Big Six (hockey)

The Big Six in men's international ice hockey are the six national teams that have been dominant in competitive play throughout the history of international hockey and especially since the 1950s. The group is composed of the North American countries of Canada and the United States, and four European countries: Czech Republic, Finland, Russia and Sweden. Before the end of the Cold War, the Soviet Union/CIS and Czechoslovakia held the places of Russia and the Czech Republic. The four European members are sometimes referred to as the "European Big Four" or "Big Four", especially to distinguish them from the North American teams.

Out of the 204 IIHF World Championships medals awarded, only twenty have been won by teams outside the Big Six and only five of those have been won since 1953 (four by Slovakia, one by Switzerland). Of the 72 Olympic ice hockey medals awarded, only 7 have not been won by a Big Six team.

Canada and United States seldom have their best players available for the IIHF World Championships, due to the conflicting time-frame of the NHL. Typically the only players available are College hockey players, NHL players whose teams have failed to make the Stanley Cup playoffs and players who play in other leagues such as the AHL and SHL. The World Championships are not widely broadcast on television in North America, and have a generally weak following there. Despite this, the Canadian and American teams that compete in the World Championships are still normally easily able to defeat European teams outside of the Big Six, with a few possible exceptions, such as Slovakia and Switzerland. It should however be added, that also the other four teams out of the big six, Sweden, Finland, Russia and the Czech republic, have their best players in the NHL and not available for play in the IIHF World Championship.

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