The (as-always unofficial) annual federation performance rankings

[MeHateHe]

Rankings! Who doesn't love 'em?

The 2022 championship season finally ended on the weekend with the conclusion of the U20 Division IIB championship. While the IIHF has rankings for men's and women's senior teams, I thought it might be interesting to see which federation is doing best overall.

The IIHF's rankings are a declining scale starting at 1200, with countries earning points based on their results. There is typically a 20-point gap between placements, with the exceptions being between first and second, second and third, third and fourth and then again between 9th and 10th - the rationale being that countries get a bonus for reaching elimination rounds and then for winning elimination games.

Using this system, I'm looking at the overall result of all five levels of championship: senior men, U20 men, U18 men, senior women and U18 women. Because I was looking to get a snapshot of how the federation is performing, I weighted the senior championships considerably higher than the junior tournaments. My rationale is that country that has one good age year can skew their performance and I was looking for a way to make this reflective of the strength of the country's overall performance. So, I scored the country's performance in each championship on the 1200-point scale and then weighted them by gender. So on the men's side, the senior tournament was worth 60%, the U20 was worth 25% and the U18 was worth 15%. On the women's side, the senior tournament was worth 75% and then the U18 tournament was worth 25%. The result was a men's score and a women's score.

	Total Men				Total Women
Fin	1178			Can	1200
Can	1158			USA	1160
Cze	1112			Cze	1110
USA	1104			Swi	1080
Swe	1096			Fin	1075
Swi	1062			Jpn	1065
Ger	1042			Swe	1055
Svk	1004			Hun	1005
Lat	992			Ger	985
Den	933			Fra	940
Aut	921			Den	930
Nor	904			Svk	925
Fra	893			Nor	910
Kaz	881			Aut	875
Ita	809			Ita	830
Hun	802			Pol	825
Slo	795			Ned	820
Gbr	769			Kor	770
Jpn	730			Kaz	740
Kor	720			Gbr	725
Pol	709			Esp	700
Ltu	708			Tpe	700
Ukr	707			Lat	695
Rou	676			Mex	640
Est	672			Aus	630
Srb	598			Chn	615
Ned	570			Isl	615
Cro	569			Tur	600
Esp	569			Slo	540
Isl	495			RSA	405
Isr	484			Cro	390
Bel	479			Ltu	375
Mex	431			Bel	360
Tpe	400			Bul	345
Tur	389			Est	330
Chn	360			Srb	315
Bul	348			BIH	300
RSA	317			Isr	285
BIH	309			Rou	0
Geo	288			Ukr	0
Lux	252			Geo	0
UAE	240			UAE	0
BLR	230			TKM	0
Kgz	229			Lux	0
TKM	216			Tha	0
Tha	168			Kgz	0
Iri	132			Iri	0
Sgp	120			Sgp	0
Mas	108			Mas	0
Aus	105			Kuw	0
Kuw	96			BLR	0

From there, I combined the women's and men's score. At first, I gave them a 50-50 weighting, but given that there are three men's tournaments and two women's tournaments, that didn't sit right for me. So I made the men's score worth 60% and the women's score worth 40%. The following is the result.

	Overall
1	Canada	1174.8
2	Finland	1136.8
3	USA	1126.4
4	Czechia	1111.2
5	Sweden	1079.6
6	Switzerland	1069.2
7	Germany	1019.2
8	Slovakia	972.4
9	Denmark	931.8
10	France	911.8
11	Norway	906.4
12	Austria	902.6
13	Hungary	883.2
14	Latvia	873.2
15	Japan	864
16	Kazakhstan	824.6
17	Italy	817.4
18	Poland	755.4
19	Great Britain	751.4
20	Korea	740
21	Slovenia	693
22	Netherlands	670
23	Spain	621.4
24	Lithuania	574.8
25	Iceland	543
26	Estonia	535.2
27	Taipei	520
28	Mexico	514.6
29	Croatia	497.4
30	Serbia	484.8
31	Turkiye	473.4
32	China	462
33	Belgium	431.4
34	Ukraine	424.2
35	Romania	405.6
36	Israel	404.4
37	South Africa	352.2
38	Bulgaria	346.8
39	Australia	315
40	Bosnia/Herz	305.4
41	Georgia	172.8
42	Luxembourg	151.2
43	UAE	144
44	Belarus	138
45	Kyrgyzstan	137.4
46	Turkmenistan	129.6
47	Thailand	100.8
48	Iran	79.2
49	Singapore	72
50	Malaysia	64.8
51	Kuwait	57.6

That's a lot of numbers. Should this be in the by-the-numbers thread? Too late. Already posted

Click to read more...

 

[Czechboy]

So Czechs were third in Men.. third in women and our combo makes us 4th! I want a recount.lol

Just kidding... well aware, despite rankings, that Czechs are 5th in mens (with no Russia) and somewhere in a very enticing group of ladies between 3 and 8.

I will say though, not many medals but our best season in a long time! These used to be normal but we got lapped...

Semis of U20, Hlinka, U18, Womens worlds and men's worlds.

Only embarrassment was the Olympics!

Both our medals came from our foreign coaches too.

I can't see us replicating that kind of success next season (winning all but one quarter) as U20 will be much stronger at Xmas. A semi win somewhere would be nice though because we were 0 for 5.lol

 

[Czechboy]

five levels of championship: senior men, U20 men, U18 men,

I would include Hlinka.

 

[MeHateHe]

I would include Hlinka.

Nope. Just one official championship at each age level. I also excluded the Olympics, in part because it would exclude leave all the countries that didn't compete with 0 points. Yes, we'd still be comparing like with like - it's the elite countries who benefit or not from the Olympics - but this keeps the scale more or less consistent: a perfect score for a year is 1200 and all countries are then compared to that total.

I mean, this whole exercise has been a bit uneven, I know. I have Latvia finishing both 11th and 7th in the U20 men's tournament - a hiccup from a certain country's bad acts - for example, and there are countries had varying levels of participation. Some had no women's teams. Others had no junior programs. So not every country participated in every event, but every country had an opportunity to participate in every event I have considered, This leaves me with what I think is a fair baseline.

 

[MeHateHe]

As you all know, because you all follow international hockey religiously without fail, the 2023 world championship season concluded this weekend with the women's senior IA championship in China. Thus concluded, I am now able to reveal the federation rankings for 2023.

The rankings are again based on results from the five championships: men's senior, men's U20, men's U18, women's senior and women's u18. I again created men's rankings weighting the senior tournament results at 60%, the U20 at 25% and the U18 results at 15%, and with the women's rankings, I weighted the senior results at 75% and the U18 results at 25%. For the overall rankings, I made the men's total worth 60% and the women's total worth 40% purely because there are three men's tournaments and two women's tournaments. I remain on the fence on all of this. But no one is paying me for any of this, so whatever.

Without further ado, I present the women's and men's rankings thusly:

		Total Women
1	USA	1180
2	Can	1170
3	Cze	1110
4	Swi	1085
5	Swe	1085
6	Fin	1085
7	Jpn	1035
8	Ger	1010
9	Hun	965
10	Fra	955
11	Den	905
12	Svk	895
13	Nor	895
14	Aut	870
15	Ned	835
16	Ita	810
17	Pol	795
18	Kor	795
19	GBR	710
20	Chn	705
21	Esp	695
22	Lat	690
23	Kaz	680
24	Tpe	655
25	Mex	640
26	Aus	605
27	Isl	595
28	Bel	585
29	Slo	555
30	Nzl	545
31	Bul	435
32	Est	415
33	RSA	390
34	Cro	375
35	Hkg	360
36	Ukr	345
37	Ltu	330
38	Rou	315
39	Srb	270
40	Isr	255
41	BIH	240
42	Tur	165
43	Geo	0
44	UAE	0
45	Tkm	0
46	Tha	0
47	Lux	0
48	Kgz	0
49	Sgp	0
50	Iri	0
51	Mas	0
52	Phi	0
53	Mgl	0
54	Kuw	0
55	Ina	0

		Total Men
1	Can	1188
2	USA	1120
3	Ger	1095
4	Swe	1085
5	Lat	1075
6	Swi	1067
7	Cze	1058
8	Fin	1056
9	Svk	1018
10	Kaz	935
11	Den	929
12	Nor	922
13	Fra	903
14	Aut	888
15	Hun	868
16	Slo	831
17	Ita	760
18	Pol	758
19	Jpn	746
20	GBR	741
21	Kor	730
22	Ukr	720
23	Ltu	682
24	Rou	667
25	Est	645
26	Chn	605
27	Ned	594
28	Cro	586
29	Esp	578
30	Srb	571
31	Aus	482
32	Isl	464
33	Isr	459
34	Bel	456
35	Bul	415
36	Tpe	390
37	Mex	376
38	Tur	371
39	Nzl	366
40	Geo	324
41	RSA	282
42	UAE	264
43	Tha	198
44	Lux	195
45	Tkm	180
46	BIH	174
47	Hkg	153
48	Kgz	132
49	Sgp	96
50	Iri	72
51	Mas	60
52	Phi	48
53	Mgl	36
54	Kuw	24
55	Ina	12

And overall, we get this.

1	Canada	1180.8
2	USA	1144
3	Sweden	1085
4	Czechia	1078.8
5	Switzerland	1074.2
6	Finland	1067.6
7	Germany	1061
8	Slovakia	968.8
9	France	923.8
10	Latvia	921
11	Denmark	919.4
12	Norway	911.2
13	Hungary	906.8
14	Austria	880.8
15	Japan	861.6
16	Kazahkstan	833
17	Italy	780
18	Poland	772.8
19	South Korea	756
20	Great Britain	728.6
21	Slovenia	720.6
22	Netherlands	690.4
23	China	645
24	Spain	624.8
25	Ukraine	570
26	Estonia	553
27	Lithuania	541.2
28	Australia	531.2
29	Romania	526.2
30	Iceland	516.4
31	Belgium	507.6
32	Croatia	501.6
33	Chinese Taipei	496
34	Mexico	481.6
35	Serbia	450.6
36	New Zealand	437.6
37	Bulgaria	423
38	Israel	377.4
39	South Africa	325.2
40	Turkey	288.6
41	Hong Kong	235.8
42	Bosnia/Herz	200.4
43	Georgia	194.4
44	UAE	158.4
45	Thailand	118.8
46	Luxembourg	117
47	Turkmenistan	108
48	Kyrgyzstan	79.2
49	Singapore	57.6
50	Iran	43.2
51	Malaysia	36
52	Philippines	28.8
53	Mongolia	21.6
54	Kuwait	14.4
55	Indonesia	7.2

A quick analysis from me. Countries with strong men's programs but weak women's programs certainly show in this analysis. Latvia had a bronze in the men's senior championship, but their women's program is rated 22nd, so they fell hard. Japan and France both had better results in the women's side than in the men's, so they picked up a little overall. China would have finished higher, but they didn't send a team to the women's U18 tournament, so their ranking is a little misleading.

A whole bunch of countries have no women's programs at all and only fledgling men's programs.

New entries to the championships this year were Indonesia and Philippines, the latter of which won their tournament.

And finally, if more teams join or teams that are currently not participating ever come to their senses and are allowed back in, the current ranking system will have to be tweaked. A ranking system that starts at 1200 and drops the way it does, can only accommodate 55 teams.

 

[Czechboy]

Thanks for doing this! Fun to see how it works out. I still think Hlinka should count. I know you don't... It's not a complaint.

Goodman would point out that the two Czech teams deploying D first tactics killed our rankings this time. Hopefully more fun and aggressive Czech teams at U18 (where I think we could be a medal contender for once) and Skodas in Prague would be nice. U20 is already attractive hockey and I like the new coach.

Skodas has a good coach and a lot of Czech busts have returned to Europe so I think we may have a nice talent pool to chose from for Skoda Cup standards... Kral, Frk, Galvas, Kase come to mind. SJ looks nowhere near a playoff contender and that could be Hertl, Rutta and Simek. Anaheim and Arizona could provide Vlejmelka and Dostal. Some nice potential starting pieces for Prague! Krejci and cervenka swan song too.

 

[martygod12]

Thanks for doing this! Fun to see how it works out. I still think Hlinka should count. I know you don't... It's not a complaint.

Goodman would point out that the two Czech teams deploying D first tactics killed our rankings this time. Hopefully more fun and aggressive Czech teams at U18 (where I think we could be a medal contender for once) and Skodas in Prague would be nice. U20 is already attractive hockey and I like the new coach.

Skodas has a good coach and a lot of Czech busts have returned to Europe so I think we may have a nice talent pool to chose from for Skoda Cup standards... Kral, Frk, Galvas, Kase come to mind. SJ looks nowhere near a playoff contender and that could be Hertl, Rutta and Simek. Anaheim and Arizona could provide Vlejmelka and Dostal. Some nice potential starting pieces for Prague! Krejci and cervenka swan song too.

Hopefully Havlat wont have much effect in dealing with NHL/NA players and Nedved will do all the work lol ...

I am so furious how this clown is still part of the NT staff somehow ... He was the worst of them all

 

[Czechboy]

Hopefully Havlat wont have much effect in dealing with NHL/NA players and Nedved will do all the work lol ...

I am so furious how this clown is still part of the NT staff somehow ... He was the worst of them all

He was awful... One of my fav hockey players growing up. Shame.

Still trying to figure out what zidlicky does.lol.

Those NHL visits are bullshit anyways. They see Pastrnak and a few guys and then the extraliga. Fischer was excellent and he seemed to understand.

 

[Goodman68]

He was awful... One of my fav hockey players growing up. Shame.

Still trying to figure out what zidlicky does.lol.

Those NHL visits are bullshit anyways. They see Pastrnak and a few guys and then the extraliga. Fischer was excellent and he seemed to understand.

Židlický took care of the defenders' play for the U20 team. I think he did quite well.. I assume it will be exactly the same for men.

 

[Czechboy]

Židlický took care of the defenders' play for the U20 team. I think he did quite well.. I assume it will be exactly the same for men.

He was hired with havlat as an assistant for the NT ... They were hired on same day. I can't think of a single thing he did for senior narodak!

 

[Goodman68]

He was hired with havlat as an assistant for the NT ... They were hired on same day. I can't think of a single thing he did for senior narodak!

Někdejší hvězdy NHL pomůžou dvacítce: K Pavelcovi přibyl Židlický

 

[Czechboy]

Někdejší hvězdy NHL pomůžou dvacítce: K Pavelcovi přibyl Židlický

.

I agree he helped the junior team. Saw him on the bench.

What did he do for senior team at world's?

 

[Goodman68]

.

I agree he helped the junior team. Saw him on the bench.

What did he do for senior team at world's?

So if he moved as Rulík's assistant to the A team now.. What kind of question is that?

 

[Czechboy]

So if he moved as Rulík's assistant to the A team now.. What kind of question is that?

The tweet is from before the WJCs and before the last world championships. September 2022... He was announced same day as havlat was.

 

[Goodman68]

The tweet is from before the WJCs and before the last world championships. September 2022... He was announced same day as havlat was.

I'm honestly a little confused right now. It is clear that he did nothing as assistant GM, after all, right from the beginning only Havlát was written about as an assistant, Židlický was already with the U20 team at that time. I think you forgot me and now you don't want to admit it..
Was it a mistake to appoint him to that position? It is obvious from your example that it does. Did he do anything for the national team? Apparently only with the U20 team so far, so does that mean he's useless? Obviously not and he can be useful for the national team if he is only joining the men's team now.