At the 2025 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship, Group A promises to be an ultra-competitive showdown. Still, question marks loom over these medal contenders. That goes beyond their preparations to excel at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan. We will learn much about each nation’s character, skill, and depth in Ceske Budejovice, Czechia (9 to 20 April)
 
Let’s take a closer look at the Group A teams, which are also the top five nations in the current IIHF Women’s World Ranking.

Canada

It’s hard to bet against the champs. Canada has won four out of five senior IIHF women’s tournaments in the 2020’s, including the 2022 Beijing Olympics and last year’s Women’s Worlds in Utica, New York. Unofficial trends also favour the Canadians. They have won the last three Rivalry Series against their American frenemies. The PWHL’s current top two regular-season teams – the Montreal Victoire and Toronto Sceptres – are also the most loaded with Team Canada members.
 
When you consider the two-way threats of legendary captain Marie-Philip Poulin and Sarah Fillier, along with a deep and talented defence starring Renata Fast, Erin Ambrose, and Claire Thompson, Canada looks well-positioned to seek a record 14^th Women’s Worlds gold medal.
 
Yet there are issues to ponder. Will top goalie Ann-Renee Desbiens, single-tournament Olympic points record-holder Sarah Nurse (2022), and 2024 PWHL goals leader Natalie Spooner reach their usual standard after dealing with injuries this season? Can power forwards Brianne Jenner and Danielle Serdachny elevate their games in Ceske Budejovice after struggling to meet expectations with the Ottawa Charge?
 
It’s also up in the air how two former Patty Kazmaier Award winners – sniper Daryl Watts and blueliner Sophie Jaques – will perform in their official national team debuts. Ditto for 18-year-old University of Minnesota wunderkind Chloe Primerano, the youngest Women’s Worlds defender ever to represent Canada. Still, coach Troy Ryan’s crew rightfully expects nothing less than gold.

Czechia

Time is a precious quantity. With the Czechs hosting their first Women’s Worlds ever, this is a special (and pressure-packed) time. As bronze medalists in 2022 and 2023, they are hungry for another podium finish after settling for fourth place last year. But a lack of playing time for some Czech PWHLers this year might make it tough to get up to speed.
 
That hasn’t been an issue for star forward Tereza Vanisova, who is vying for the PWHL goals lead under Ottawa (and Czech) coach Carla MacLeod, or Charge teammate Aneta Tejralova, a workhorse defender. Yet Ottawa centre Katerina Mrazova – last year’s highest-scoring European PWHLer – has been sidelined since mid-February with an upper-body injury. Noemi Neubauerova has logged less than five minutes per game in Toronto this year. Blueliner Dominika Laskova missed more than a year with a knee injury and has only appeared in three games for Montreal. Perhaps most concerningly, goalie Klara Peslarova – a 2022 Women’s Worlds all-star – has played just 40 minutes this season as a Boston Fleet backup.
 
On the bright side, young guns like Adela Sapovalivova (MoDo) and Natalie Mlynkova (University of Minnesota) have shone in the SDHL and NCAA respectively. The long-awaited senior team debut of 2025 Patty Kaz top-10 finalist Kristyna Kaltounkova (Colgate) is generating excitement.
 
If the Czechs ride their fan support and play focused hockey with great goaltending, there’s a small chance they could achieve a semi-final miracle, like the Finns’ 4-2 upset over the U.S. in Espoo (2019). More likely, they’ll contend for bronze again.

Finland

Talk about a tough schedule. The Finns start off with back-to-back games versus the Canadians and Americans. But they can’t get downhearted even if they get thrashed. In 2024, coach Juuso Toivola’s group learned a valuable lesson about stepping up in crucial moments. Finland stumbled through the preliminary round, but grabbed a 5-2 win over Switzerland to make the playoffs. They then beat the Swiss 3-1 in the quarter-finals and edged Czechia 3-2 in a shootout for bronze.
 
There is a leadership void to fill. Captain and surefire IIHF Hall of Famer Jenni Hiirikoski – the all-time Women’s Worlds games leader (96) – will miss the 2025 tournament due to illness. The question is how prepared Finland’s young, Europe-based stars are to carry a bigger load.
 
Of course, Susanna Tapani, 32, is an established clutch scorer in Boston, while rearguard Ronja Savolainen, 27, has shown dominant form in her first Ottawa season. To challenge the North American teams, though, will require next-level outings from the likes of forwards Petra Nieminen and Viivi Vainikka (Lulea), who just disappointingly lost the SDHL finals to Frolunda. The shifty Elisa Holopainen vied for both the regular-season and playoff scoring crowns with Frolunda. She built confidence in 2024 from scoring twice in a 5-3 loss to the host Americans. Frolunda assistant captain Michelle Karvinen – likely PWHL-bound at age 35 – surpassed Holopainen by a point in the SDHL post-season and remains a difference-maker.

Switzerland

Currently fifth in the IIHF World Ranking, the Swiss are entering their sixth straight Women’s Worlds in Group A – alhough they have often looked outmatched. Last year, coach Colin Muller’s squad lost all four group-stage games by an aggregate of 18-3.
 
Per usual, the offence will live and die by two three-time Olympians: captain Lara Stalder (EVZ), 30, and fellow sniper Alina Muller (Boston), 27. Among active Swiss skaters, no one comes close to their all-time Women’s Worlds point-per-game production. Stalder is at 0.956 and Muller at 0.833. That imbalance is a problem, though, against higher-calibre opponents. (Especially if Switzerland’s power play struggles as in 2024, when it went 1-for-17.)
 
It puts pressure on starting goalie Andrea Brandli (MoDo), 27, to stand on her head. The 2022 NCAA champion with Ohio State posted her best WW save percentage ever last year (92.1) while facing 173 shots in five games. Key minute-munchers on defence include Lara Christen (Bern), 22, who led all Swiss blueliners in scoring and ice time last year, and Alessia Baechler (Davos), 19.
 
Likely to finish fifth in Group A, the Swiss are still guaranteed a quarter-final berth. (The tournament will change in 2026, when the two groups will be established using “snake seeding” to create two sections of equal rank.) Regardless of how this group stage goes, the Swiss can – as in their fourth-place finishes of 2021-23 – make it a respectable WW with a quarter-final win.

United States

The Americans – who won their 10^th Women’s Worlds gold in 2023 – enter this WW with an intimidatingly good mix of PWHL veterans and college stars. Top to bottom, they justify their status as co-favourites with Canada.
 
Re-energized legend Hilary Knight, who tops the PWHL scoring race with Boston at 35, is also the all-time Women’s Worlds scoring leader and could win a record 10^th gold medal this year. Minnesota captain Kendall Coyne Schofield, 32, remains the fastest skater in women’s hockey. From Alex Carpenter’s low-key snipes to Taylor Heise’s dazzling dangles, the U.S. has offence to burn.
 
That’s not even factoring in the dazzling cohort from the NCAA champion University of Wisconsin, which just won a record-extending eighth national title. Witness the pure power of 2024 tournament MVP Laila Edwards, capable of starring up front or on defence. Kirsten Simms – whose late penalty-shot goal and overtime marker won the Frozen Four final against Ohio State – may already be the sport’s top puckhandler. Meanwhile, fellow Badger Caroline Harvey has remarkably led the Women’s Worlds in points two years in a row, headlining a U.S. blue line that also features 2018 Olympic gold medalists like Cayla Barnes and Megan Keller.
 
If Ann-Renee Desbiens isn’t 100 percent for Canada, Boston starter Aerin Frankel arguably becomes the tournament’s top goalie. Where the Canadians still hold a slight edge is in the intangibles department, having beaten the U.S. by one goal in all four of their gold-medal wins this decade. The U.S. is eager to set a winning tone heading into Milan, but it’s a coin flip between the archrivals.