Qualification for the men's tournament at the 2018 Winter Olympics was determined by the IIHF World Ranking following the 2015 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships. The host along with the top eight teams in the world ranking received automatic berths into the Olympics, while all other teams had an opportunity to qualify for the remaining three spots in the Olympics. This was the fourth time world rankings were used but the first time that the championships three years prior was used as the final determination.

Qualified teams EventDateLocationVacanciesQualifiedHosts19 September 2014 Tenerife12015 IIHF World Ranking2 April 2012 – 17 May 2015 Prague and Ostrava8Final qualification tournament1–4 September 2016 Minsk1Final qualification tournament1–4 September 2016 Riga1Final qualification tournament1–4 September 2016 Oslo1 Total 12

Notes

Qualification seeding To qualify directly, a nation had to be ranked in the top eight following the 2015 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships. Using the IIHF World Ranking points system, the current year received full value, and each preceding year was worth 25% less. Teams that wished to compete had to apply in April 2015. The following is a ranking based on points already accumulated toward Olympic qualification of all countries participating in 2015.

Points were earned based on overall finish in 2015: Place 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 ... Points 1200 1160 1120 1100 1060 1040 1020 1000 960 940 920 900 880 860 840 820 800 780 760 740 ...

    Qualified directly to Olympic Tournament     Entered qualifying in the final round     Entered qualifying in the preliminary round 2     Entered qualifying in the preliminary round 1

Qualifying seedTeamWC 2015WC 2014OLY 2014WC 2013WC 2012Total 1 1200 795 900 530 265 3690 2 1160 900 795 520 300 3675 3 1060 840 870 600 260 3630 4 1040 870 840 550 275 3575 5 1120 780 825 560 255 3540 6 1100 825 780 510 280 3495 7 1000 705 720 580 230 3235 8 960 720 690 500 290 3160 9 1020 765 645 430 215 3075 10 880 690 750 460 235 301511 920 675 675 470 250 299012 900 750 600 440 240 293013 940 645 630 480 225 292014 820 600 765 410 200 279515 860 660 585 450 220 277516 840 585 705 420 195 274517 800 615 660 400 205 268018 720 630 615 390 210 256519 780 540 525 380 190 241520 740 570 480 370 185 234521 700 555 540 340 175 231022 760 510 510 330 165 2275Hosts 680 525 495 360 170 223023 660 465 570 350 180 222524 580 450 555 320 160 206525 640 480 465 300 150 203526 620 495 405 280 130 193027 560 435 435 310 155 189528 600 420 420 290 140 187029 520 390 375 240 120 164530 500 330 450 230 135 164531 400 315 390 200 95 140032 360 345 360 220 90 1375 540 360 0 270 110 128033 480 405 0 260 125 1270 460 375 0 250 145 1230 420 300 0 210 115 104534 440 285 0 190 105 102035 380 240 0 170 100 890 340 270 0 160 85 855 300 255 0 180 80 815 320 225 0 150 75 770 280 210 0 140 70 700 220 180 0 110 0 51036 240 165 0 90 0 495 260 195 0 0 0 455 200 0 0 0 0 200

Three nations were not listed who have achieved ranking points but were not participating in IIHF tournaments: Ireland, Greece, and Mongolia. Nations with no seeding chose not to participate in Olympic qualifying.

Preliminary round 1 The two lowest ranked participants played off for the right to compete in this round on 10 October 2015, in Sofia, Bulgaria. The round itself was played from 5 to 8 November 2015. The winner of each group advanced to the pre-qualification tournaments as qualifiers seven and eight ranked according their seeding.

Playoff game

Group K Games were played at Tallinn, Estonia.

All times are local (UTC+2).

Group L Games were played in Valdemoro, Spain.

All times are local (UTC+1).

Preliminary round 2 Three round robins were played from 11 to 14 February 2016. The teams seeded 18th, 19th, and 20th reserved the right to host these tournaments. The winners of each advanced to the final qualification tournaments as qualifiers four, five, and six, ranked according to their seeding.

Group G Games were played at Cortina, Italy.

All times are local (UTC+1).

Group H Games were played at the László Papp Budapest Sports Arena at Budapest, Hungary.

All times are local (UTC+1).

Group J Games were played in Sapporo, Japan.

All times are local (UTC+9).

Final qualification Three round robins were played from 1 to 4 September 2016. The teams seeded 9th, 10th, and 11th reserved the right to host these tournaments. The top two seeded group winners qualified for the Olympic tournament Group C, and the third seeded group winner qualified for Group B.

Group D Games were played in Minsk, Belarus.

All times are local (UTC+3).

Group E Games were played in Riga, Latvia.

All times are local (UTC+3).

Group F Games were played in Oslo, Norway.

All times are local (UTC+2).

References