Poland men's national ice hockey team

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
Shirt badge/Association crest
Nickname(s)Orły (The Eagles)
AssociationPolish Ice Hockey Federation
General managerLeszek Laszkiewicz
Head coachRóbert Kaláber
AssistantsGrzegorz Klich
CaptainKrystian Dziubiński
Most gamesHenryk Gruth (248)
Top scorerWiesław Jobczyk (88)
Most pointsMarcin Kolusz (151)
Team colors   
IIHF codePOL
Ranking
Current IIHF22 Steady (28 May 2023)[1]
Highest IIHF19 (2003)
Lowest IIHF25 (2014)
First international
Austria  13–1  Poland
(Davos, Switzerland; 10 January 1926)
Biggest win
Poland  21–1  China
(Eindhoven, Netherlands; 26 March 1993)
Biggest defeat
Soviet Union  20–0  Poland
(Moscow, Soviet Union; 11 April 1973)
IIHF World Championships
Appearances59 (first in 1930)
Best result4th (1931, 1932)
IIHF European Championships
Appearances3 (first in 1926)
Best resultSilver (1929)
Olympics
Appearances13 (first in 1928)
International record (W–L–T)
508–546–91

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 at the 1928 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland, their first appearance at the Winter Olympics. They finished ninth.

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 time Poland ever won against the Soviets and what 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.[2]

The national team in 2006.

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.

Poland at the 2017 World Championship Division IA tournament in Ukraine. They finished fourth.

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.

Poland last competed at the Elite level in 2002 World Championship, where they finished fourteenth and were relegated. Since then they have remained in Division I, but have not earned promotion back to the top level, though they have finished just outside of promotion several times. They were relegated to Division IB in 2018, the lowest they had ever played at.

Tournament record

Olympic Games

Games GP W OW T OL L GF GA Coach Captain Finish Rank
Switzerland 1928 St. Moritz 2 0 0 1 0 1 4 5  ? Tadeusz Adamowski First round 9th
United States 1932 Lake Placid 6 0 0 0 0 6 3 34 Tadeusz Sachs  ? First round 4th
Nazi Germany 1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen 3 1 0 0 0 2 11 12 Aleksander Tupalski, Lucjan Kulej  ? First round 9th
Switzerland 1948 St. Moritz 8 2 0 0 0 6 29 97 Zbigniew Kasprzak  ? Round-robin 6th (7th)
Norway 1952 Oslo 8 2 0 1 0 5 21 56 Mieczysław Kasprzycki  ? Round-robin 6th
Italy 1956 Cortina d'Ampezzo 5 2 0 0 0 3 15 22 Mieczysław Palus, Wladyslaw Wiro-Kiro Józef Kurek Consolation round 8th
United States 1960 Squaw Valley did not participate
Austria 1964 Innsbruck 8 6 0 0 0 2 41 15 Gary Hughes Józef Kurek Consolation round 9th
France 1968 Grenoble did not participate
Japan 1972 Sapporo 6 1 0 0 0 5 13 39 Anatoli Yegorov, Mieczysław Chmura Ludwik Czachowski Final Round 6th
Austria 1976 Innsbruck 6 2 0 0 0 4 16 41 Józef Kurek Robert Góralczyk Final Round 6th
United States 1980 Lake Placid 5 2 0 0 0 3 15 23 Czeslaw Borowicz Stefan Chowaniec First round 7th
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia 1984 Sarajevo 6 1 0 0 0 5 20 44 Emil Nikodemowicz Henryk Gruth 7th place game 8th
Canada 1988 Calgary 6 1 0 1 0 4 12 15 Leszek Lejczyk, Jerzy Mruk Henryk Gruth 9th place game 10th
France 1992 Albertville 9 2 0 0 0 5 25 47 Leszek Lejczyk, Jerzy Mruk Henryk Gruth 11th place match 11th
Norway 1994 Lillehammerdid not qualify
Japan 1998 Nagano
United States 2002 Salt Lake City
Italy 2006 Turin
Canada 2010 Vancouver
Russia 2014 Sochi
South Korea 2018 Pyeongchang
China 2022 Beijing
Italy 2026 Milan–CortinaFuture event

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)
  • 2001 – 18th place (1st in Division I, Group A)
  • 2002 – 14th place
  • 2003 – 19th place (2nd in Division I, Group A)
  • 2004 – 21st place (3rd in Division I, Group B)
  • 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)
  • 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)
  • 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)
  • 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[3]
  • 2021 – Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic[4]
  • 2022 – 21st place (1st in Division I, Group B)
  • 2023 – 18th place (2nd in Division I, Group A)
  • 2024

European Championships

Games GP W T L GF GA Coach Captain Finish Rank
1910–1925did not participate.
Switzerland 1926 Davos 5 3 0 2 12 7  ?  ? Consolation round 6–7 place game 6th
Austria 1927 Wien 5 1 2 2 11 9  ?  ? Round-robin 4th
Hungary 1929 Budapest 3 2 0 1 6 3  ?  ? Final 2nd place, silver medalist(s)
Germany 1932 Berlin did not participate.

Former Players In NHL

Players who have played in the NHL and the Polish national team

YearNamePositionTeam
1993–2006Mariusz CzerkawskiRWBoston Bruins
Edmonton Oilers
New York Islanders
Montreal Canadiens
Toronto Maple Leafs
1996–2006Krzysztof OliwaLWNew Jersey Devils
Columbus Blue Jackets
Pittsburgh Penguins
New York Rangers
Boston Bruins
Calgary Flames
2015–2016Mike DantonCNew Jersey Devils
St. Louis Blues

NHL Entry Draft

Polish born players selected in the NHL Entry Draft

YearNameOverallTeam
1981Peter Sidorkiewicz91st overallWashington Capitals
1991Mariusz Czerkawski106th overallBoston Bruins
1993Krzysztof Oliwa65th overallNew Jersey Devils
1993Patryk Pysz102nd overallChicago Blackhawks
1998Tomek Valtonen56th overallDetroit Red Wings
2000Stefan Liv102nd overallDetroit Red Wings
2003Marcin Kolusz157th overallMinnesota Wild
2004Wojtek Wolski21st overallColorado Avalanche
2022Maksymilian Szuber163rd overallArizona Coyotes

Notable National team players

Other Polish-born NHL players

Head-to-head records

Updated as of 5 May 2023.[5] Defunct national teams are listed in italics.

Opponent Played Won Drawn Lost GF GA GD
 Australia110053+2
 Austria5926330183180+3
 Belarus1740133877+39
 Belgium5410296+23
 Bulgaria2200272+25
 Canada25012422175-153
 China66007911+68
 Croatia5500334+29
 Czech Republic1010220
 Czechoslovakia44224058336-278
 Denmark311831013399+34
 East Germany71351323302234+68
 Estonia1816118833+55
 Finland525839107264−157
 France5321626144150-6
 Germany5316730159188-29
 Great Britain3610224111128-17
 Hungary6534625199142+57
 Italy5631421184139+45
 Japan42342621498+116
 Kazakhstan2121184281+39
 Latvia2050154667-21
 Lithuania21170412146+75
 Netherlands40352320985+124
 Norway7739731316243+73
 Romania625057390106+284
 Serbia1100102+8
 Serbia and Montenegro1100132+11
 Slovakia70161141−30
 Slovenia2580175672-16
 South Korea139045129+22
 Soviet Union33103243321-278
 Spain220091+8
 Sweden36542761227−166
  Switzerland4620620159165-6
 Ukraine4218222113129-16
 United States35622742187−145
 Yugoslavia21191113953+86
Total1 145508915463 9484 128-180

References

  1. "IIHF Men's World Ranking". IIHF. 28 May 2023. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  2. IIHF (2008). "Poland scores biggest shocker in World Championship history". IIHF.com. Retrieved 6 May 2017.
  3. "IIHF cancels Division I tournaments". iihf.com. 17 March 2019.
  4. "IIHF – IIHF Council announces more cancellations". International Ice Hockey Federation. Retrieved 18 November 2020.
  5. "Poland - National Teams of Ice Hockey". nationalteamsoficehockey.com. 7 August 2016. Retrieved 21 May 2023.
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