The World Children’s Championship is a holiday hockey tradition like no other.
This year is an exception.
The tournament is still going your way during the peak break, it’s just that now it’s happening in the middle of summer, instead of after Christmas. Confused? Let’s recap.
WJC 2022 was set to play as usual last December. Due to COVID-19 concerns, the site was moved to Edmonton, Alberta, under “bubble” restrictions. The International Ice Hockey Federation hopes strict regulations will allow the event to go ahead as scheduled. Spoiler: It doesn’t.
Four days later, IIHF forced to pause everything After the USA, Czechia and Russia were each excluded from the preliminary round matches for linking COVID cases through their ranks. At the time, the IIHF did not know if the tournament could be rescheduled.
In April, a new plan was announced. The IIHF says it will repeat the 2022 event from August 9 to 20 in Edmonton. Results from games played last December will be discarded. Players born in 2002 or later are still eligible to participate. And so here we are.
As the preliminary action kicks in (again), of course all eyes will be on the league’s perennial favorites from the US and Canada. Those countries highlight two groups of countries participating: Group A has the US, Austria, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland, while Group B includes Canada, Czechia, Finland, Latvia and Slovakia.
Austria still retains its place in a top league despite finishing in 10th place last year. Normally it would have faced relegation, but the cancellation of various U20 tournaments changed the rules and they are still in the mix.
The top four teams in each group will play in the quarterfinals, starting on August 17. The semi-finals will be on August 19, and the gold and bronze medal matches on August 20.
Before things begin, we’ll check out some of the main storylines and more intriguing players that are taking part in this year’s tournament. As hockey fans know, there is no comparison for the drama World Juniors can offer. (Editor’s Note: A version of this story was posted in December prior to the original tournament start. This has been updated to account for what changed between then and now)
Can Team USA come back?
Spencer Knight made 34 saves and Trevor Zegras scored two points as Team USA beat Team Canada 2-0 to claim gold at the 2021 World Juniors.
That marks Team USA’s fifth WJC title, along with wins in 2004, 2010, 2013 and 2017. What the US has never achieved is winning gold in consecutive years. And there’s no time like the present to give it one more time.
Head coach Neal Leaman will be on the bench again this year, after leading Team USA to a gold medal in 2021. Leaman has been the men’s team coach at Providence College for 11 seasons and won the NCAA title in 2015.
Team USA has four skaters back from the 2021 championship roster, Brock Faber, Landon Slaggert, Brett Berard and Tyler Kleven, and retains 17 of the 25 players originally slated to compete. tournament in December.
Prominent in how the US repeats will be Team Canada, although they have previously suffered significant losses in numbers. Nine players from Canada’s December roster will not return this time, including Owen Power and Kaiden Guhle. However, Canada prides itself on impressive goalscoring ability, featuring the Canadian Hockey League’s goalkeeper of the year, Dylan Garand.
Canada is also the last team to win consecutive WJC titles, winning five gold medals in a row from 2005 to 2009. Will the US be next to come back?
Can Connor Bedard dominate – again?
Technically, the last 16-year-old to play for Canada at World Juniors was some guy named Connor McDavid.
In December, another Connor followed in McDavid’s footsteps – and 16-year-old Connor Bedard got off to a great start. Bedard entered Canada’s winter selection camp with an outside slot to become the team’s 13th striker. He made it to the final list and became the youngest player in tournament history to score four goals in a single game during Canada’s qualifying journey against Austria. A day later, the IIHF closed the championship.
Bedard then returned to the Regina Pats of the Western Hockey League and scored 76 points in 38 games.
It’s no surprise that Bedard entered this tournament not only in Canada’s top spot with Mason McTavish, but also the favorite to take the overall No. 1 spot in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft.
Canada head coach Dave Cameron said the three-month playing time that passed for Bedard between this championship and the next made a “huge” impact on his overall game. Center agrees, telling reporters this week that he feels an improvement over the second half of last season, especially when it comes to his face-to-face ratio. Bedard will showcase those advances on the international stage.
There’s no reason to doubt he can. Bedard has long been a fanatic, like when he became the first player in WHL history to be granted special status to join the Pats at the age of 15. So it probably shouldn’t be surprising that Bedard arrived at camp last winter and was Canada’s top scorer through exhibition games with two goals and four assists.
Even Bedard is not expected to play a big role for Canada. That has changed rapidly. Expectations are now sky high for what Bedard can produce in a squad hungry to return to the top.
Same goes for US Logan Cooley. He was part of the team’s initial WJC roster, tallying an assist in a preliminaries match before the COVID shutdown. Leman thinks Cooley played great in that game against Slovakia and hopes he’ll rely on Cooley more from then on.
That’s especially true now, given all that has happened to Cooley since then. He returned to the US National Team Development Program and had a great year with the Under-18s, racking up 75 points in 51 games. That translates to Cooley being third drafted by Arizona overall in the NHL Input Draft last month. Increased confidence? You bet.
Cooley wants to turn pro fast but is committed to playing in Minnesota next season. World Juniors should be an ideal scholar in his freshman year. The Pittsburgh native is a skilled center who could take the top six role for the United States and take on Bedard and other elite skaters in this tournament.
Where is Russia?
This is the first time the World Junior Championships won’t include Team Russia.
They have been participating since the tournament began in 1974 and have won the most medals (37) of any participating nation. Russia was also part of the championship that took place in December. But in February, the IIHF dominated all the teams from Russia and Belarus as suspended from any IIHF sanctioned events. The ruling comes in the context of Russia continuing to invade Ukraine.
“The IIHF is not a political entity and cannot influence decisions being made in the war in Ukraine,” IIHF President Luc Tardif said in a statement at the time. “However, we have a duty to look after all of our members and participants and therefore must do all we can to ensure that we can operate our events within a safe environment for all teams participating in the IIHF World Championship programme.”
So, with Russia out, Latvia is now in attendance. This will be Latvia’s first time in the tournament since 2017, and the seventh trip overall. Latvia earned its spot by placing second in the tournament’s Division 1A competition in December. Belarus finished first and would normally take Russia’s place in this case, but Belarus was also banned.
Will new faces appear?
All the players from the December tournament may have returned for this summer’s rollout. Of course, not all are like that, requiring some reinforcements on every formation.
Hello (several) newbies.
William Dufour, F (Canada)
Dufour didn’t join Team Canada the first time he tried. But that was after. The New Yorkers prospect put together a fantastic 2022 season with QMJHL’s Saint John Sea Dogs, leading the league in goals (56) and second in points (116). It was good enough to win Dufour the QMJHL’s Michel-Briere trophy as the tournament’s MVP – and he didn’t stop there. Dufour won another MVP title when he led the Sea Dogs to the Memorial Cup championship this spring, scoring the most goals (7) and points (8) in the league. Dufour has the scoring ability that Canada needs and should be the backstop for key minutes in uniform strength and strong play.
Sean Behrens, D (USA)
Technically, Behrens isn’t entirely new here. He was shortlisted for Team USA in December but was unable to attend the tournament after testing positive for COVID-19. Currently, the defender has another crack in the game and will go deep into this championship. Colorado Prospects just wrapped up a sensational freshman season at the University of Denver, with 29 points in 37 games and helping the Pioneers win the national title. Behrens is a talented overall skater with great mobility that will make him especially enjoyable to watch in Edmonton.
Thomas Bordeleau, C (USA)
This opportunity had not come to Bordeleau for a long time. He was supposed to play for Team USA in both 2021 and last winter but was stymied by COVID-19 protocol on both occasions. The 20-year-old played a small role for the US team in this year’s Men’s World Cup. He should have a bigger role in Juniors. Bordeleau intends to be a center among the top six, using his creativity and high-end skill set to create a lot of offense for the US team. .
Jonathan Lekkerimaki, F (Sweden)
Keep an eye out for this Vancouver Canucks bench. Lekkerimaki had a fantastic international season for Sweden, scoring a league-high 15 at the Under-18 World Championship (where he won gold) and five goals at the Hlinka. Add to that a seven-goal performance in the Swedish Hockey League and it’s no surprise that the 18-year-old is creating a buzz – and expectations – of how he will help lead. Sweden in this championship.
Aatu Raty, F (Finland)
This season has been a real turning point for Raty. The Islanders’ prospects got off to a bad start with the Finnish League’s Karpat, scoring little time in the team’s first six games. Raty was then traded in October from Karpat to Jukurit, where he played under head coach (and former NHLer) Olli Jokinen. It was a perfect match, and Raty excelled in scoring 13 goals and 40 points in 41 games. After being dropped from Finland’s roster altogether last year, he is now gathering their top team with Roni Hirvonen and Joakim Kemell and could eventually become the league’s top scorer. Talk about glow.
