May 2, 2016

2016 IIHF Men’s Ice Hockey World Championship

Here is a look at some of the FAQs as well as predictions from The Hockey Fanatic for the Tournament.

IIHF Men’s Ice Hockey World Championship FAQs

Where is the World Championship of Hockey in 2016? The 2016 IIHF Men’s Ice Hockey World Championship will be taking place in Russia from May 6 until May 22.

How many teams are in the IIHF World Championship tournament? There are sixteen teams in the tournament which are broken out into two groups.

The 16 teams are divided into two groups for the Preliminary Round.

Which teams are in which groupings for the 2016 IIHF Men’s WHC? The groupings for the preliminary round look like this:

Group A IIHF Hockey Grouping

Russia

Sweden

Czech Republic

Switzerland

Latvia

Norway

Denmark

Kazakhstan

Group B IIHF Hockey Grouping

Canada

Finland

United States

Slovakia

Belarus

France

Germany

Hungary

What is the format for this tournament? The top-four ranked teams of each group advance to the quarter-finals that will be played cross-over. The first-place team in each preliminary-round group plays the fourth-place team of the other group, while the second-place team plays the third-place team of the other group. 1A-4B, 2A-3B, 1B-4A, 2B-3A. The winning teams advance to the semi-finals. Additional information on the format can be found here.

Where will games be played? Games will be held in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia.

Where can i find a schedule of round one games and TV times? TSN has a great schedule of the prelim round games which you can view here. Opening day games begin Friday, May 6 with the highlight game being Canada vs the Unites States.

How are teams relegated? The overall bottom ranked two of the 16 teams of the final ranking will be relegated to the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division I Group A.

The 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship will consist of 16 teams including the teams of the organizing member national associations, thus neither Germany nor France can be among the two relegated teams. The teams promoted to the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship will be the top-two teams of the 2016 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division I Group A.

Note: If the co-hosts for the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship (Germany and France) end up in positions 7 and 8 in Group B during the 2016 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship, only one team will be relegated – the 8th-ranked team of Group A – and only the winner of the 2016 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division I Group A will be promoted.

What does Team Canada’s roster look like for the 2016 IIHF Men’s World Championship look like? Team Canada will be icing a strong roster of players that currently include:

Forwards

Max Domi (Toronto/Arizona Coyotes)
Brendan Gallagher (Tsawwassen, B.C./Montreal Canadiens)
Boone Jenner (Dorchester, Ont./Columbus Blue Jackets)
Connor McDavid (Newmarket, Ont./Edmonton Oilers)
Brad Marchand (Hammonds Plains, N.S./Boston Bruins)
Sam Reinhart (West Vancouver, B.C./Buffalo Sabres)
Mark Scheifele (Kitchener, Ont./Winnipeg Jets)
Mark Stone (Winnipeg/Ottawa Senators)
Matt Duchene (Haliburton, Ont./Colorado Avalanche)
Taylor Hall (Calgary, AB/Edmonton Oilers)
Ryan O’Reilly (Varna, Ont./Buffalo Sabres)
Corey Perry (Peterborough, ON/Anaheim Ducks)
Derick Brassard. (Hull, QC/New York Rangers)

Defencemen

Cody Ceci (Orleans, Ont./Ottawa Senators)
Ben Hutton (Prescott, Ont./Vancouver Canucks)
Ryan Murray (White City, Sask./Columbus Blue Jackets)
Morgan Rielly (West Vancouver, B.C./Toronto Maple Leafs)
Chris Tanev (Toronto/Vancouver Canucks)
Matt Dumba (Regin, SK /Minnesota Wild)

Goaltenders

Calvin Pickard (Winnipeg/Colorado Avalanche)
Cam Talbot (Caledonia,Ont./Edmonton Oilers)

Who is the favorite to win in the tournament? This should be an interesting tournament this year. There are a number of great teams. Check out our predictions below. Favorites for this tournament would have to be the United States, host nation Russia, Sweden, Finland and Canada.