The World Juniors: the under-20 championship.

Status in October 2026

The 2026 World Junior Championship ended on 5 January 2026 in St. Paul, Minnesota, with Sweden as champion. The 2027 tournament has not started. Hockey Canada says it runs from 26 December 2026 to 5 January 2027, in Edmonton and Red Deer.

Results by year

All three finals were played on 5 January. For 2025, the address of NHL.com's round-up and a search summary give 5 January, while the page text as summarised said 6 January; we use 5 January 2025, which was a Sunday.

2026: Sweden

Sweden beat Czechia 4-2 in the final. NHL.com reports that Love Harenstam made 27 saves, and that Ivar Stenberg scored into an empty net late on after Czechia had cut a 3-0 lead to one goal. It was Sweden's third world junior title, after 1981 and 2012, and its first since 2012.

Canada took bronze by beating Finland 6-3, after losing 6-4 to Czechia in the semifinal. NHL.com notes Canada had finished fifth in both 2024 and 2025, and a theScore headline said Czechia had eliminated Canada for a third straight year.

The 2026 awards, as NHL.com lists them:

• Most valuable player (Murray Costello Award): Vojtech Cihar of Czechia, with 11 points in seven games.
• Scoring leaders: Michael Hage of Canada led all skaters with 15 points, and Porter Martone led in goals with six.
• Record: Zayne Parekh's 13 points set a Canadian record for a defenceman at the tournament, one short of the tournament record of 14 set by Peter Andersson in 1985.

2025: United States

The United States came back from 3-1 down to beat Finland 4-3 in overtime in Ottawa, Teddy Stiga scoring on a breakaway at 8:04 of overtime. NHL.com says it gave the U.S. back-to-back world junior titles for the first time, and its seventh in all: 2004, 2010, 2013, 2017, 2021, 2024 and 2025. The U.S. had beaten Czechia 4-1 in the semifinal. Czechia then took bronze over Sweden 3-2 in a 14-round shootout, with Eduard Sale scoring the winner.

2024: United States

The United States beat host Sweden 6-2 in Gothenburg and finished the tournament unbeaten. TSN reports that Isaac Howard scored twice, Gabriel Perreault had a goal and two assists, and Trey Augustine made 24 saves. Czechia came back from 5-2 down to beat Finland 8-5 for bronze. Canada had gone out 3-2 to Czechia in the quarterfinals on 2 January, its first time off the podium since 2019.

Title counts

NHL.com said in January 2026 that Canada holds the record with 20 world junior titles. The United States has seven, listed above, and Sweden three. We did not find a full all-time table in the sources we read, so other nations' totals are not given here.

2027 in Alberta

Hockey Canada's announcement splits the 2027 tournament between two arenas. Rogers Place in Edmonton hosts 17 games, including the semifinals and medal games, and the Marchant Crane Centrium in Red Deer hosts 14. The tournament runs from 26 December 2026 to 5 January 2027.

Related pages

The junior hockey page covers the Canadian Hockey League and the Memorial Cup, and college hockey covers the NCAA. For the senior tournaments, see the World Championships.