The IIHF Released its U20 World Junior Hockey Championship Schedule, now What?

We heard a little while ago that the World Juniors, a staple on every hardcore hockey fan’s winter calendar, were on for 2021, set to take place in Edmonton, Alberta.

The original plan, of course, was to have Edmonton and Red Deer share the hosting duties, but that’s no longer feasible given the ongoing pandemic. The IIHF has pledged a return to those two settings in 2022 with fans.

Then came a report indicating that the IIHF (International Ice Hockey Federation) planned to place the tournament’s 10 teams in a bubble setup identical to the one that the NHL successfully deployed to host their Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Today? Well, today we get a schedule.

There are some unique twists to this year’s tournament, one that will prove unlike any that preceded it.

Let’s start with the tournament’s opening match, a Christmas day showdown between Switzerland and Slovakia, slated for a noon start in local time.

The World Juniors last started on Christmas back in 2005; since then, it’s started exclusively on Boxing Day. They’re moving the tournament up a day this go around to make up for the lost access of a secondary venue.

It’s an interesting play on the federation’s part. Under normal circumstances (remember those?) this would prove a fool’s errand. The NBA generally has a firm grip on Christmas sports viewership, only losing audience members when the NFL joins the fray. The NBA, however, is unlikely to start their next season until the new year, and the NFL only has one game on schedule.

With three games on tap, the World Juniors has a chance to play before an unusually substantial television audience, one made larger by the family gatherings likely to take place across every corner of the hockey world on that most festive of occasions.

The best part of it all is that they close out the day with what should be the best of the three games, as Russia and USA go head-to-head right as the turkey, turducken, or turkey-like vegetarian substitute leaves the oven.

The 10 teams, by the way, are divided into two groups for preliminary play. Group A features the host Canadians, Finland, Switzerland, Slovakia, and Germany; Group B features Russia, Sweden, USA, Czechia, and Austria.

There are also going to be 10 preliminary games leading into the tournament, starting on December 20th with Germany playing Switzerland, and closing on December 23rd with Czechia taking on Germany.

The tournament will finish on Thursday, January 5th, with the Bronze Medal Game scheduled for 3:30 local time, and then the Gold Medal Game, set for a 7:30 local time puck drop, marks the conclusion of the tournament.

Now that we have a schedule, the 10 participating nations are going to face a several crucial questions as they form their rosters.

Foremost among them, particularly for Team Canada, is the matter of which players are going to be available to them. Because of the NHL’s desire to start the next season on January 1st or sometime thereabouts, there is going to be a handful of skaters that could, theoretically, be made available to them who might otherwise be playing NHL hockey in an ordinary season.

Alexis Lafrenière, the first overall pick in the 2020 NHL Draft, is the big one. In a series of tweets following TSN’s schedule reveal broadcast, Bob McKenzie suggested that the Rangers and Lafrenière might not be terribly keen on the idea, but that could be subject to change depending on the NHL’s launch date for next season.

The same is true of players like Chicago Blackhawks centre Kirby Dach, New Jersey Devils pivot Jack Hughes, and Rangers winger Kaapo Kakko — a trio of skaters who have already established themselves as unambiguous NHLers.

On the other end of the spectrum, players like Los Angeles Kings prospect Tobias Björnfot and Winnipeg Jets blue liner Ville Heinola should be made available.

After that, the questions shift to the selection process and player readiness.

Take Canada, for example. The QMJHL started their season not that long ago, but their year hangs in the balance as COVID19 has interrupted play. The WHL’s season isn’t scheduled to start until January 8th. The OHL, meanwhile, plans to drop the puck on their season December 1st, but will ramp up with some exhibition games in late-November.

How will the Canadians determine which players warrant a look? Will they lean harder than usual on players who have been there before? Will their players be ready without any competitive hockey under their belt since last March?

The Canadians are hardly novel in this regard. In the United States, the NCAA landscape is rapidly shifting on a conference-by-conference basis, and it’s hard to imagine that they’ll have a much better idea of where their players are at come December than anyone else.

ESPN’s Chris Peters rightly raised the question of whether the mandatory quarantine period will impact the availability of NCAA players period, and it’s an interesting angle to consider as well. It’s just one more among a sea of interesting elements of this year’s tournament to ponder.

If anything, this might give the European nations something of an edge. They’re either carrying on as if the pandemic isn’t happening (Russia, Sweden to a lesser degree) or they’ve done a fantastic job of managing the pandemic and part of their reward is a safe environment in which sports can take place (Finland).

We should get some clarity on this matter in the coming weeks, months, etc. There are already rumblings of a training camp bubble coming together in mid-November, at least for Canada.

The rosters will be larger than usual this year, and that ought to help a fair bit. Teams are going to be permitted up to 23 skaters in the bubble, along with three goalies, up from the usual 20 skaters they usually carry going into this tournament.

No matter how things plan out, EliteProspects will be live, on the scene covering the entirety of the tournament. We’ll also be doing a lead up to the World Juniors with coverage of the teams going into it.