2022 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship preview

Hockey fans are in for a treat over the next couple of weeks with the rescheduled 2022 World Juniors kicking off in Edmonton on Tuesday afternoon with a trio of games.

When the World Juniors got underway on Boxing Day in December 2021, nobody envisioned that we would be in the position we are today. What followed was a horrible few days for the IIHF which saw a few teams have cases of COVID-19, forcing games to be forfeited. The IIHF eventually cancelled the remainder of the tournament and a couple months later announced that it would be restarted, with it being playing solely in Edmonton from August 9th to 20th.

The groups for the summer tournament are slightly altered from December and that is because of Russia's ban from any IIHF competition due to their country's invasion of Ukraine. With Russia out, the IIHF brought up Latvia from Division 1A to take their place.

Here are the groups for the tournament (2021 finish in brackets).

Group A: Canada (2), Finland (3), Czechia (7), Slovakia (8), Latvia (replacing Russia).
Group B: United States (1), Sweden (5), Germany (6), Switzerland (9), Austria (10).

For those who aren't familiar with how the World Juniors are structured, each nation will play four group stage games, with the top-four in each group advancing to the knockout round. Normally, the bottom nation in each group would play a best-of-three series against each other, with the loser being relegated to Division 1A. There will be no relegation at this tournament, with all ten nations returning in December when Halifax and Moncton will host.

When it comes to who is favoured to win the gold medal, Sweden has to be up there as they look to win the event for the first time since 2012. The Swedes are loaded with talent throughout their lineup and arguably have the best defensive core and goaltending tandem of any nation in the tournament. Only two players on Sweden's roster weren't drafted into the NHL, but they have a handful of first round picks including goaltender Jesper Wallstedt, defenceman Simon Edvinsson and forward Fabian Lysell, just to name a few.

The hosts, Canada, will also be one of the favourites to win the gold. With a forward group consisting of Connor Bedard, Mason McTavish and Kent Johnson, Canada should have no problem putting the puck in the back of the net. In goal, head coach Dave Cameron has three strong candidates to lean on, led by Detroit Red Wings prospect Sebastian Cossa. New York Rangers prospect Dylan Garand and Brett Brochu will also look for time between the pipes. The only weakness for Canada is on the blue line, with Kaiden Guhle and Owen Power not returning from the December tournament roster.

The other two nations that are favourites to win gold, as they are every year, are Finland and the United States. Both nations have combined to win six of the last nine World Junior Championships, with Canada winning the other three.

Finland have a lot of talent on forward with the likes of Aatu Raty, Brad Lambert, Joakim Kemell, and Kasper Simontaival, among others. On defence, Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Topi Niemela will be the key figure and taking on a leadership role like he did in December. In net, Finland will turn to Ottawa Senators prospect Leevi Merilainen, with Juha Jatkola also likely to make an appearance.

For the Americans, 2022 third overall pick Logan Cooley is among several first rounders that will look to power their nation to back-to-back gold medals. New Jersey Devils prospect Luke Hughes highlights the U.S. blue line which will need to be near-perfect if they hope to bring home a gold medal, mainly due to a relatively unknown goaltending trio. Drew Commesso and Dylan Silverstein are not attending this edition of the World Juniors after being on the roster in December. 19-year-old Kaidan Mbereko, who was on the roster in December, will probably be the starter, at least to start the tournament. He spent the 2021-22 season in the USHL with the Lincoln Stars.

As for the rest of the participating nations, Czechia is a threat to pull off an upset in the knockout round. They'll be relying on Montreal Canadiens prospect Jan Mysak on forward, Columbus Blue Jackets first rounder David Jiricek on the blue line and Detroit Red Wings prospect Jan Bednar in goal.

Slovakia will be missing several big names including Juraj Slafkovsky, Simon Nemec and Filip Mesar, which means New York Rangers second round pick Adam Sykora will need to play a big role. In net, Simon Latkoczy will need to be at his best if the Slovaks want to make some noise in the group stage to set up a favourable quarter-final matchup.

Germany and Switzerland, who are also capable of making a splash in the group stage, will likely not be as competitive as usual, but that doesn't mean you should count them out. For the Germans, they have two solid goaltenders in Nikita Quapp and Florian Bugl to count on, while Barrie Colts (OHL) forward Ryan Del Monte will look to provide some offensive in his first appearance on the international stage. Edmonton Oilers prospect Luca Munzenberger will lead the blue line, along with Arizona Coyotes prospect Maksymilian Szuber.

Nashville Predators prospect Simon Knak and Attilio Biasca need to be the drivers of offensive for the Swiss if they want to make some noise. Switzerland's depth beyond those two will be tested early on in the tournament with back-to-back games against Sweden and the United States. On defence, Giancarlo Chanton, as well as Flyers prospect Brian Zanetti will play big minutes and in all situations.

Austria and Latvia are more than likely going to finish last place in their respective groups and miss out on the knockout round. The Austrians are missing two massive pieces, Marco Kasper and Vinzenz Rohrer, while Latvia, with three NHL drafted players, will be making their first appearance in the top division since the 2017 event.

On Tuesday, Czechia and Slovakia will play the first game of the tournament at 2 p.m. ET/12 p.m. local, followed by Latvia vs Finland at 4 p.m. ET/2 p.m. local, then the United States and Germany will cap off Day 1 at 10 p.m. ET/8 p.m. local.

Stay tuned to Markerzone.com throughout the tournament with game recaps every day!

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