The Poland national men's ice hockey team is the national ice hockey team of Poland, and a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation. They are ranked 21st in the world in the IIHF World Rankings, but prior to the 1980s they were ranked as high as 6th internationally. They are one of eight countries never to have played below the Division I (former B Pool) level. As of 2024 the Polish national team plays at the top level of the World Championship.

Poland has competed in the Olympics thirteen times, most recently in 1992, with their best result being fourth place in 1932. They have been a regular participant of the World Championship, first appearing in 1930 and having appeared in all but one tournament since 1955. They frequently played in the top division, though were in Division I after being relegated in 2002. Poland made a return to the top division of the World Championship for 2024.

History

Poland was a regular participant of the early Winter Olympics, first competing at the 1928 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland, where they finished ninth out of eleven teams. They would appear at ever Winter Olympics until 1956, with their best finish being fourth in 1932.

Financed by state coal money from the 1950s to the 1970s the Polish hockey team was a regular at the top level upsetting the Swedes, Finns, and Czechoslovaks from time to time. They hosted the World Championship for the only time in 1976, with the matches taking place in Katowice. At this tournament Poland defeated the Soviet Union 6–4 in their opening match, the first and only time Poland ever won against the Soviets and is regarded as one of the greatest upsets in international hockey history. While Poland finished seventh and was relegated for the following year, their victory against the USSR helped prevent them from winning gold for only the second time in 13 years.

In the Olympics earlier that year, Poland played 5 matches in the top division, but lost all of them. In the first game, the team managed four goals on the West Germany but it was not enough as they lost 7–4. Four days later, after being destroyed by the Soviet Union, the Poles took on Czechoslovakia who dominated the whole game throughout and won 7–1, but after the drug testing, the officials found that one of the Czech players tested positive for doping and they awarded Poland with a 1–0 victory, although they didn't receive any points in the standings. With only two games left and no points in the standings, Poland had no shot at a medal, but still played the last two games against the United States and Finland, and lost 7–2 and 7–1 respectively.

Poland managed to clean up a bit over four years and played well during the 1980 Olympics and finished seventh out of twelve teams. They managed to pull off a huge upset in their first game by beating Finland 5–4, who would eventually advance to the medal round. In their next game, they played Canada and hoped to complete an even bigger upset. The Canadians didn't let this happen and beat the Poles 5–1. In the third game, Poland took on the five time gold medalists, the Soviet Union. The players knew that this would be a challenge because they had played the Soviets many times before and had lost by usually very lopsided scores, such as 8–3, 9–3, 16–1, and 20–0. The Polish team, however, had also beaten the Soviets once in the 1976 World Championship and some of the players from that game were still on the team. The team tried to keep the Soviets down, but it was too much and the USSR stormed to an 8–1 win.

With their toughest games out of the way, Poland would have one more chance to try to get to the Medal Round. They took on the Netherlands and went down early in the first period but managed to tie it about four minutes later. The Dutch team scored twice more in the period to lead 3–1. Polish hero Wieslaw Jobczyk (who scored a hat trick in the 1976 upset against USSR) scored to put Poland within one goal but the Netherlands stormed back to get two more goals before the third period to make it 5–2. The Poles ended up losing 5–3 and saw their hopes for the medal round come to an end. They had one more game against Japan, who had not won any games in the tournament and only tied once. Poland burst out in the first period and scored 3 goals before twenty minutes had ended. They scored two more goals and Japan seemed out of it. The final score was 5–1 for Poland. The team's final record was 2–3–0 and it received 4 points in the standings.

When Communist rule ended in 1989, the Polish national team began a slow decline in international play. They reached the Olympics in 1992, the most recent time they have played there, and finished eleventh out of twelve teams. During the 1990s the first two Polish-born and trained players were selected in the NHL entry draft: Mariusz Czerkawski was selected in the 1991 by the Boston Bruins, and Krzysztof Oliwa in 1993 by the New Jersey Devils; Oliwa won the Stanley Cup with the Devils in 2000, the first and only Pole to do so.

At the 2001 World Championships in France, coached by , Poland earned promotion from Division I for the first time in ten years. Playing in the top tier at the 2002 World Championship in Sweden, Poland placed 14th and was relegated back to Division I. Hosting 2006 Winter Olympics qualification in Nowy Targ, Poland placed first in Group E but not advance beyond the next round. Four years later, hosting 2010 Winter Olympics qualification in Sanok, Poland placed second and did not advance.

Leszek Laszkiewicz was named Poland's general manager in 2019. In his first World Championship as manager, Poland placed second in 2019, missing promotion from Division I to the top tier when losing their final game in overtime to Romania. Scheduled to host Group B of the 2020 World Championship in Katowice, the tournament was postponed to 2021 then cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.; Hosting the 2022 tournament in Katowice, Poland placed first in Group B and promoted to Division I A. Placing second in 2023 earned Poland promotion to the top division in 2024, their first appearance in the top division since 2002 when Laszkiewicz played. With an eighth-place finish at the 2024 World Championship, Poland was relegated back to Division I A. Placing fifth in 2025, Poland remained in Division I A.

Tournament record Olympic Games Games GP WOW TOL L GF GA Coach Captain Finish Rank 1928 St. Moritz 2 0 0 1 0 1 4 5 ? Tadeusz Adamowski First round 9th 1932 Lake Placid 6 0 0 0 0 6 3 34 Tadeusz Sachs ? First round 4th 1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen 3 1 0 0 0 2 11 12 Aleksander Tupalski, Lucjan Kulej ? First round 9th 1948 St. Moritz 8 2 0 0 0 6 29 97 Zbigniew Kasprzak ? Round-robin 6th (7th) 1952 Oslo 8 2 0 1 0 5 21 56 Mieczysław Kasprzycki ? Round-robin 6th 1956 Cortina d'Ampezzo 5 2 0 0 0 3 15 22 Mieczysław Palus, Wladyslaw Wiro-Kiro Józef Kurek Consolation round 8th 1960 Squaw ValleyDid not participate 1964 Innsbruck 8 6 0 0 0 2 41 15 Gary Hughes Józef Kurek Consolation round 9th 1968 GrenobleDid not participate 1972 Sapporo 6 1 0 0 0 5 13 39 Anatoli Yegorov, Mieczysław Chmura Ludwik Czachowski Final Round 6th 1976 Innsbruck 6 2 0 0 0 4 16 41 Józef Kurek Robert Góralczyk Final Round 6th 1980 Lake Placid 5 2 0 0 0 3 15 23 Czeslaw Borowicz Stefan Chowaniec First round 7th 1984 Sarajevo 6 1 0 0 0 5 20 44 Emil Nikodemowicz Henryk Gruth 7th place game 8th 1988 Calgary 6 1 0 1 0 4 12 15 Leszek Lejczyk, Jerzy Mruk Henryk Gruth 9th place game 10th 1992 Albertville 9 2 0 0 0 5 25 47 Leszek Lejczyk, Jerzy Mruk Henryk Gruth 11th place match 11th 1994 Lillehammer Did not qualify 1998 Nagano 2002 Salt Lake City 2006 Turin 2010 Vancouver 2014 Sochi 2018 Pyeongchang 2022 Beijing 2026 Milan–Cortina 2030 French Alps To be determined

World Championship

1930 – 5th place 1931 – 4th place 1933 – 7th place 1935 – 10th place 1937 – 8th place 1938 – 7th place 1939 – 6th place 1947 – 6th place 1955 – 7th place 1957 – 6th place 1958 – 8th place 1959 – 11th place 1961 – 13th place (5th in Pool B) 1963 – 12th place (4th in Pool B) 1965 – 9th place (1st in Pool B) 1966 – 8th place 1967 – 9th place (1st in Pool B) 1969 – 8th place (2nd in Pool B) 1970 – 6th place 1971 – 8th place (2nd in Pool B) 1972 – 7th place (1st in Pool B) 1973 – 5th place 1974 – 5th place 1975 – 5th place 1976 – 7th place 1977 – 10th place (2nd in Pool B) 1978 – 9th place (1st in Pool B) 1979 – 8th place 1981 – 10th place (2nd in Pool B) 1982 – 11th place (3rd in Pool B) 1983 – 10th place (2nd in Pool B) 1985 – 9th place (1st in Pool B) 1986 – 8th place 1987 – 9th place (1st in Pool B) 1989 – 8th place 1990 – 14th place (6th in Pool B) 1991 – 12th place (4th in Pool B) 1992 – 12th place 1993 – 14th place (2nd in Pool B) 1994 – 15th place (3rd in Pool B) 1995 – 15th place (3rd in Pool B) 1996 – 17th place (5th in Pool B) 1997 – 17th place (5th in Pool B) 1998 – 23rd place (7th in Pool B) 1999 – 23rd place (7th in Pool B) 2000 – 20th place (4th in Pool B), hosts in Katowice and Kraków 2001 – 18th place (1st in Division I, Group A, Promoted to the 2002 Top Division) 2002 – 14th place 2003 – 19th place (2nd in Division I, Group A) 2004 – 21st place (3rd in Division I, Group B), hosts in Gdańsk. 2005 – 19th place (2nd in Division I, Group A) 2006 – 21st place (3rd in Division I, Group B) 2007 – 20th place (2nd in Division I, Group A) 2008 – 22nd place (3rd in Division I, Group A) 2009 – 23rd place (4th in Division I, Group B), hosts in Toruń 2010 – 22nd place (3rd in Division I, Group B) 2011 – 23rd place (4th in Division I, Group B) 2012 – 24th place (2nd in Division I, Group B), hosts in Krynica-Zdrój 2013 – 24th place (2nd in Division I, Group B) 2014 – 23rd place (1st in Division I, Group B) 2015 – 19th place (3rd in Division I, Group A), hosts in Kraków 2016 – 19th place (3rd in Division I, Group A) 2017 – 20th place (4th in Division I, Group A) 2018 – 22nd place (6th in Division I, Group A) 2019 – 24th place (2nd in Division I, Group B) 2020 – Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic 2021 – Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic 2022 – 21st place (1st in Division I, Group B) 2023 – 18th place (2nd in Division I, Group A, Promoted to the 2024 Top Division) 2024 – 16th place 2025 – 21st place (5th in Division I, Group A) 2026 – 20th place (4th in Division I, Group A)

European Championships Games GP W T L GF GA Coach Captain Finish Rank1910–1925 did not participate. 1926 Davos 5 3 0 2 12 7 ? ? Consolation round 6–7 place game 6th 1927 Wien 5 1 2 2 11 9 ? ? Round-robin 4th 1929 Budapest 3 2 0 1 6 3 ? ? Final 1932 Berlindid not participate.

Team Former players in the NHL Players who have played in the NHL and the Polish national team Year Name Position Team 1993–2006 Mariusz Czerkawski RW Boston Bruins Edmonton Oilers New York Islanders Montreal Canadiens Toronto Maple Leafs 1996–2006 Krzysztof Oliwa LW New Jersey Devils Columbus Blue Jackets Pittsburgh Penguins New York Rangers Boston Bruins Calgary Flames 2015–2016 Mike Danton C New Jersey Devils St. Louis Blues

NHL entry draft Polish players selected in the NHL entry draft