Iranian National Team

The Iran men's national ice hockey team (Persian: تیم ملی هاکی روی یخ ایران) is the national ice hockey team of Iran. The team founded in June 2016, is controlled by the Islamic Republic of Iran Skating Federation, who aspires of becoming a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation.

2017 Asian Winter Games will be the team's first tournament.

History
Back in the 1970s, Ice Hockey was played as a recreation sport by the general public at "Ice Palace" (Persian: قصر یخ) which was located in Pahlavi Street before Vanak Square, there was also another ice rink located in Aryamehr Sport Complex which was only used for Ice Skating. As a result of Iranian Revolution Ice Hockey and Ice Skating became banned, hence ice rinks got closed down.

Farzad Houshidari is among the first Iranians who is playing Ice Hockey abroad. Houshidari became the first player who has started hockey in Iran and played professionally abroad. Although there were or currently are many notable players of Iranian-origin across the globe, Daniel Rahimi, Mika Zibanejad and Rhett Rakhshani all play/played in the NHL, Rahimi and Zibanejad have represented Sweden in international competitions while Rakhshani represented USA. Currently there are two players of Iranian-origin in Omani National Team, Mustafa Hamedi and Ali Reza Rasoli and Umut Taherzadeh have represented Turkey internationally. Other notable players are Mark Ardelan] Ryan Mior, Farzad Khojasteh and Arian Ali-Zade. Also Canadian player Calvin Crowe was born in Tehran.

There are currently three Ice Rinks which are Aramis Sports Complex (Tehran), Damoon Shopping Center (Kish Island) and Padide Shandiz Shopping Center (Mashhad), which were respectively opened in 2013, 2014 and 2015. There is a standard Ice Rink underconstruction in Tehran.

In July 2015 Taylan Aytac from Turkey, together with Iranian trainee-instructors Pooya Ghandali and Saman Goodarzi, taught in Iran's first Ice Hockey workshop which was held in Aramis Sports Complex in Tehran.

From 26 to 28 June 2016 Iran's first national team camp was held in Asiago, Italy which was headed by Christian Muller in the absence of head coach Kaveh Sedghi. In order to fast track the creation of a national team, the coaching staff decided that it would be best to include the entire Iran men's national inline hockey team powered by hockey players of Iranian-origin from abroad.

The second national team camp held in Almaty, Kazakhstan from 20–27 August 2016, headed by Saman Goodarzi. Head coach Kaveh Sedghi and his assistants Christian Muller and Ramin Atighechi were unable to attend the camp. As part of the camp Iran team has been attending courses by Kazakh instructor Sergei Shavernev.

On 23 August 2016 Iran national team played its first international against Kazakh team HC Almaty winning 5-4 in Almaty.