The last of the Divisional previews (the main tournament will come later on). It starts the same day as the Division I games, but less quality hockey. Mongolia's roster isn't up yet, but I think they pulled out of the tournament (I'll add them anyway). I admit I can't wait for next year's tournament, since the United Arab Emirates are supposed to officially join the World Championship.
Division III (Host: Turkey)
World Ranking
37. Turkey
41. Ireland
43. Luxembourg
44. Greece
45. North Korea
46. Mongolia
Prediction
1 (Promotion) - Ireland
2 - Turkey
3 - Luxembourg
4 - North Korea
5 - Greece
6 - Mongolia
Ireland can pull off an upset. They are the only team with over 20 skaters and on of two teams with more than 2 goalies. What scares me about this pick is that their team is either old or young, there is very little in the way of middle, in-the-now players.
Turkey does have a league and are developing. They can (and probably will) get the promotion. In essence they are a lower-level Austria: Too good for the lower division, too bad for the higher division.
Luxembourg does have a league, but the size of the country is what hurts their development. It might be the sad truth for a country that has been with the IIHF for 100 years.
For North Korea it's politics. Once their players are free to travel and play with teams outside the country, then they can see some advancement in their program.
Greece is just exiting the "ex-pat" stage and developing on their own. This will definitely take a while before they show some improvement. They also need younger players. A lot of their roster was born before 1980.
Mongolia is around where Greece is, but more disadvantaged. Where Greece is starting to built rinks, Mongolia is still far behind in that area. If Mongolia was able to participate in the IIHF Asia Challenge (where non-World Championship Asian countries compete), it could help them develop a bit more.
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