The Slovenia men's national ice hockey team is the

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

team representing

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

internationally. It is governed by the

Ice Hockey Federation of Slovenia The Ice Hockey Federation of Slovenia (, HZS) is the governing body of ice hockey in Slovenia. Slovenia was one of ten nations to join the International Ice Hockey Federation on May 6, 1992, the largest number of nations to join in one day in the ...

. As of May 2024, Slovenia is ranked 19th in the world by the

IIHF World Ranking The IIHF World Ranking is a ranking of the performance of the national ice hockey teams of member countries of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). It is based on a formula giving points for each team's placings at IIHF-sanctioned tour ...

. The team's biggest success is reaching the quarter-finals at the

2014 Winter Olympics The 2014 Winter Olympics, officially called the XXII Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Sochi 2014 (), were an international winter multi-sport event that was held from 7 to 23 February 2014 in Sochi, Russia. Opening ro ...

. Their best record at the

Ice Hockey World Championships The Ice Hockey World Championships are an annual international men's ice hockey tournament organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), first officially held at the 1920 Summer Olympics. The IIHF was created in 1908 while the I ...

is 13th place, achieved in

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

and

2025 So far, the year has seen the continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudanese civil war, and the Gaza war. Internal crises in Bangladesh post-resignation v ...

. Seven players from Slovenia have been drafted into the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

(NHL) since 1998;

Anže Kopitar Anže Kopitar (, born 24 August 1987) is a Slovenian professional ice hockey centre and captain of the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League (NHL). The 11th overall pick in the 2005 NHL entry draft, Kopitar became the first Slovene ...

and

Jan Muršak Jan Muršak (born 20 January 1988) is a professional Slovenian ice hockey player for Frölunda HC of the Swedish Hockey League (SHL). Muršak first played hockey in Slovenia as a member of HDK Maribor before he left to spend one season in the Cz ...

have played in the league.

History

Before Slovenia's independence, Slovenian hockey players played for the Yugoslavia national team. From 1939, when Yugoslavia took part in its first

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

, to 1991, when the country disintegrated, 91% of all Yugoslav national team members were Slovenes, including the entire squad that represented Yugoslavia at the

1984 Winter Olympics The 1984 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIV Olympic Winter Games (Serbo-Croatian language, Serbo-Croatian and Slovene language, Slovene: ; Serbian Cyrillic alphabet, Serbian Cyrillic: ; ) and commonly known as Sarajevo '84 (Serbian Cy ...

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ), ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'' is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 2 ...

. Slovenia declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, and joined the

International Ice Hockey Federation The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF; ; ) is a worldwide governing body for ice hockey. It is based in Zurich, Switzerland, and has 84 member countries. The IIHF maintains the IIHF World Ranking based on international ice hockey to ...

the following year. They first played as an independent nation at the 1993 World Championship, hosting the Group C tournament, the lowest tier. They played in the elite division for the first time in

, and at their first

Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (), also known as the Winter Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were held i ...

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

Tournament record

Olympic Games

World Championship

Team

Current roster

Roster for the

2025 IIHF World Championship The 2025 IIHF World Championship was co-hosted by Stockholm, Sweden, and Herning, Denmark, from 9 to 25 May 2025. This decision regarding Sweden was made at the 2018 semi-annual International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) congress in Malta, and w ...

. Head coach: Edo Terglav

Coaching history

* Rudi Hiti (1992–1995) *

Vladimir Krikunov Vladimir Vasilievich Krikunov (, born March 24, 1950) is retired Soviet Union, Soviet and Russian ice hockey player and former head coach of Russia men's national ice hockey team, team Russia. He is currently a coach of the Kontinental Hockey Leag ...

(1995–1996) *

Pavle Kavčič Pavle (Macedonian and sr-Cyrl, Павле; ka, პავლე) is a Serbian, Macedonian, Croatian and Georgian male given name corresponding to the English Paul; the name is of biblical origin, coming from Saint Paul. People Mononyms * Pav ...

(1996–1999) * Rudi Hiti (1999–2000) *

Matjaž Sekelj Matjaz Sekelj (born December 9, 1960, in Ljubljana, Yugoslavia) Career profile osports-reference.com/ref> is a retired Slovenian professional ice hockey player. Sekelj participated with HDD Olimpija Ljubljana in the Yugoslav Ice Hockey League for ...

(2001–2003) * Kari Savolainen (2003–2005) * František Výborný (2005–2006) *

Ted Sator Ted Sator (born November 18, 1949) is an American professional ice hockey coach. He has twelve seasons of National Hockey League (NHL) coaching experience, serving as an assistant coach for various teams and head coach of the New York Rangers an ...

(2006–2007) * Mats Waltin (2007–2008) * John Harrington (2009–2010) *

Matjaž Kopitar Matjaž Kopitar (born 6 November 1965) Career profile oeliteprospects.com/ref> is a Slovenian former professional ice hockey player. He is the father of the ice hockey players Gašper Kopitar, Gašper and Anže Kopitar. Playing career Kopitar b ...

(2010–2015) * Nik Zupančič (2015–2017) * Kari Savolainen (2017–2018) * Ivo Jan (2018–2019) *

(2019–2023) * Edo Terglav (2023–present)

NHL Entry Draft

''Players from Slovenia selected in the NHL Entry Draft.''

References

External links

*
IIHF profile
{{National sports teams of Slovenia Ice hockey teams in Slovenia National ice hockey teams in Europe Men's national ice hockey teams