The Israel national ice hockey team () is the national men's ice hockey team of Israel. Israel was ranked 31st as of May 2025 by the International Ice Hockey Federation and 8th as of August 2025 by the specialized website AsianIceHockey.com. In 2019, the team won the gold medal in the 2019 IIHF World Championship Division II Group B tournament in Mexico City.
Its greatest achievement in its history was winning its division II group in 2005 and being promoted to division I for the first, and thus far only, time. Israel was relegated back to division II a year later.
World Championships record Eliezer Sherbatov drew international attention when he first played in the 2005 IIHF World U18 Championship Division III, in Bulgaria, at the age of 13, becoming the youngest player to step on the ice in an under-18 ice hockey world championship. He scored 9 points (4 goals + 5 assists) in 5 games, as the team won a bronze medal, Israel's first in hockey in a championship tournament.
The team was promoted to the IIHF World Championship Division I in 2005 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships. The following year the team was relegated again to Division II. In 2010, Israel was relegated to Division III.2010 IIHF World Championship DIV II Group B
However, in 2011 the team finished first in Division III Group B, earning a promotion back to Division II.2011 IIHF World Championship DIV III Israel won all five of its games by a combined score of 57–9, and was promoted to the IIHF Division II WHC to be played in 2012. Sherbatov led the tournament in points, goals, assists, and +/-, earning 26 points (14 goals + 12 assists) in just four games. He was named the best forward of the tournament.
At the 2012 IIHF World Championship Division II tournament in Bulgaria, the Israeli team was able to stay in the second division. Beginning in 2015 and still as of 2020, Sherbatov was captain of the national team.
In 2019, the team won the gold medal in the 2019 IIHF World Championship Division II Group B tournament in Mexico City, Israel's first gold medal in hockey. With the win, the team qualified for the World Championships Division 2A. Sherbatov was named Best Forward, and had the best +/- rating, was the top goal scorer, and was the top scorer with 15 points (7 goals + 8 assists) in 5 games.
YearPlaceDivisionGroupPlacement1992 30th Group C2 4th 5 1 1 3 22 421993 31st Group C1 6th 7 2 0 5 30 971994 34th Group C2 1 7th 5 1 0 4 19 361995 35th Group C2 2 6th 6 3 0 3 39 231996 35th Group D 2 7th 7 3 1 3 34 351997 33rd Group D 2 5th 5 2 0 3 22 281998 35th Group D 1 3rd 5 3 0 2 39 191999 33rd Group D 3 2nd 4 3 0 1 21 52000 34th Group D 1 1st 4 3 0 1 31 72001 32nd Division II B 2nd 5 4 0 1 21 112002 34th Division II A 3rd 5 3 0 2 14 222003 37th Division II B 5th 5 1 2 2 11 192004 38th Division II A 5th 5 0 1 4 3 282005 30th Division II B 1st 5 4 1 0 21 112006 28th Division I A 6th 5 0 0 5 3 472007 34th Division II B 3rd 4 2 0 2 6 242008 36th Division II A 4th 5 2 0 3 16 282009 38th Division II A 5th 5 1 0 4 9 382010 39th Division II B 6th 5 0 0 5 11 552011 41st Division III 1st 5 5 0 0 57 92012 39th Division II-B 5th 5 2 0 3 19 222013 35th Division II-B 1st 5 4 0 1 30 142014 34th Division II-A 6th 5 1 0 4 19 372015 39th Division II-B 5th 5 1 0 4 11 202016 37th Division II-B 3rd 5 2 0 3 22 332017 37th Division II-B 3rd 5 3 0 2 24 142018 37th Division II-B 3rd 5 3 0 2 24 142019 35th Division II-B 1st 5 0 0 32 162020 Division II-A Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic2021 Division II-A Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic2022 31st Division II-A 5th 4 0 0 4 4 322023 33rd Division II-A 5th 5 1 0 4 14 372024 32nd Division II-A 4th 5 1 0 4 17 262025 34th Division II-A 6th 5 1 0 4 9 162026 35th Division II-B 1st 5 5 0 0 26 14Total – – – – 166 72 6 88 680 879
Olympics Israel has tried to qualify for the Olympics four times. In their first attempt in 1996 for the 1998 Winter Olympics they played Greece in a preliminary match in Metula, which they lost 10-2. However, Greece used ineligible players, so Israel played another preliminary match against Yugoslavia, in Kaunas. Israel lost the game 5-3, but ended up being disqualified anyways due to use of ineligible players from Russia. The scores for both forfeited matches are recorded as 5-0.
Israel's second attempt was in 2012 for the 2014 Winter Olympics, where they were the lowest-ranked country attempting to qualify at 40th place. Israel was placed in a preliminary qualifying group with Croatia, Serbia and Mexico for a round-robin qualifier in Zagreb, in which they lost every game.
In 2015 Israel attempted to qualify for the 2018 Winter Olympics, and were placed in the first preliminary round. In their group matches held in Tallinn, they were unable to qualify for the second preliminary round, beating Bulgaria but losing to Estonia and Mexico.
Israel's most recent attempt was in 2019 for the 2022 Winter Olympics. For the first time, they were ranked high enough to skip the first round of qualification, and were placed in the second pre-qualification round held in Brașov. In their group they lost to Romania and Iceland, but were able to beat Kyrgyzstan in overtime.
YearSeedingRoundGroupPlace1994 Did not enter1998 ---- Preliminary Matches 2 1 0 0 1 5 52002 Did not enter200620102014 40th Preliminary Qualifier Group K 4th 3 0 0 0 3 5 292018 32nd Qualification Round 1 Group K 3rd 3 1 0 0 2 6 262022 33rd Qualification Round 2 Group K 3rd 3 0 1 0 2 5 242026 Did not enter
Team Roster Roster for the 2026 IIHF World Championship.
Goaltenders#PlayerCatchesHeightWeightDate of birthClub20Maxim KalyayevL179 cm93 kg 1L183 cm75 kg Defencemen#PlayerShootsHeightWeightDate of birthClub18Aner AbendL172 cm70 kg 11Artur CharniakL173 cm66 kg Gilmour Academy U1612Timur GaleyevL175 cm70 kg Ra'anana Sharks14Shon KazinetzL175 cm72 kg Hiti Academy Bled Hawks U203L182 cm86 kg 5Nick OgurtsynL185 cm76 kg 4Yuval TurnerL178 cm74 kg Forwards#PlayerShootsHeightWeightDate of birthClub21Samson GoldsteinL182 cm80 kg Toronto Jr. Canadiens U1824L171 cm74 kg Ashdod Chiefs19Itay KernerL185 cm80 kg Hiti Academy Bled Hawks U2022L182 cm76 kg Ra'anana Sharks8Gleb KhvolesL175 cm73 kg Ra'anana Sharks16Mike LevinL173 cm71 kg CSM Corona Brașov7Gennadi MalashchenkoL183 cm79 kg Ashdod Chiefs9Kirill MalashchenkoL193 cm87 kg Ashdod Chiefs15L190 cm95 kg Ashdod Chiefs23Ori SegalL173 cm77 kg Curry College17L173 cm88 kg 10Sean VoshiloL177 cm80 kg Ashdod Chiefs6Nikita ZitsermanL183 cm85 kg Hiti Academy Bled Hawks U20
Notable players Maxim Birbraer (only Israeli to be drafted by NHL team) Alon Eizenman (ACHA Hall of Fame member) Oren Eizenman (played 4 seasons in AHL) David Levin (won OHL's Jack Ferguson Award) Nikita Lukin (won KHL's Gagarin Cup in 2013) Eliezer Sherbatov (first Israeli to play in KHL)
Coaches List of coaches for each tournament Period Name 1992–1993 Gideon Lee 1994 Marshall Uretsky 1995 Semyon Yakubovich 1996–1997 Nikolai Epshtein 1998 Lev Sudat 1999–2000 Sergei Matin 2001–2004 Boris Mindel 2005–2009 Jean Perron 2010 Boris Mindel 2011 Sergei Belo 2012–2014 Jean Perron 2015–2017 Derek Eisler 2018 Semyon Yakubovich 2019–2021 Bobby Holík 2022–2023 Ty Newberry 2024–2025 Evgeni Kozhevnikov 2026–present Yevgeni Gusin
All-time record against other nations As of 12 April 2026
Team 15 6 0 9 53 73 16 6 1 9 46 62 12 7 2 3 54 38 9 1 0 8 25 58 1 1 0 0 6 1 7 0 0 7 7 53 5 0 0 5 9 79 1 0 0 1 0 9 2 1 0 1 10 9 1 0 0 1 2 11 1 0 0 1 0 12 5 4 1 0 59 13 1 0 0 1 0 8 13 9 0 4 60 36 1 1 0 0 7 1 1 0 0 1 1 7 2 2 0 0 9 7 1 0 0 1 0 32 1 0 0 1 2 7 4 2 2 0 26 9 11 6 0 5 42 46 1 1 0 0 5 0 2 0 0 2 2 13 9 4 0 5 43 37 8 5 2 1 45 31 4 0 0 4 2 55 9 2 0 7 21 46 8 7 0 1 46 21 4 0 1 3 11 23 9 1 1 7 17 76 8 8 0 0 78 11 2 1 0 1 9 12 1 0 0 1 0 29 Total 170 70 9 91 671 911
References
External links
IIHF profile