1970 IIHF World Championship (WFAC)

The 1970 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships was the 37th edition of the Ice Hockey World Championships hosted by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). Teams participated at three levels of competition. Pool A was played between 2–15 September 1970 in in Montreal and Winnipeg, Canada. Pool B was arranged in Bucharest, Romania between 24 February - 5 March 1970, while Pool C was arranged in in Klagenfurt, Austria between 13–22 February 1970.

The Pool A tournament was the first true best-on-best world championship in hockey history as it allowed any player to represent their team regardless of amateur or professional status. It was an eight-team, round robin tournament with playoff round comprising of two semifinals, a bronze medal game and a final. Canada was favoured to win as they had brought what was argued to be the strongest team in the nation's history, with the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia as the contenders. Despite the strength of the Canadian team, the Soviet Union won the world championship for the eighth straight year after defeating Canada in the final. Czechoslovakia defeated Sweden to claim the bronze medal. Phil Esposito was named the most valuable player of the tournament, and Alexander Maltsev was the leading scorer.

Consequently, the success of the event paved the way for greater use of professional players in the World Championship and later the Winter Olympics. This tournament was also the first one to make helmets mandatory for all skaters.

Background
The Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA) had complained for years that Team Canada faced a competitive disadvantage in international tournaments as it was restricted from using its best players, who were professionals in the National Hockey League (NHL), while European teams masked the status of their best players. As a result, Canada was not able to field their best players in top international tournaments. While the top players in Europe qualified as amateurs, all the best Canadian players competed in the professional NHL or World Hockey Association.

The disastrous results at the 1969 World Hockey Championship made the CAHA reconsider the national team. It was clear that the gap between the Canadian amateurs and the best teams in Europe was growing: in Innsbruck in 1964, the Canadians had lost close games to the Soviets and Czechoslovaks and beaten the other teams; by 1969 they were being regularly pastet by the Soviets and the Czechoslovaks as well as the Swedes and playing life and death to defeat teams like Finland. Canada thus decided to ask the IIHF to add a limited number of professional players to the Canadian roster for the 1970 World Championships that were to be held in Winnipeg and Montreal. In July 1969, on a trial basis, the inclusion of nine professional players for any event for one year was agreed to by the IIHF.

Canada entered a team with five professionals in the Izvestia tournament at Christmas in 1969, and nearly won the tournament. The Soviets complained that playing against professional players would negatively impact their amateur players' Olympic eligiblity, while Hockey Canada (a new organization established in 1969 made up of the CAHA, the NHL, NHLPA (the NHL's players union) and the Canadian government) had the official position that the World Hockey Championships and the Olympics should be open to all players. They argued that the Soviet amateur players were only amateurs on paper, and threatened to withdraw from international competitions.

Fearing that the absence of Canada would be a massive blow to international hockey, the newly elected President of the IIHF, Miroslav Šubrt, worked to reconcile the opposing sides. He initiated talks with NHLPA president and Hockey Canada director Alan Eagleson, and the negotiations, which included the IIHF, Hockey Canada, the NHL and the NHLPA, lasted almost a year. Šubrt and Eagleson would become the central figures in the organization of the changed World Championships, and eventually managed to find a compromise. At the 54th IIHF Congress on 24–28 May 1970 the IIHF announced following agreements: the World Championships moved to an open format that allowed professionals to participate. The Olympic ice hockey tournament, however, would following Soviet wishes remain an amateur tournament (which lasted until 1994). Taking inspiration from soccer's FIFA World Cup, Šubrt proposed that the tournament should be played every four years, and arrange them in alternating even-numbered years with the Winter Olympics. To avoid a clash between the tournament and the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Pool A tournament would be moved to end-August and start-September. The Canadians also agreed to play the games under international rules as well as agreed to IIHF amateur referees. The refereeing would use the international two referee system. Eagleson, who could call on a personal network of players, NHL owners, Hockey Canada executives and Canadian business, then convinced the NHL and the NHLPA to support the tournament with promises of increased pension contributions resulting from their participation. To strengthen the smaller hockey nations, regional tournaments (European Championship) would be played every two years in alternating uneven-numbered years between the World Championships and the Winter Olympics.

As the Soviets were looking for a new challenge in ice hockey and ready to play against Canadian professionals, they agreed to the terms. As a result, the tournament would be the first true best-on-best world championship in hockey history as it allowed any player to represent their team regardless of amateur or professional status.

Qualified teams
The five teams of the 1969 was automatically qualified for the tournament, along with the United States, who had originally been relegated Pool B after losing all ten games. As Pool A was expanded from six to eight teams, the 1969 Pool B winner West Germany and runner-up Norway were also qualified for the 1970 Pool A tournament.

Final ranking
The official IIHF final ranking of the tournament:

Directorate awards
Best players selected by the IIHF directorate:

All-Star team
The tournament All-Star team voted by the media:

World Championship Pool B (Romania)
With Group B expanding to eight teams in 1974, no nation was relegated.

World Championship Group C (Austria)
The 1970 IIHF World Championship Pool C tournament was contested in Klagenfurt, Austria between 13–22 February 1970. Austria and Italy were promoted to Pool B for the 1974 World Championship. With Pool B expanding to eight teams in 1974, no nation was relegated while Austria was promoted to Pool B.