The International Ice Hockey Federation has selected the 32 on-ice officials who will be working the 2026 IIHF World Championship. This year’s tournament, which kicks off on May 15, will be held in Switzerland, with games taking place in Zurich and Fribourg. The Gold Medal game is set for May 31.
Here are the referees and linesmen for the 2026 IIHF World Championship:
Referees
Tobias Bjork #25 (Sweden)
Nolan Bloyer #13 (USA)
Cedric Borga #28 (Switzerland)
Riku Brander #29 (Finland)
Taylor Burzminski #14 (Canada)
Jesse Gour #19 (Canada)
Christoffer Holm #26 (Sweden)
Tomas Hronsky #20 (Slovakia)
Mikko Kaukokari #30 (Finland)
Lukas Kohlmueller #18 (Germany)
Sean MacFarlane #11 (USA)
Christian Ofner #15 (Austria)
Jiri Ondracek #12 (Czechia)
Andre Schrader #27 (Germany)
Michael Tscherrig #24 (Switzerland)
Marcus Wannerstedt #22 (Norway)
Linespersons
Danny Beresford #65 (Great Britain)
Brian Birkhoff #54 (Canada)
Renars Davidonis #63 (Latvia)
Oto Durmis #68 (Slovakia)
Mitchell Gibbs #59 (Canada)
Shane Gustafson #62 (USA)
Onni Hautamaki #66 (Finland)
Gustav Jonsson #61 (Sweden)
Patrick Laguzov #50 (Germany)
Tommi Niittyla #70 (Finland)
Anders Nyqvist #64 (Sweden)
Jiri Ondracek #55 (Czechia)
Lukas Rampir #60 (Czechia)
John Rey #57 (USA)
Dominik Schlegel #56 (Switzerland)
Njaal Sostumoen #58 (Norway)
This year’s officiating crew represents 12 countries, with Sweden leading the way with five officials and Canada, Finland, and the United States all sending four.
Don’t be confused — we have two separate officials named Jiri Ondracek. The veteran linesperson is returning to the tournament, while Jiri the referee is making his Worlds debut.
“This is the first step in us preparing for the next Winter Olympics,” said IIHF Head of Officiating Scott Zelkin. “We’re gearing up and giving our officials an opportunity to get to the next Olympics. Some officials who worked the last World Juniors, or who will be in Slovakia for the men’s U18, might be at the Olympics in four years. We don’t know who they’ll be yet, of course.”
Referees Tobias Bjork, Riku Brander, Christoffer Holm, Mikko Kaukokari, Christian Ofner, Andre Schrader, and Michael Tscherrig all officiated the 2025 World Championship, as did linespersons Danny Beresford, Oto Dermis, Shane Gustafson, Onni Hautamaki, Patrick Laguzov, Tommi Niittyla, Anders Nyqvist, Jiri Ondracek, and Dominik Schlagel. Holm, Bjork, and Hautamaki all officiated the 2025 Gold Medal game between USA and Switzerland.
Bjork, Brander, Durmis, Gustafson, Holm, Hronsky, Kaukokari, Nyqvist, Ondracek, Schrader, and Tscherrig were all part of the 2024 World Championship officiating team.
“The World Championship is one of the marquee events on the hockey calendar, whether it’s an Olympic year or not,” Zelkin added. “We want to put the best officiating crew on the ice, but we also want to use this as a chance to bring in some new people. All of the officials who will be in Switzerland have experience, whether it’s Division I-A or a World Juniors or under 18. They’ve all been at a top-level IIHF event, but for a number of them, this will be their first senior Men’s Worlds at the top level, which is also exciting.”
Hautamaki, Holm, MacFarlane, and Schrader all worked the 2024 Winter Olympics.
Referee Cedric Borga recently worked the 2026 World Juniors.
Officiating coaches are Lars Bruggemann (Germany), Paer-Olof Livf (Sweden), Jukka Pakaslahti (Finland), and Ian Walsh (USA).
Congratulations and good luck to the officials selected to work the 2026 IIHF World Championship.
