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
←  2022 2030  →

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

Main article: Ice hockey at the 2026 Winter Olympics – Men's qualification

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

1. ^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.
2. ^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.
3. ^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

Main article: Ice hockey at the 2026 Winter Olympics – Men's team 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:

1. 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);
2. In case two teams tied on points, the result of their head-to-head match determines the ranking;
3. 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	Pld	W	OTW	OTL	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Canada	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Quarterfinals
2	Czechia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Possible quarterfinals based on ranking
3	Switzerland	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Playoffs
4	France	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

First match(es) will be played: 12 February 2025. Source: ^{[ citation needed ]}
Rules for classification: Preliminary round tiebreakers

12 February 2026 (2026-02-12) 12:10 v

Switzerland

v

France

PalaItalia Santa Giulia, Milan

12 February 2026 (2026-02-12) 16:40 v

Czechia

v

Canada

PalaItalia Santa Giulia, Milan

---

13 February 2026 (2026-02-13) 16:40 v

France

v

Czechia

PalaItalia Santa Giulia, Milan

13 February 2026 (2026-02-13) 21:10 v

Canada

v

Switzerland

PalaItalia Santa Giulia, Milan

---

15 February 2026 (2026-02-15) 12:10 v

Switzerland

v

Czechia

PalaItalia Santa Giulia, Milan

15 February 2026 (2026-02-15) 16:40 v

Canada

v

France

PalaItalia Santa Giulia, Milan

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	OTW	OTL	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Finland	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Quarterfinals
2	Sweden	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Possible quarterfinals based on ranking
3	Slovakia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Playoffs
4	Italy (H)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

First match(es) will be played: 11 February 2025. Source: ^{[ citation needed ]}
Rules for classification: Preliminary round tiebreakers
(H) Host

11 February 2026 (2026-02-11) 16:40 v

Slovakia

v

Finland

PalaItalia Santa Giulia, Milan

11 February 2026 (2026-02-11) 21:10 v

Sweden

v

Italy

PalaItalia Santa Giulia, Milan

---

13 February 2026 (2026-02-13) 12:10 v

Finland

v

Sweden

PalaItalia Santa Giulia, Milan

13 February 2026 (2026-02-13) 12:10 v

Italy

v

Slovakia

Fiera Milano, Milan

---

14 February 2026 (2026-02-14) 12:10 v

Sweden

v

Slovakia

PalaItalia Santa Giulia, Milan

14 February 2026 (2026-02-14) 16:40 v

Finland

v

Italy

PalaItalia Santa Giulia, Milan

Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	OTW	OTL	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	United States	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Quarterfinals
2	Germany	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Possible quarterfinals based on ranking
3	Latvia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Playoffs
4	Denmark	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

First match(es) will be played: 11 February 2025. Source: ^{[ citation needed ]}
Rules for classification: Preliminary round tiebreakers

12 February 2026 (2026-02-12) 21:10 v

Latvia

v

United States

PalaItalia Santa Giulia, Milan

12 February 2026 (2026-02-12) 21:10 v

Germany

v

Denmark

Fiera Milano, Milan

---

14 February 2026 (2026-02-14) 12:10 v

Germany

v

Latvia

Fiera Milano, Milan

14 February 2026 (2026-02-14) 21:10 v

United States

v

Denmark

PalaItalia, Milan

---

15 February 2026 (2026-02-15) 19:10 v

Denmark

v

Latvia

Fiera Milano, Milan

15 February 2026 (2026-02-15) 21:10 v

United States

v

Germany

PalaItalia Santa Giulia, Milan

Ranking after preliminary round

Following the completion of the preliminary round, all teams will be ranked 1D through 12D. The semifinals will then be reseeded according to this ranking. To determine this ranking, the following criteria will be used in the order presented: ^[7]

1. higher position in the group
2. higher number of points
3. better goal difference
4. higher number of goals scored for
5. better IIHF World Ranking.

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

Playoff round

Bracket

Teams will be reseeded based on the preliminary round ranking after the quarterfinals.

Playoffs

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Gold medal game

18 February

17 February

20 February

18 February

17 February

22 February

18 February

17 February

20 February

Bronze medal game

18 February

21 February

17 February

Playoffs

17 February 2026 (2026-02-17) 12:10 v

TBD

v

TBD

PalaItalia Santa Giulia, Milan

---

17 February 2026 (2026-02-17) 12:10 v

TBD

v

TBD

Fiera Milano, Milan

---

17 February 2026 (2026-02-17) 16:40 v

TBD

v

TBD

PalaItalia Santa Giulia, Milan

---

17 February 2026 (2026-02-17) 21:10 v

TBD

v

TBD

PalaItalia Santa Giulia, Milan

Quarterfinals

18 February 2026 (2026-02-18) 12:10 v

TBD

v

TBD

PalaItalia Santa Giulia, Milan

---

18 February 2026 (2026-02-18) 14:10 v

TBD

v

TBD

Fiera Milano, Milan

---

18 February 2026 (2026-02-18) 16:40 v

TBD

v

TBD

PalaItalia Santa Giulia, Milan

---

18 February 2026 (2026-02-18) 21:10 v

TBD

v

TBD

PalaItalia Santa Giulia, Milan

Semifinals

20 February 2026 (2026-02-20) 16:40 v

TBD

v

TBD

PalaItalia Santa Giulia, Milan

---

20 February 2026 (2026-02-20) 21:10 v

TBD

v

TBD

PalaItalia Santa Giulia, Milan

Bronze medal game

21 February 2026 (2026-02-21) 20:40 v

TBD

v

TBD

PalaItalia Santa Giulia, Milan

Gold medal game

22 February 2026 (2026-02-22) 14:10 v

TBD

v

TBD

PalaItalia Santa Giulia, Milan

Final ranking

The places five to twelve were ranked by their preliminary round group placement and then points and goal difference.

Pos	Grp	Team	Pld	W	OTW	OTL	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Final result
1		TBD	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Champions
2		TBD	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Runners-up
3		TBD	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Third place
4		TBD	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Fourth place
5		TBD	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Eliminated in quarterfinals
6		TBD	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
7		TBD	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
8		TBD	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
9		TBD	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Eliminated in playoffs
10		TBD	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
11		TBD	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
12		TBD	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

First match(es) will be played: 11 February 2025. Source: ^{[ citation needed ]}

References

1. "Milano Cortina 2026: Complete ice hockey schedule. Register to see your favourite ice hockey stars at the Games". olympics.com. Retrieved 18 June 2025.
2. Kaplan, Emily (4 February 2025). "IIHF extends competition ban for Russia, Belarus". ESPN.com. Retrieved 13 April 2025.
3. "Winter Olympics: Italy's Milan-Cortina bid chosen as host for the 2026 Games". BBC. 24 June 2019. Archived from the original on 10 September 2019. Retrieved 24 June 2019.
4. "The announcement – Russia banned from the 2026 Olympics (in Swedish)". HockeyNews.SE. Retrieved 25 May 2025.
5. "NHL players to return to Olympics in 2026 and 2030". CNN.com. 2 February 2024. Retrieved 3 February 2024.
6. "Olympic schedule: 58 games, 22 teams, two gold medals". iihf.com. Retrieved 17 June 2025.
7. "Tournament Info". IIHF.com. Retrieved 18 June 2025.

External links

• IIHF website