World Championship Quarterfinals Are Set: One Player To Watch Per Team

The 2026 World Championship has completed the round-robin phase.

The quarterfinals take place on Thursday when Finland face Czechia at 10:20 a.m. ET, Canada play Team USA at 10:20 a.m. ET, Switzerland play Sweden at 2:20 p.m. ET and Norway take on Latvia at 2:20 p.m. ET.

In the preliminary round, the hosts, Team Switzerland, topped Group A with a perfect 7-0-0-0 record, while Team Canada finished atop Group B with six regulation wins and an overtime win.

With those confirmed matchups between those eight teams, here is one player to watch from each quarterfinalist at the 2026 World Championship.

Aleksander Barkov was always a player to keep an eye on going into this tournament, given that he missed the NHL regular season with MCL and ACL tears.

Despite the long-term injury and lack of action leading up to this World Championship, the Finnish captain hasn't lost his step.

In seven round-robin games, Barkov scored two goals and six assists for eight points. He's tied for Finland's scoring lead with Jesse Puljujarvi and Henri Jokiharju.

Finland finished the preliminary round with six regulation wins and one regulation loss to finish second in Group A.

Team Czechia dropped its last two games leading up to Thursday's quarterfinal clash against Finland. Roman Cervenka was held off the scoresheet in the losses to Norway and Canada.

But in Czechia's last win against Slovakia on Saturday, Cervanka was a major contributor in the narrow 3-2 victory, recording the game-winning goal and an assist. Considering Czechia finished with two more points than Slovakia, that win likely made the difference between advancing past the preliminary round and heading home early.

The 40-year-old, who played 39 career NHL games for the Calgary Flames in 2012-13, has been Czechia's longtime captain at the Worlds. He continues to help lead his nation with two goals and four points in the seven round-robin outings.

Macklin Celebrini has been by far the best player for Team Canada to this point in the tournament.

Canada's captain has five goals and 11 points in seven games, nipping at the heels of the competition's scoring leader, Switzerland's Sven Andrighetto.

The 19-year-old has thrived in an elevated role with the national team, and whenever it seemed like the Canadians were in trouble, he stepped up to save the day. 

In Canada's final round-robin game against Czechia, when they were down 2-0, Celebrini scored twice to help his team come back and win the game.

Celebrini and the Canadians lost to Team USA at the Olympics. Beating the Americans in the quarterfinals at the World Championship wouldn't be complete revenge, but it would be a step toward getting Canada a gold medal this year.

Team USA had a rocky start to the World Championship. In fact, they were one of the worst teams in the competition after five games with a win against Great Britain, a shootout win against Germany and losses to Switzerland, Finland and Latvia.

Joseph Woll had a stretch of poor performances, and the Americans looked to Devin Cooley instead.

Cooley's done well for Team USA with a 1.70 goals-against average and a .930 save percentage in five games, compared to Woll's 4.65 GAA and .761 SP in three outings.

Team USA was able to right the ship, claiming the fourth spot in Group A with a round-robin record of 3-1-0-3.

Switzerland has been the best team at the 2026 World Championship so far.

While Andrighetto has been amazing for the Swiss, the player to watch for the host nation should be Timo Meier, who is tied for the second-most points in the competition. He has three goals and 11 points in seven games.

Meier has been viewed as a passenger in the NHL and hasn't come close to his career-high 76 points set in the 2021-22 season. But on the international stage, he's a big piece of Switzerland's puzzle, making them a contender to win gold for the first time in IIHF World Championship history.

There was plenty of intrigue about what Ivar Stenberg could accomplish at the World Championship for Sweden before the NHL draft. He still sits first in some draft rankings despite Gavin McKenna being a popular projected No. 1 pick.

Sternberg, 18, has been stellar at this tournament. He's tied for second in team scoring with four goals and eight points in seven contests. 

With that, the youngster has provided some highlight-reel goals and plays, justifying his projection for the upcoming draft.

Sweden finished the preliminary round with a 4-0-0-3 record, claiming the last qualifying spot in Group B.

Norway has been a pleasant surprise in this tournament, finishing the round-robin in second place in Group B. They pulled off impressive victories over Sweden and Czechia, and they nearly pulled off an upset against Canada in an overtime loss.

Nonetheless, Tinus Luc Koblar has led the way for the Norwegians in a big way and pushed them to be the dark horse of the campaign.

The 18-year-old and second-round pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2025 has scored five goals and eight points, producing at a similar rate to Sidney Crosby (nine points), Roman Josi (eight points) and Barkov (eight points).

Latvia can also be considered a dark horse, finishing third in Group A with a 4-0-0-3 record.

Former NHL player Rudolfs Balcers has been one of the main characters for Latvia, scoring at a blistering pace in this competition.

In seven games, Balcers has seven goals and three assists for 10 points. He leads the tournament in goals and is tied for sixth in points.

Balcers is second in Latvia in points, trailing Florida Panthers prospect Sandis Vilmanis, who is also having an impressive campaign with four goals and 11 points.

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