Opinion: World Championships Should Follow U-18 Lead In Merging Groups

The top level of the women's World Championship is the lone remaining place where a two-tier system is applied to groups. It's time, like it did at the U-18 level, the IIHF does away with this artifact of the competition.

When the U-18 World Championships drops the puck in Zug, Switzerland, the tournament will feature two equally divided groups. At the senior World Championships, the groups remained tiered with the top five teams inhabiting one group, and the bottom five in the other.

The issue is that rosters can drastically change from year to year, and developing nations are desperate to test themselves against the best players in the world.

This year at the U-18 World Championships, Group A will include Canada, Finland, Czechia, and Germany, while Group B includes Sweden, USA, Slovakia, and Switzerland. 

It's a clear departure from last year's tiered groups of Canada, USA, Finland, and Sweden in Group A, and Czechia, Slovakia, Switzerland, and Japan in another group.

It's a change the senior World Championships should follow immediately. Last year, the tiered groups sent perennial medal contender Finland to Group B due to a single poor performance in 2022. At the 2023 World Championships, Finland and Sweden who both started in Group B, finished above Japan who started in Group A in the final standings. With the calibre of teams beyond Canada and USA rising rapidly, led by Czechia, who won bronze in 2022 out of Group B, and Finland, it's time for the World Championships to follow the U-18 tournament.

It won't be the case at the 2024 tournament in Utica where Canada, Finland, USA, Czechia, and Switzerland will play in Group A, while Sweden, Japan, Germany, China, and Denmark will play in Group B.

While Canada and USA remain a step above, the gap between the next five nations has rapidly shrunk. Seeing two equal groups with Canada and USA separated, and splits of Czechia, Switzerland, Finland, and Sweden on either side, followed by the division of Germany, Japan, and this year Denmark and China would open of the door for a true test to the international game, opportunity for players from other nations to prove themselves, and potentially, historic upsets to occur.

It's one of the few artifacts that remains within the IIHF that sends a message that the women's game is lesser than the men's. It's built on a false pretense that there is less parity in women's hockey than men's. At the 2023 U-18 World Championship, 14.3% of games were decided by a seven-goal or wider margin, but at the men’s U-20 World Junior Championship, that gap grew to 23.3% of games being decided by seven or more goals. At the senior World Championships, on the men's side the number of games divided by five or more goals was 17.2%, while the women's side saw that number grow to 25.8%. Averaging the tournaments, it's 20.25% on the men's side and 19.85% on the women's side. 

Despite the facts, women's hockey is the only two-tier competition in the IIHF's offerings.

With the launch of the PWHL, and the growth of women's hockey internationally, it's time the IIHF does away with tiered groups, and creates a more equitable and equal offering between men's and women's hockey.