Friends, you can be forgiven if you don’t have the upcoming IIHF World Hockey Championships circled on your calendar. The event happens every May, usually starting when the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs begin, and they feature the best and brightest… of the players from teams that didn’t make the playoffs… that aren’t injured, aren’t pending free agents, or don’t have overdue family vacations planned.

But this year will be different, and the differences could make the tournament wacky and fun.

So here’s the deal: past World Championships determined which teams qualified for the 2026 Winter Olympics. The first nine qualifying teams were locked in following the 2023 World Championships, with the host Italy and the eight highest-ranked teams in the IIHF World Ranking – Canada, Finland, Russia*, the United States, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and Czechia – qualifying. (* – The IIHF hasn’t announced what’s happening with Russia yet, but if they’re still banned due to their ongoing invasion of Ukraine, the next highest-ranked team will qualify in their place.)

With NHL players returning to the Olympics in ’26, established stars may see the Worlds and the upcoming 4 Nations Face-Off during next year’s All-Star break (in lieu of the All-Star game itself) as their opportunities to get on the Olympics radar for their home country. And for countries that haven’t qualified yet, it’s a chance to help figure out national team composition for the final qualification tournaments at the end of August.

If you’re a player from Canada, the United States, Sweden or Finland? Congrats, your country has qualified for the Olympics. However, your country also features a stacked group of prospective Olympic players to choose from. So if you’re on a non-playoff team this spring and your international association comes calling, you may just put off that trip to Mexico or take the family with you to scenic Prague in May so you can get on the radar for the 4 Nations Face-Off and/or the Olympics.

If you’re from Germany, Czechia or Switzerland, your country has qualified for the Olympics but since you’re not in the 4 Nations Face-Off, you really only have the Worlds left (this spring and next) to audition for an Olympic spot.

And if you’re from basically every other country, you’re trying to get on your country’s radar for the Olympic qualifying tournaments or help your national association figure out what the best configurations are for those highly-competitive tournaments.

So from a Flames perspective, who could be going to the Worlds?

From Canada, we could see folks like Jonathan Huberdeau, Nazem Kadri, Andrew Mangiapane or MacKenzie Weegar suit up. Again, the allure of the Olympics could be a draw for these guys who are a bit older or guys that have been (and won gold) recently. My personal dark-horse for the Worlds? Connor Zary. If it wasn’t for the Olympics factor, Zary feels like somebody who could’ve gone like Matt Coronato did last year and get some key developmental reps.

The Flames’ American contingent may lack some star factor, but considering the stellar season Blake Coleman has had, maybe he’d be somebody who heads to the Worlds for the United States.

The Flames obviously have a large Swedish contingent, so perhaps we could see Mikael Backlund, Rasmus Andersson or Jacob Markstrom suit up. Backlund – in particular – has been a fixture of Worlds teams in the past and actually captained the Tre Kronor to a gold medal in 2018. (Members of the royal family got to meet Backlund, it was neat.) But… a good Worlds could get him to the Olympics, so… maybe he suits up. If Kylington had a contract for next season, we would say he was a possibility, too.

Finally, it feels like Martin Pospisil should be a virtual lock for Slovakia. He’s young. He needs to play to develop. He helped them qualify for the 2022 Olympics and will probably be a big piece of their push to qualify for the 2026 Olympics.