The Brits have arrived in Prague.

That alone is nothing new as the city is regularly full of British tourists, but for the next two weeks, the British national ice hockey team will be in town. So will their fans. Lots of them. While hockey isn't the most popular sport in the UK, its popularity is growing and fans of the national team travel notoriously well.

In fact, the British team has been in Czechia for a while now, holding a mini-camp in Slaný and playing an exhibition game against Kazakhstan, falling 5-2.

While the team doesn’t enter the tournament with huge expectations, this will be Great Britain’s fourth appearance in the last five World Championships. Their first game against Canada will be a tall task, to say the least, but there should be points for the taking on the table against the likes of Austria or Norway. 

This is the British team’s first World Championship since 2009 without longtime captain Jonathan Phillips, who retired from the national team after leading GB to a Division I Group A win on home ice last year. Robert Dowd is the new captain.

The British player that will draw the most attention by far is 24-year-old forward Liam Kirk. A former Arizona Coyotes draft pick, Kirk was the Top Forward at the 2021 World Championship with a tournament-leading seven goals. He then missed the next year and without him, GB was relegated. Local Czechs are especially familiar with Kirk, who just finished a great season in the Extraliga where he recorded 43 points in 65 games for HC Litvínov. Kirk is heavily rumoured to be headed to German club Eisbären Berlin.

Most of the team is rooted in the Elite Ice Hockey League, but they also have a couple of players in Germany, one in Austria, and 22-year-old Cade Neilson, who is just coming off his sophomore NCAA season at the University of Alaska-Anchorage. Neilson’s recorded 23 points in 15 games in the World Championships or Olympic Qualifying the past two years, so he’ll be expected to contribute offensively as well.

Goaltenders (3):
Ben Bowns (Cardiff Devils), Lucas Brine (Dundee Stars), Jackson Whistle (Belfast Giants).

Defensemen (9):
Josh Batch (Cardiff Devils), Nathanael Halbert (HC Innsbruck, ICEHL), Sam Jones (Sheffield Steelers), Evan Mosey (Cardiff Devils), Ben O'Connor (Guildford Flames), David Phillips (Belfast Giants), Mark Richardson (Cardiff Devils), Sam Ruopp (Lausitzer Füchse, GER2), Joshua Tetlow (Nottingham Panthers).

Forwards (13):
Oliver Betteridge (Nottingham Panthers), Cameron Critchlow (Manchester Storm), Johnny Curran (Coventry Blaze), Ben Davies (Cardiff Devils), Robert Dowd (Sheffield Steelers), Samuel Duggan (Cardiff Devils), Liam Kirk (HC VERVA Litvínov, CZE), Robert Lachowicz (Glasgow Clan), Ben Lake (Belfast Giants), Cade Neilson (Univ. of Alaska-Fairbanks, NCAA), Sean Norris (Belfast Giants), Brett Perlini (Saale Bulls Halle, GER3), Cole Shudra (Sheffield Steelers).