U.S., Canada paired in 2022 Olympic hockey seeding

The IIHF on Friday announced the rankings of the 54 men's and 40 women's hockey teams in the world for 2020, which also determines the seeding and groups for the 2022 Olympics in Beijing.

Canada ranks No. 1 in men's hockey and the United States ranks No. 1 in women's hockey. The United States ranks No. 6 in the world in men's hockey.

The seeding and groups for the men's tournament in 2022 is as follows:

Group A: Canada (1), USA (6), Germany (7), China (12).
Group B: Russia (2), Czech Republic (5), Switzerland (8), Qualifier 3 (11).
Group C: Finland (3), Sweden (4), Qualifier 1 (9), Qualifier 2 (10).



The final Olympic qualifying tournaments for the three final spots are scheduled to be held Aug. 27-30, 2020 and will feature the following teams:

Group D: Slovakia, Belarus, Austria, Poland.
Group E: Latvia, France, Italy, Hungary.
Group F: Norway, Denmark, Korea, Slovenia.

It has yet to be determined whether the NHL will send its players to the Olympics. When speaking on the matter prior to this season's All-Star Game in St. Louis, Gary Bettman wouldn’t commit either way, but added that he didn’t want his lack of commitment to give “false hope” to either side. He reiterated that the Olympics are “extraordinarily disruptive” to the flow of the season.

In the 2018 Pyeongchang games, the Russian national team playing under the name Olympic Athletes from Russia beat Germany in the gold medal game. Canada defeated the Czech Republic to win bronze.

The women's groups will be the following:

Group A: USA (1), Canada (2), Finland (3), Russia (4), Switzerland (5).
Group B: Japan (6), Qualifier 1 (7), Qualifier 2 (8), Qualifier 3 (9), China (10).



The structure for the women's qualifying tournaments have yet to be determined. Czech Republic, Germany and Sweden rank No. 7-9.

The United States beat Canada in the gold medal game in 2018, the first time the United States won gold since 1998. Finland beat the Olympic Athletes from Russia in the bronze medal game.