Ice hockey at the 2026 Winter Olympics – Men's tournament

2026 Winter Olympics
Tournament details
Host country	Italy
Venue(s)	2 (in 1 host city)
Dates	11–22 February
Teams	12

The men's tournament in ice hockey at the 2026 Winter Olympics will take place in Milan, Italy between 11 and 22 February 2026.^[1] Twelve countries qualified for the tournament; eight of them did so automatically by virtue of their ranking by the International Ice Hockey Federation, one, Italy, automatically qualified as hosts, while the three others took part in a qualification tournament.

Russia is banned from competing due to the countries' invasion of Ukraine.^[2]

Venues

PalaItalia Capacity: 16,000	Fiera Milano Capacity: 6,500

Milan	Beijing

Qualified teams

Event	Date	Location	Vacancies	Qualified
Hosts	24 June 2019^[3]	Lausanne	1	Italy
2023 IIHF World Ranking^[a]	2 June 2023	—	7	Canada Finland United States Germany Sweden Switzerland Czech Republic
Final qualification tournaments	29 August – 1 September 2024	Bratislava	1	Slovakia
		Riga	2	Latvia France^[c]
		Aalborg	1	Denmark
Total			12

Notes

^a The 2023 IIHF World Ranking comprised the following events: 2020 World Championship, 2021 World Championship, 2022 Winter Olympic Games, 2022 World Championship and 2023 World Championship.
^b Tampere and Riga were the sites of the 2023 IIHF World Championship; at the conclusion of the tournament the ranking and direct qualification slots were finalized.
^c According to IIHF president Luc Tardif, though not official, it is expected that the IOC will inform the Russian Olympic Committee that they will not be allowed to participate in Milan-Cortina.^[4] This means that France replaces them both in the men's and women's tournament, filling the final seed in both.

Format

The twelve teams are split into three groups of four teams each, in which they play against each team once. The top team of each group and the best second-ranked team advance to the quarterfinals, while all other teams play a qualification round. A knockout system will be used after the group stage.

Rosters

NHL participation

On 2 February 2024, the IIHF announced that an agreement had been reached with the National Hockey League (NHL) for a break in its regular season to allow the league's players to participate in the Olympics for the first time since 2014. The NHL was originally scheduled to compete in 2022 as well but opted out due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[5]

Preliminary round

All times are local (UTC+1).^[6]

Tiebreak criteria

In each group, teams are ranked according to the following criteria:

Number of points (three points for a regulation-time win, two points for an overtime or shootout win, one point for an overtime or shootout defeat, no points for a regulation-time defeat);
In case two teams tied on points, the result of their head-to-head match determines the ranking;
In case three or four teams are tied on points, the following criteria apply (if, after applying a criterion, only two teams remained tied, the result of their head-to-head match determined their ranking):
1. Points obtained in head-to-head matches between the teams concerned;
2. Goal differential in head-to-head matches between the teams concerned;
3. Number of goals scored in head-to-head matches between the teams concerned;
4. If three teams remained tied, result of head-to-head matches between each of the teams concerned and the remaining team in the group (points, goal difference, goals scored);
5. Place in 2025 IIHF World Ranking.

Group A

Pos	Team	Qualification
1	Canada	Quarterfinals
2	Czechia	Possible quarterfinals based on ranking
3	Switzerland	Playoffs
4	France	Playoffs

First match(es) will be played: 12 February 2025. Source:
Rules for classification: Preliminary round tiebreakers

12 February 2026
12:10
v

Switzerland

v

Team advanced directly to quarterfinals
Team participated in playoffs

Rank	Team	Group	Pos	GP	Pts	GD	GF	IIHF Rank
1D
2D
3D
4D
5D
6D
7D
8D
9D
10D
11D
12D

Venues

Qualified teams

Format

Rosters

NHL participation

Preliminary round

Tiebreak criteria

Group A

Group B

Group C

Ranking after preliminary round

Playoff round

Bracket

Playoffs

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Bronze medal game

Gold medal game

Final ranking

References

External links