Top 10 International Ice Hockey Teams

About 60% of NHL players are Canadian. Historically, Canada has won the most World Junior titles (16) and the most World Championship medals (47). Currently, Canada is the two-time defending men's Olympic Champion, the defending World Junior Champion, the defending World Champion, and the four-time defending women's Olympic Champion. Enough said.

If you want a team that can win a Stanley Cup, make sure there are a lot of Canadians on the team. If you want to draft the best players on the planet, go to Canada. Canada is the current hegemon in the hockey world, and that is unlikely to change anytime soon. It is, far and away, the greatest hockey nation on the planet.

To me, the 1981 Soviet Union Canada Cup-winning team through to the 1984 Soviet Union Olympic gold medal team under the coaching of Viktor Tikhonov was the greatest team of all time to ever play the sport of ice hockey!

Russia is the best! They have strong defense and good offense. The Russians are probably even better than Canada! I have no idea why someone would prefer a different team!

Not everyone can resist a red car. Russia is quite strong (from France with love).

The USA has to be a top contender, as we can beat Canada, Finland, and other top teams. Seriously, not all of us are fat. Canada is also a pretty good contender, but we can beat them, as we have had chances to.

The USA is a historic team with a beautiful uniform spanning many years. The colors are blue and white, and the uniform features the USA flag at the center. They also have good players.

Canada is the best, followed by Russia. However, the US should be third. An overtime loss to Sidney Crosby? There's no shame in that.

Sweden has beautiful blue jerseys featuring three crowns. Notable players include Mats Sundin, Daniel Alfredsson, and legendary goalkeeper Tommy Salo.

Sweden is a no-limit team with intelligent players on the ice. They wear yellow and blue jerseys featuring a three-crown emblem. Their defense is superb, and their main rivals are Canada and the Czech Republic.

There are only 5 million of us compared to 310 million Americans. And we can still beat them.

I love their names too! If I translated my name to a Finnish name, it would be Kari Hackinnen! I don't know about you, but I love it!

They have great heart and can pull themselves from the pit to a gold medal. I don't think they are the best there is, but they are definitely historically better than the USA, which has a higher ranking on this site. They won Olympic gold in Nagano 1998, a gold medal at the WCH in 1999, and gold medals in 2000 and 2001, becoming only the second team in national ice hockey history to win a gold medal in the WCH three times in a row.

The Czech Republic, formerly Czechoslovakia, is a very fast hockey team with great goalkeepers and defense. They have many years of coaching experience and numerous gold medals. Today, the best hockey player on the planet is Jaromir Jagr.

I think Slovakia should be ranked higher than 8th because they beat almost every team last year, making it to the finals. The USA has not beaten them as many times as Slovakia has beaten the USA. They also have outstanding players like Zdeno Chara, Miroslav Šatan, Marian Gaborik, and many more.

Slovakia plays very, very nice hockey, nicer than the Czech Republic, Germany, Finland, and Sweden.

It's almost a miracle for such a small country with a population of roughly two million to have an international-level hockey team that can compete with most of the hockey giants.

The Latvian hockey team is the best in the world!

If David got to play on the team again, they would dominate!

Sergei Kostitsyn is the best! Go Belarus!

During the 1936 Winter Olympics, Great Britain actually won the GOLD MEDAL during the 1936 Winter Olympic Ice Hockey Tournament!

British goalie Jimmy Foster made 219 saves from the 222 shots he faced during that Olympic tournament for arguably the best performance ever by an athlete during Olympic Ice Hockey. There is a book, Pride and Glory by author Rob Jovanovic, about that 1936 Olympic GOLD MEDAL Great Britain Ice Hockey Team.

Norway is historically a very speedy team. Its power in hockey is evident, as Norway has managed to draw matches with elite hockey teams.

They can beat Belarus and Latvia, so they should be on this list.