The 2027 IIHF World Junior Championship runs from Saturday, 26 December 2026 to Tuesday, 5 January 2027 at Rogers Place in Edmonton and the Marchant Crane Centrium in Red Deer, Alberta.
Canada opens against Switzerland on Boxing Day at 7 p.m. ET, and the gold medal game is on 5 January at 9:30 p.m. ET, according to Hockey Canada’s official schedule. Sweden is the defending champion.
| World Juniors 2027 at a glance | |
|---|---|
| Dates | 26 December 2026 to 5 January 2027 |
| Venues | Rogers Place, Edmonton · Marchant Crane Centrium, Red Deer |
| Teams | 10, in two groups of five |
| Games | 29 |
| Canada’s opener | vs Switzerland, Saturday 26 December, 7 p.m. ET |
| Gold medal game | Tuesday 5 January, 9:30 p.m. ET, Rogers Place |
| TV | TSN and RDS in Canada, NHL Network in the United States |
| Tickets | Individual tickets from $40 plus fees, public sale from 25 September 2026 |
| Defending champion | Sweden |
| Rosters | Named in December. Canada’s camp roster came on 8 December last year |
When are the 2027 World Juniors?
From Saturday 26 December 2026 to Tuesday 5 January 2027. The preliminary round runs from 26 to 31 December, with no games on 1 January. The relegation game and all four quarterfinals are on Saturday 2 January, the semifinals on Monday 4 January, and the bronze and gold medal games on Tuesday 5 January.
Where are the 2027 World Juniors being played?
In Alberta, at two arenas. Rogers Place in Edmonton, home of the Edmonton Oilers, hosts Group B, two quarterfinals, the relegation game, both semifinals and both medal games: 17 of the 29 games. The Marchant Crane Centrium in Red Deer hosts Group A and the other two quarterfinals: 12 games. It is the first World Juniors on Canadian ice in two years.
What are the groups at the 2027 World Juniors?
Group A, in Red Deer: Finland, Germany, Slovakia, Sweden and the United States. Group B, in Edmonton: Canada, Czechia, Latvia, Norway and Switzerland, the IIHF confirmed on 22 September 2026.
Canada and the United States are in different groups, so they cannot meet before the quarterfinals. The top four in each group advance. The quarterfinals are A1 vs B4, A2 vs B3, B1 vs A4 and B2 vs A3. The two fifth-placed teams play the relegation game, and the loser drops to Division I for 2028.
What is the 2027 World Juniors schedule?
All 29 games, with start times in Mountain Time and Eastern Time. Pacific Time is one hour behind Mountain.
| Date | Game | Venue | MT | ET |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sat 26 Dec | Czechia vs Norway | Rogers Place | 12 p.m. | 2 p.m. |
| Sat 26 Dec | Sweden vs Finland | Centrium, Red Deer | 2:30 p.m. | 4:30 p.m. |
| Sat 26 Dec | Canada vs Switzerland | Rogers Place | 5 p.m. | 7 p.m. |
| Sat 26 Dec | United States vs Germany | Centrium, Red Deer | 7:30 p.m. | 9:30 p.m. |
| Sun 27 Dec | Latvia vs Czechia | Rogers Place | 12 p.m. | 2 p.m. |
| Sun 27 Dec | Slovakia vs Sweden | Centrium, Red Deer | 2:30 p.m. | 4:30 p.m. |
| Sun 27 Dec | Switzerland vs Norway | Rogers Place | 5 p.m. | 7 p.m. |
| Sun 27 Dec | Germany vs Finland | Centrium, Red Deer | 7:30 p.m. | 9:30 p.m. |
| Mon 28 Dec | Slovakia vs United States | Centrium, Red Deer | 2:30 p.m. | 4:30 p.m. |
| Mon 28 Dec | Canada vs Latvia | Rogers Place | 5 p.m. | 7 p.m. |
| Tue 29 Dec | Switzerland vs Czechia | Rogers Place | 12 p.m. | 2 p.m. |
| Tue 29 Dec | Finland vs United States | Centrium, Red Deer | 2:30 p.m. | 4:30 p.m. |
| Tue 29 Dec | Norway vs Canada | Rogers Place | 5 p.m. | 7 p.m. |
| Tue 29 Dec | Sweden vs Germany | Centrium, Red Deer | 7:30 p.m. | 9:30 p.m. |
| Wed 30 Dec | Norway vs Latvia | Rogers Place | 1 p.m. | 3 p.m. |
| Wed 30 Dec | Germany vs Slovakia | Centrium, Red Deer | 4:30 p.m. | 6:30 p.m. |
| Thu 31 Dec | Latvia vs Switzerland | Rogers Place | 12 p.m. | 2 p.m. |
| Thu 31 Dec | Finland vs Slovakia | Centrium, Red Deer | 2:30 p.m. | 4:30 p.m. |
| Thu 31 Dec | Czechia vs Canada | Rogers Place | 5 p.m. | 7 p.m. |
| Thu 31 Dec | United States vs Sweden | Centrium, Red Deer | 7:30 p.m. | 9:30 p.m. |
| Sat 2 Jan | Relegation game (5A vs 5B) | Rogers Place | 10 a.m. | 12 p.m. |
| Sat 2 Jan | Quarterfinal 1 | Centrium, Red Deer | 12 p.m. | 2 p.m. |
| Sat 2 Jan | Quarterfinal 2 | Rogers Place | 2:30 p.m. | 4:30 p.m. |
| Sat 2 Jan | Quarterfinal 3 | Centrium, Red Deer | 5 p.m. | 7 p.m. |
| Sat 2 Jan | Quarterfinal 4 | Rogers Place | 7:30 p.m. | 9:30 p.m. |
| Mon 4 Jan | Semifinal 1 | Rogers Place | 3:30 p.m. | 5:30 p.m. |
| Mon 4 Jan | Semifinal 2 | Rogers Place | 7:30 p.m. | 9:30 p.m. |
| Tue 5 Jan | Bronze medal game | Rogers Place | 3:30 p.m. | 5:30 p.m. |
| Tue 5 Jan | Gold medal game | Rogers Place | 7:30 p.m. | 9:30 p.m. |
When does Canada play at the 2027 World Juniors?
Every one of Canada’s four group games starts at 7 p.m. ET, 5 p.m. in Edmonton:
- Saturday 26 December: Canada vs Switzerland
- Monday 28 December: Canada vs Latvia
- Tuesday 29 December: Norway vs Canada
- Thursday 31 December: Czechia vs Canada
If Canada reaches the quarterfinals, it plays Quarterfinal 4 at Rogers Place on 2 January at 9:30 p.m. ET. If it reaches the semifinals, it plays Semifinal 2 on 4 January, also at 9:30 p.m. ET.
The New Year’s Eve game is the one to circle. Czechia has knocked Canada out of the last three World Juniors, in the quarterfinals in 2024 and 2025 and in the semifinal in 2026.
When are Canada’s pre-tournament games?
Three of them, all in Alberta, in the week before the tournament. Canada plays Finland at the Marchant Crane Centrium in Red Deer on Friday 18 December at 7.30 p.m. local time, then Sweden at the same arena on Sunday 20 December at 5 p.m., and Sweden again at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Tuesday 22 December at 5 p.m. Hockey Canada announced the schedule on 22 October 2026.
The two Red Deer games are included in the 14-game ticket package for that arena.
How much are 2027 World Juniors tickets?
Individual tickets start at $40 plus fees and are on sale now at HockeyCanada.ca/Tickets. They went on public sale on Friday 25 September 2026. Hockey Canada says more than 85,000 fans entered its Priority Draw and more than 18,000 ticket packages had already been sold in Edmonton and Red Deer.
The packages, in Canadian dollars per seat, were priced at $1,107.60 to $2,707.60 for Edmonton’s 16-game full event, $553.80 to $1,353.80 for the eight-game halves, and $495 to $745 for Red Deer’s 14 games, which include two Canada pre-tournament games. A limited number of Edmonton packages may be released with the public sale. The relegation game is sold separately.
What channel are the World Juniors on?
TSN in English and RDS in French carry every game in Canada as Hockey Canada’s official broadcast partners, so the tournament is not on Sportsnet. In the United States, NHL.com reported that games will be broadcast on NHL Network.
Who will play for Canada and the USA at the 2027 World Juniors?
The rosters are named in December. Canada has not announced its selection camp dates. Last year the camp roster came on 8 December, the camp ran from 12 to 22 December, and the final 25-man team was set in the days after the first cuts on 18 December.
NHL.com expects Canada’s team could include six top-10 NHL draft picks: defencemen Carson Carels, Daxon Rudolph and Keaton Verhoeff, and forwards Caleb Desnoyers, Caleb Malhotra and Brady Martin. Landon DuPont, the projected first pick in the 2027 NHL Draft, is expected to play. Gavin McKenna is eligible but is expected to be in the NHL with Toronto.
For the United States, NHL.com names forward Wyatt Cullen and defenceman Chase Reid as two players expected to play a big role.
Who won the 2026 World Juniors?
Sweden, beating Czechia 4-2 in the final in Minnesota for its third title. Canada won the bronze medal, beating Finland 6-3, and the United States finished fifth after winning gold in 2024 and 2025. Canada has won the tournament 20 times, more than any other country. Its last title came in 2023.
What is the age limit for the World Juniors?
It is an under-20 tournament. For 2027, players must be born in 2007 or later.
Will Russia play at the 2027 World Juniors?
Nobody knows yet, and the tournament starts in under two months.
Russia had been excluded from IIHF competition since February 2022, after the invasion of Ukraine, and the IIHF council decided on 30 July 2026 to keep Russia out of four events in 2027, the World Juniors among them. The Russian federation appealed, and on Friday 30 October 2026 the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that the IIHF must readmit Russian teams with immediate effect for the 2026-27 season. The court cited insufficient evidence for the IIHF’s security concerns.
The IIHF said it will comply and does not agree. “While the IIHF respects the authority of CAS and will act in accordance with its ruling, the outcome does not remove the concerns that informed its assessments,” the federation said in a statement.
The practical problem is the draw. The groups were set on 22 September with ten teams and no Russia. Adding an eleventh would leave uneven groups and more games to fit into the same dates; removing a qualified team to make room would be its own controversy.
Canada’s federal government is opposed. “Canada maintains, as it has since 2022, that Russia should not be represented in international sport competitions while Russia’s illegal and unjustifiable full-scale invasion against Ukraine continues,” Secretary of Sport Adam van Koeverden said in a statement that Friday afternoon.
Three other federations have said Russia should stay out. Sweden’s president Anders Larsson: “We maintain that, under the current circumstances, Russia cannot participate in international championships.” Germany’s board chair Frank H. Lutz: “We reject the return of Russian national teams to international ice hockey tournaments.” Finland’s association said there are no grounds for Russian or Belarusian participation, and added that “no player or team official is under any obligation to take part in a tournament in which Russia or Belarus is involved”. Ukraine’s federation said it respects the court’s authority while expressing deep indignation at the decision.
Russia’s sports minister said the court “recognized the demands of the Russian Hockey Federation on key points as justified”. The Russian federation said it would work with the IIHF on the return.
Where are the 2028 World Juniors?
Finland, from 26 December 2027 to 5 January 2028, at Nokia Arena in Tampere and Gatorade Center in Turku.
Updated 31 October 2026: the section on Russia was rewritten after the Court of Arbitration for Sport ordered the IIHF to readmit Russian teams on 30 October, and Canada’s three pre-tournament games were added. Groups, the full schedule, TV and the individual ticket sale were added on 28 September, after Hockey Canada and the IIHF announced them on 22 September.
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