5 compelling storylines at the 2025 World Junior Championship
The World Junior Championship is fast approaching, and the upcoming event certainly doesn't lack intriguing subplots.
Here are a handful of narratives to follow at the tournament.
Home cooking for Canada
Team Canada won back-to-back gold medals on home soil in 2022 and 2023, prevailing over Finland in Edmonton and defeating Czechia to claim the title in Halifax. That gave the Canadians three golds in four years, but the good times didn't roll into 2024.
Canada stumbled to a fifth-place finish in Gothenburg, Sweden. The Czechs exacted revenge for the 2023 gold-medal game (which went to overtime) by upending Canada 3-2 in the quarterfinals. Czechia blew a 2-0 lead in the second period, but Jakub Stancl scored with 11.7 seconds left in the third as the Canadians failed to reach the gold-medal game for the first time since 2019 and for only the third time in 10 years.
The tournament now returns to Canada for the 2025 edition in Ottawa. So will playing in front of friendly crowds help the hosts get back on track?
The last time Canada's capital held the event, in 2009, the home squad, led by John Tavares and Jordan Eberle, captured its fifth straight title. Eberle came to the rescue, scoring one the most memorable goals in tournament history to tie the semifinal against Russia with five seconds left. He and Tavares then tallied in the shootout to send Canada to the championship game, which it won easily over Sweden.
What will the U.S. do for an encore?
Unlike Team Canada, the United States didn't disappoint in the last tourney. The Americans won it all in Gothenburg, dispatching the host Swedes 6-2 in the gold-medal game. That U.S. squad was led by the event's goal-scoring co-leader Isaac Howard (seven goals in seven games), Gavin Brindley (six tallies), and Cutter Gauthier, who earned MVP honors by tying for the overall points lead with 12, including 10 assists.
All three players have aged out of the under-20 event, but the defending champions still possess plenty of skill. Potential 2025 first overall pick James Hagens, 2023 eighth overall selection Ryan Leonard, and the 23rd pick that year, Gabe Perreault, give the Americans a formidable Boston College trio. All three of them rank among the NCAA leaders in points this season.
Hagens was one of the final cuts from the 2024 U.S. team, but the 18-year-old forward figures to make his mark this year alongside his two college teammates, who played in the previous tournament.
The U.S. has never won back-to-back titles at the world juniors, nor has it ever played in consecutive gold-medal games. But with nearly half of the 2024 roster returning, the Americans are primed to change those surprising facts.
Gavin McKenna's potential impact
Gavin McKenna will play for Canada as a 17-year-old, having celebrated his birthday Friday. He's the youngest player on this national junior team, but no one's questioning his inclusion on the roster or whether he's capable of helping Canada get back to winning.
The Yukon-born forward dominated at the World Under-18 Championship this past spring and excelled at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup in the summer, helping his country win gold in both events.
The top prospect for the 2026 NHL Draft is in the midst of a stellar campaign with the WHL's Medicine Hat Tigers, leading the league in assists and points and doing that as a 16-year-old, no less.
McKenna isn't physically imposing at 6 feet and 165 pounds, but he makes up for it with game-breaking skill. He could very well be the difference between Canada falling short for a second straight year and celebrating yet another title.
Experienced Swedes eyeing revenge
Sweden enters the tournament having suffered the aforementioned blowout loss to the U.S. in the last gold-medal game - and on home ice, to boot. But the Tre Kronor have 19 drafted players on the roster this time around.
Otto Stenberg returns up front after notching five goals and four assists in the last tourney, while fellow 2023 first-round picks Axel Sandin-Pellika and Tom Willander anchor the defense corps. All three Swedish goaltenders (Marcus Gidlof, Melvin Strahl, and Melker Thelin) are draftees as well.
Sweden lacks a true game-breaker like it had with last year's tournament MVP, Jonathan Lekkerimaki, but this team boasts plenty of depth up and down the lineup. The Swedes haven't won world junior gold since 2012, and they may not be able to match the talent Canada and the U.S. possess. But a seasoned group hungry to avenge the humiliation of 2024 could do some serious damage.
Will Canada regret making notable snubs?
Team Canada raised some eyebrows by leaving several notable players off its selection camp roster in early December. Forward Beckett Sennecke (the third overall pick in June), as well as defensemen Zayne Parekh (taken six picks later) and Carter Yakemchuk (seventh overall) were all absent from the initial squad.
Sennecke and Parekh eventually got invited as injury replacements, but neither phenom cracked the final roster on Dec. 13. Hours after Canada released its 25-man team, Yakemchuk became the Calgary Hitmen's all-time goal-scoring leader among blue-liners (64). He set a franchise record for tallies in a season by a defenseman with 30 in 2023-24.
Yakemchuk's exclusion also means Ottawa Senators fans won't get to watch the club's top prospect play in his future home arena in his final year of world junior eligibility.
Sennecke and Parekh will still be available for the 2026 event, but Canada's management group for this tourney may regret shunning all three players if the hosts fail to claim gold.