With the USA defeating Switzerland 1-0 in overtime in the final of the 2025 IIHF World Championship, the Americans overtake the Swiss and take over the top of the ranking. Well, actually, they’re second behind Russia, which will not be reinstated for the 2026 World Championship.

It should be noted that tournament organizers – IE, the host country – have the option of swapping two teams for the purpose of boosting attendance, although there doesn’t seem to be any obvious reason to do so at this point. Had France qualified, organizers would surely want to place that team in Fribourg, but France was relegated from this year’s tournament.

As such, using the serpentine or snake seeding system, here are the way the groups could look for next season, with host Switzerland being placed in the primary host city of Zurich.

Zurich Group – (3) Switzerland, (4) Canada, (7) Finland, (8) Germany, (11) Latvia, (12) Austria, (18) Hungary, (19) Great Britain.

Fribourg Group – (2) USA, (5) Sweden, (6) Czechia, (9) Denmark, (10) Slovakia, (13) Norway, (17) Slovenia, (20) Italy.

As noted, top-ranked Russia is suspended, as is 16th-ranked Belarus. Seeds 14 and 15, Kazakhstan and France, finished last in their groups this year and have been relegated to Division I, Group A.

Photo © David Kirouac-Imagn Images: USA players celebrating a goal at the 4 Nations Face-Off.

IIHF President Luc Tardif Clarifies Position On Russia At Olympics On Sunday in Stockholm, before the bronze-medal game, the IIHF held it’s annual press conference to on the final day of the World Championship.