Fourteen nations would qualify for the Olympic tournament, eight to the preliminary round, and six to the first round. The IIHF used the standings of the 1999 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships to determine qualification. First, the top six nations from Pool A would go directly to the first round. The preliminary round was made up of the nations ranked seventh and eighth, along with six others from a series of qualification tournaments. The nations ranked nine through twelve went straight to the final qualification round, with all other participants playing through pre-qualification tournaments.