Ice hockey at the 2018 Winter Olympics – Men's qualification explained

Qualification for the men's tournament at the 2018 Winter Olympics was determined by the IIHF World Ranking following the 2015 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships. The host along with the top eight teams in the world ranking received automatic berths into the Olympics, while all other teams had an opportunity to qualify for the remaining three spots in the Olympics.[1] This was the fourth time world rankings were used but the first time that the championships three years prior was used as the final determination.

Qualified teams

EventDateLocationVacanciesQualified
Hosts19 September 2014[2] Tenerife1
2015 IIHF World Ranking2 April 2012 – 17 May 2015 Prague and Ostrava8[3]






Final qualification tournament1–4 September 2016 Minsk1
Final qualification tournament1–4 September 2016 Riga1
Final qualification tournament1–4 September 2016 Oslo1
Total12
Notes

Qualification seeding

To qualify directly, a nation had to be ranked in the top eight following the 2015 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships. Using the IIHF World Ranking points system, the current year received full value, and each preceding year was worth 25% less. Teams that wished to compete had to apply in April 2015. The following is a ranking based on points already accumulated toward Olympic qualification of all countries participating in 2015.

Points were earned based on overall finish in 2015:

Place 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 ...
Points 1200 1160 1120 1100 1060 1040 1020 1000 960 940 920 900 880 860 840 820 800 780 760 740 ...
    Qualified directly to Olympic Tournament
    Entered qualifying in the final round
    Entered qualifying in the preliminary round 2
    Entered qualifying in the preliminary round 1
Qualifying seedwidth=165TeamWC 2015WC 2014OLY 2014WC 2013WC 2012Total
1 1200 795 900 530 265 3690
2 1160 900 795 520 300 3675
3 1060 840 870 600 260 3630
4 1040 870 840 550 275 3575
5 1120 780 825 560 255 3540
6 1100 825 780 510 280 3495
7 1000 705 720 580 230 3235
8 960 720 690 500 290 3160
9 1020 765 645 430 215 3075
10 880 690 750 460 235 3015
11 920 675 675 470 250 2990
12 900 750 600 440 240 2930
13 940 645 630 480 225 2920
14 820 600 765 410 200 2795
15 860 660 585 450 220 2775
16 840 585 705 420 195 2745
17 800 615 660 400 205 2680
18 720 630 615 390 210 2565
19 780 540 525 380 190 2415
20 740 570 480 370 185 2345
21 700 555 540 340 175 2310
22 760 510 510 330 165 2275
Hosts 680 525 495 360 170 2230
23 660 465 570 350 180 2225
24 580 450 555 320 160 2065
25 640 480 465 300 150 2035
26 620 495 405 280 130 1930
27 560 435 435 310 155 1895
28 600 420 420 290 140 1870
29 520 390 375 240 120 1645
30 500 330 450 230 135 1645
31 400 315 390 200 95 1400
32 360 345 360 220 90 1375
540 360 0 270 110 1280
33 480 405 0 260 125 1270
460 375 0 250 145 1230
420 300 0 210 115 1045
34 440 285 0 190 105 1020
35 380 240 0 170 100 890
340 270 0 160 85 855
300 255 0 180 80 815
320 225 0 150 75 770
280 210 0 140 70 700
220 180 0 110 0 510
36 240 165 0 90 0 495
260 195 0 0 0 455
200 0 0 0 0 200

Preliminary round 1

The two lowest ranked participants played off for the right to compete in this round on 10 October 2015, in Sofia, Bulgaria. The round itself was played from 5 to 8 November 2015. The winner of each group advanced to the pre-qualification tournaments as qualifiers seven and eight ranked according their seeding.[4]

Group K

Games were played at Tallinn, Estonia.[5]

All times are local (UTC+2).

Group L

Games were played in Valdemoro, Spain.

All times are local (UTC+1).

Preliminary round 2

Three round robins were played from 11 to 14 February 2016. The teams seeded 18th, 19th, and 20th reserved the right to host these tournaments. The winners of each advanced to the final qualification tournaments as qualifiers four, five, and six, ranked according to their seeding.

Group G

Games were played at Cortina, Italy.

All times are local (UTC+1).

Group H

Games were played at the László Papp Budapest Sports Arena at Budapest, Hungary.[6]

All times are local (UTC+1).

Group J

Games were played in Sapporo, Japan.[7]

All times are local (UTC+9).

Final qualification

Three round robins were played from 1 to 4 September 2016. The teams seeded 9th, 10th, and 11th reserved the right to host these tournaments. The top two seeded group winners qualified for the Olympic tournament Group C, and the third seeded group winner qualified for Group B.

Group D

Games were played in Minsk, Belarus.[8]

All times are local (UTC+3).

Group E

Games were played in Riga, Latvia.[9]

All times are local (UTC+3).

Group F

Games were played in Oslo, Norway.

All times are local (UTC+2).

Notes and References

  1. Web site: 2018 Olympic Winter Games. . 19 March 2015.
  2. Web site: Korea headed to the Olympics. 19 September 2014 . Adam . Steiss . . 19 March 2015.
  3. Web site: 2018 Olympic Winter Games. . 19 March 2015.
  4. Web site: Olympic Qualification set. 15 May 2015. iihfworlds2015.com.
  5. Web site: Katowice confirmed as host. IIHF. 24 September 2015.
  6. Web site: Budapest hosts in February. IIHF. 17 July 2015.
  7. Web site: Sapporo selected. IIHF. 2 July 2015.
  8. Web site: Minsk preparing for OQ. IIHF. 28 March 2016.
  9. Web site: Gegner am Weg zu Olympia 2018. eishockey.at. 17 February 2016. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20160321043729/http://www.eishockey.at/nationalteams/news/datum/2016/02/17/gegner-am-weg-zu-olympia-2018/. 21 March 2016.

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