Slovakia men's national ice hockey team

The Slovak men's national ice hockey team used to be one of the major ice hockey powers in the world. The team is currently ranked 9th in the IIHF World Ranking. The team is operated by the Slovak Ice Hockey Federation. Slovak best years were the early 2000s when they won one gold, one silver and one bronze medal at the World Championships. Since 2008, level of their performance went rapidly down. Their last successes were the 4th place at the 2010 Olympics and one more silver medal at 2012 World Championship. Last time they made it into the play-offs was 2013.

Slovakia has a total of 11,394 hockey players (0.21 % of its population).

The very first Slovak national ice hockey team was formed during the WWII when the Czechoslovakia was broken into the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and Slovakia. But with the end of the WWII, the Czechoslovakia reunited again and the Slovak national team was dissolved. The current Slovak national team was formed following the breakup of Czechoslovakia on January 1, 1993, as the country was split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. For years, the Czechs kept control over how the national team was run, and even had quotas instituted to ensure a minimal participation of Slovak players on the Czechoslovakian national team. While the Czechs were allowed to compete at the highest pool (A), the IIHF ruled that because fewer players of the former Czechoslovak team were Slovaks, Slovakia had to start international play in pool C. However, in 1996 they were back in the pool A.

In the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, the Slovak team was unable to use its NHL players in the preliminary round due to a scheduling conflict. This effected all of the smaller countries, but devastated the Slovak team as most of their players were coming from NHL teams. The NHL had decided to only allow their players to participate in the final medal round, and thus Slovakia failed to qualify finishing a disappointing 13th. This turn of events was troubling to the entire hockey community, and the rules were changed for the 2006 Winter games in Torino.

Olympic Record

 * 1920-1992 - Did not participate
 * 1994 - Finished in 6th place
 * 1998 - Finished in 10th place
 * 2002 - Finished in 13th place
 * 2006 - Finished in 5th place
 * 2010 - Finished in 4th place
 * 2014 - Finished in 11th place
 * 2018 - Finsihed in 11th place

World Cup of Hockey Record

 * 1996 - Did qualify
 * 2004 - Lost quarter-finals
 * 2016 - Did not participate (Slovak players participated as a part of Team Europe)

World Championship Record

 * 1920-1993 - Did not participate
 * 1994 - Finished in 21st place (1st in "Pool C")
 * 1995 - Finished in 13th place (1st in "Pool B")
 * 1996 - Finished in 10th place
 * 1997 - Finished in 9th place
 * 1998 - Finished in 7th place
 * 1999 - Finished in 7th place
 * 2000 -
 * 2001 - Finished in 7th place
 * 2002 -
 * 2003 -
 * 2004 - Finished in 4th place
 * 2005 - Finished in 5th place
 * 2006 - Finished in 8th place
 * 2007 - Finished in 6th place
 * 2008 - Finished in 13th place
 * 2009 - Finished in 10th place
 * 2010 - Finished in 12th place
 * 2011 - Finished in 10th place
 * 2012 -
 * 2013 - Finished in 8th place
 * 2014 - Finished in 9th place
 * 2015 - Finished in 9th place
 * 2016 - Finished in 9th place
 * 2017 - Finished in 14th place
 * 2018 - Finished in 9th place
 * 2019 - Finished in 9th place
 * 2020 - canceled due to COVID-19 pandemic

Retired Numbers

 * #38 Pavol Demitra