World Juniors teams, rosters, format and more to know about the 2022 IIHF hockey tournament | Top stories

As the year draws to a close and the NHL season draws to a halt, hockey fans can still refuel when the World Juniors kicks off on December 26. The tournament, which features the world’s best under-20 hockey players, its 46th consecutive this year.

It is also one of the most anticipated iterations of the tournament, as the NHL and NHLPA have announced that the league will not send any of its players to the Beijing Olympics, as was the case in 2018 for Pyeongchang.

MORE: Complete Guide to the 2022 World Junior Tournament

As a result, this year’s Olympic teams will likely be made up of replacement players, former NHL players and potentially young stars of the game, many of whom will be showcasing their talents at this year’s World Juniors in Edmonton. This is the second year in a row that Canada has hosted the tournament.

The tournament runs from December 26 with the preliminary rounds and ends on January 5, 2022 for the gold medal game.

MORE: Canada’s top prospects to watch at 2022 World Juniors

It should be noted that the IIHF, which hosts the World Juniors, canceled all of its competitions from January and canceled an exhibition match between Czechia and Switzerland due to COVID concerns. For now, the World Juniors is still underway, but Sporting News will provide updates accordingly.

Here is the rest of the information you need to know about the 2022 World Junior Tournament.

Which teams participate in the world junior championships?

There will be 10 teams competing at this year’s tournament, split into two groups – Group A and Group B. The two groups for this year are:

group A

• Canada
• Finland
• Germany
• Czechia
• Australia

Group B

• United States
• Russia
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• Slovakia

The current 10-team format has been in place since 1996 and includes the top 10 teams in the world. Since the tournament officially started in 1977, Canada, Sweden, Russia, Czechia, Finland and the United States have participated in every tournament. Slovakia has participated in all tournaments since the introduction of the 10-team format in 1996, following the dissolution of Czechoslovakia.

The tournament, which is considered Division I and Premier Group, also includes Divisions II and III, with lower-ranked countries vying for a place in the top group and major world juniors.

Many other countries participated in the first pool including: Slovakia, Switzerland, Latvia, Germany, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Austria, Denmark, France, Poland, Japan, Norway and Ukraine.

In the history of the tournament, Russia has the most medals with 37 (including the Soviet Union and the CIS) while Canada has the most gold medals with 18. The Russians won the gold last in 2011 while the Canadians last won it in 2020. The Americans are the reigning champions with five gold medals and 13 in total.

* – The IIHF began officially sponsoring the World Junior Championship in 1977

Who will represent each team at the World Juniors?

The tournament, which at its core, requires its participants to be citizens of the country they represent and to be 20 years old in the year the tournament ends (eg 2001 for 2021).

Each team is made up of the best young talents from their respective countries, the youngest players being 17 years old and the oldest 20 years old. Several of the players have been drafted into the NHL or have their rights held by an NHL team.

Notable names on the rosters include Owen Power and Kent Johnson on Team Canada, Alexander Holtz and Fabian Lysell on Team Sweden and Matty Beniers and Jake Sanderson on Team USA.

A total of 28 first-round picks will take to the ice at this year’s tournament, including three from Russia, six from the United States, seven from Sweden and 12 from Canada.

The full team lists are available here.

What is the format of the 2022 World Junior Tournament?

When the tournament kicks off on January 6, it will begin with the group stage of the competition to determine the standings ahead of the quarter-finals, which will consist of eight teams.

The two teams that do not advance to the quarter-finals advance to the relegation round to determine which country will come out of the top 10. That country will be replaced next year by Belarus, who went 5-0 in the division tournament. lower to get his ticket for next year. This will be the first time Belarus has returned to the World Junior Championships since 2018.

After the quarter-final matches, the four final teams will be reclassified for the semi-final matches according to certain criteria:

1. Higher position in their respective group
2. Higher number of points
3. Best goal differential
4. Most goals for
5. Higher seeding to come in 2022

The quarter-finals will all take place on January 2, with the semi-finals two days later on January 4 before the gold and bronze medal games on January 5.

The first matchup of the entire tournament will take place at 12 p.m. local time in Edmonton and will pit Switzerland against Germany.

Calendar of the 2022 World Junior Championships

Sunday December 26

Monday, December 27

Tuesday, December 28

Wednesday, December 29

Thursday, December 30

Friday December 31

Sunday January 2

Tuesday January 4

Wednesday January 5

How to watch or broadcast the 2022 World Juniors

Fans can see the action in Edmonton in a number of ways. For those with cable in the United States, NHL Network will broadcast all games, while TSN will broadcast them in Canada.

There are also options to broadcast the tournament. In Canada, fans can stream the game on the TSN app or on TSN.ca.

In the US, fans can stream the tournament on fuboTV (7-day free trial), the NHL app, or NHL.tv.

Stephen Nelson will take care of the play-by-play tasks for the US shows and he will be joined by Dave Starman as analyst while Jon Rosen will be the reporter.

In Canada, Gord Miller will handle play-by-play duties for TSN and Ray Ferraro will join him as analyst for all Group A games, where Canada will participate.