Road to the 2024 World Junior Hockey Championship

3 November 2023

Road to the 2024 World Juniors

Photo © Bildbyrån

Introduction

Don’t look now, but the 2024 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship is quickly approaching. The annual event will once again pit the the very best under-20 combatants against one another for the right to be named champions.

This year, Everysport Media Group’s world-leading hockey platform Elite Prospects will be the official career partner of the of the event. Elite Prospects users can look forward to a vast amount of content from the tournament including exclusive behind-the-scenes material from the Swedish junior national team.

Where are the 2024 World Juniors being played?

The tournament is set to take place in Gothenburg, Sweden. It will begin on December 26, 2023 and will end with the gold medal game being played on January 5, 2024. This is the first time Gothenburg has had the opportunity to play host, with group play between split between the Scandinavium and Frölundaborg arenas — the game centre and training facilities for the Frölunda HC SHL club.

World Juniors Groups 2024

For the third year in a row, Russia and Belarus will not be permitted to send teams to the event. This is in continued response to the illegal war being played out in Ukraine. Despite missing those clubs, this tournament is still considered the only best-on-best event for U20 or professional hockey in the world.

Group A

Group A will feature a likely start-studded group from Canada, Sweden, and Finland. They will be joined by Germany and Latvia and will spend the group stage portion at the Scandinavium arena.

Canada

Finland

Germany

Latvia

Sweden

Group B

Group B features USA, Czechia, Slovakia, Norway and Switzerland who will face off at the Frölundaborg arena.

Czechia

Norway

Slovakia

Switzerland

USA

World Juniors 2024 Schedule

The round robin portion of the event runs from December 26th until December 31st. The medal rounds will take place January 2nd through to the gold medal match on January 5th, 2024.

Key Games to Watch
Normally, the schedule-makers save the marquee matchups for later on in the round-robin format with New Year’s Eve being the focal point. However, this year, we have some intriguing matchups arriving sooner.

December 26th, 2023 - Canada vs Finland

The opening day of the tournament features two medal contenders from Group A. The Canadians will begin their quest for a three-peat versus a Finnish squad that will be looking to avenge a disappointing fifth-place finish at the 2023 event.

December 29th, 2023 - Sweden vs Canada

The building will be absolutely rocking for this matchup as the host nation squares off against the favourites. Sweden suffered heartbreak a year ago by losing in overtime in both the semifinal and Bronze medal games. A big round-robin victory against the Canadians would set them up for a strong path to the medal rounds.

December 29th, 2023 - USA vs Czechia

This matchup may not jump off of the page, but the Czechia squad enters the 2024 event as the reigning Silver medalists, while the Americans are looking to improve on their Bronze medal, finish from a year ago. The teams will look different, but there will be a ton on the line in this one as the two nations project to be at the top of Group B.

December 31st, 2023 - Sweden vs Finland

When Sweden and Finland link up in virtually any international event, it’s must-see TV. These two nations have a well-defined rivalry that bleeds into the nasty at times. There will likely be a lot at stake for both clubs as they jostle for positioning ahead of the medal rounds.

WJC 2024 games

DATE	HOME TEAM	VISITING TEAM
December 26
12:00 CET	Slovakia U20	Czechia U20
14:30 CET	Finland U20	Canada U20
17:00 CET	USA U20	Norway U20
19:30 CET	Sweden U20	Latvia U20
December 27
12:00 CET	Slovakia U20	Switzerland U20
14:30 CET	Finland U20	Germany U20
17:00 CET	Norway U20	Czechia U20
19:30 CET	Latvia U20	Canada U20
December 28
17:00 CET	Switzerland U20	USA U20
19:30 CET	Germany U20	Sweden U20
December 29
12:00 CET	Norway U20	Slovakia U20
14:30 CET	Latvia U20	Finland U20
17:00 CET	Czechia U20	USA U20
19:30 CET	Canada U20	Sweden U20
December 30
17:00 CET	Switzerland U20	Norway U20
19:30 CET	Germany U20	Latvia U20
December 31
12:00 CET	USA U20	Slovakia U20
14:30 CET	Sweden U20	Finland U20
17:00 CET	Czechia U20	Switzerland U20
19:30 CET	Canada U20	Germany U20

Historical Tidbits

This is the seventh time that Sweden will host the event and the first since 2014 where the host Swedes came up just short in the Gold medal game against their rivals from Finland. Sweden has a long tradition of performing well while hosting this event. Peter Forsberg and Markus Naslund came together at the 1993 event in Gävle, Sweden to terrorize opponents. Naslund recorded 13 goals, while Forsberg produced 31 points in seven games – both still stand as records that have yet to be matched.

Canada has continued to display dominance at the tournament — arriving has back-to-back champions and winners of four of the last six titles. After a 31-year drought, Sweden won the event in 2012, but has failed to replicate that success since. The host nation has won the World Junior Championships 10 times in its 46-year history. The Tre Kronor will look to make that 11 this year.