway

6th
Austria
Kazakhstan
Slovenia

7th
Italy
Hungary
United Kingdom

 

[SovietWings]

Tier 1: May beat anyone anyday
Canada

Tier 2: May beat Canada on lucky day
Finland
USA
Sweden

Tier 3: May beat Finland on lucky day
Russia
Czechia
Switzerland

Tier 4: May beat Czechia on your not even that lucky day
Germany
Slovakia

Tier 5: May beat Slovakia time to time
Denmark
Latvia
Belarus
France

Tier 6: Bordeline of Elite group at WHC
Great Britain
Italy
Slovenia
Austria
(Poland?, Hungary?)

Some countries feel borderline between tiers, but hard to tell without any recent best on best matchups..

 

[Albatros]

Tier 1: May beat anyone anyday
Canada

Tier 2: May beat Canada on lucky day
Finland
USA
Sweden

Tier 3: May beat Finland on lucky day
Russia
Czechia
Switzerland

Tier 4: May beat Czechia on your not even that lucky day
Germany
Slovakia

Tier 5: May beat Slovakia time to time
Denmark
Latvia
Belarus
France

Tier 6: Bordeline of Elite group at WHC
Great Britain
Italy
Slovenia
Austria
(Poland?, Hungary?)

Some countries feel borderline between tiers, but hard to tell without any recent best on best matchups..

Add Norway to tier 2.

 

[Lambo]

Add Norway to tier 2.

I think he means it when things get really serious, e.g. in the playoffs,

 

[NyQuil]

Add Norway to tier 2.

This is why Saudi Arabia is in Tier 2 in soccer.

 

[Albatros]

This is why Saudi Arabia is in Tier 2 in soccer.

 

[NyQuil]

I think he means it when things get really serious, e.g. in the playoffs,

He knows, he just can’t help himself.

 

[Namejs]

1st tier
Canada
USA
Sweden
(Russia)

2nd tier
Finland (borderline 1st tier)
Czechia
Switzerland

3rd tier
Germany (borderline 2nd tier)
Slovakia
Latvia
Denmark

4th A tier (permanently stuck at the bottom of the Elite tier)
France
Norway
4th B tier (prone to being elevator teams)
Austria
Kazakhstan
(Belarus)

5th tier
Slovenia
Hungary
GB
Poland
Italy

 

[Czechboy]

Glad to see Czechs tossed in Tier 2... we are in a such a weird spot... clearly behind Canada, US, Finland, Sweden and Russia for NHL players and draft pics. However, we tend to have more of those than the next few countries combined.

We are a very solid 6th. Just existing in our set of weird circumstances.lol

 

[Peiskos]

Today?

USA and Canada are top tier. If there was a World Cup, I honestly think the Americans would beat us. Our goaltending is garbage right now.

Ah yes so confident that a country that has 0 yes 0 gold medals or any win whatsoever at the senior level in the current 21st century is going to beat Canada, the country with following in the same century for comparison.

2002 OG
2003 WC
2004 WC
2004 World Cup
2007 WC
2010 OG
2014 OG
2015 WC
2016 WC
2016 World Cup
2021 WC
2023 WC

Sorry but the US should not be given this respect with the atrocious record they have at the senior level in the 21st century. Canada remains the favourite in any meeting with the US at the senior level in any tournament.

 

[shakes the clown]

Ah yes so confident that a country that has 0 yes 0 gold medals or any win whatsoever at the senior level in the current 21st century is going to beat Canada, the country with following in the same century for comparison.

2002 OG
2003 WC
2004 WC
2004 World Cup
2007 WC
2010 OG
2014 OG
2015 WC
2016 WC
2016 World Cup
2021 WC
2023 WC

Sorry but the US should not be given this respect with the atrocious record they have at the senior level in the 21st century. Canada remains the favourite against the any meeting with the US at the senior level in any tournament.

I think this is the best collection of talent the US has ever had, but you are 100% correct. Until we prove it on the ice there’s no reason to ever put the US ahead of Canada.