The U18 World championship is coming to Sweden, Ornskoldsvik and Umea. The gold medal will be decided the 29th of April in Ornskoldsvik this year. Ornskoldsvik is a small city with an enormous hockey tradition and pride linked to it. Although Anders Hedberg and Peter Forsberg are the only world wide big names in the rafters, players like the Sedin twins, Markus Naslund, Niklas Sundstrom and Victor Hedman all grew up in Ornskoldsvik, or “Ö-vik” as the locals call it.
The host nation Sweden hasn’t won the tournament since the Sedin twins played in it back in 1998. Back then the tournament was only a European championship. Since 1999 the tournament has been a World championship and has been dominated by the USA. USA has won the gold 10 times in 20 years. Last years winners, Finland, is second with four gold medals in the same time span.
This year we will see the favorite for the number one pick in the upcoming NHL Draft play this tournament, Jack Hughes. Unfortunately for the tournament, his biggest competition for that spot, Kaapo Kakko, will not. They were both dominating players of last years tournament already and Kakko is now trying to earn a spot on the Finnish national men’s team instead.
Hughes is the leader of a very strong USA squad (the strongest ever?). It is a team that will have at least a handful first round picks in this summer’s draft, despite leaving a couple of top ranked players out of the roster in Arthur Kaliyev and Robert Mastrosimone. Both were inside the McKeen’s latest top 31. With that said, USA is a huge gold favorite. Top 40 McKeen's ranked USA players besides Hughes that’ll play in the tournament are Trevor Zegras, Matthew Boldy, Cam York, Spencer Knight, Marshall Warren, Cole Caufield, Case McCarthy, Alex Turcotte and John Beecher.
Besides Kakko and the USA, the tournament has been quite fortunate with top ranked players coming to play. For Russia we will see super talented winger Vasili Podkolzin. For Canada we’ll get the chance to see Dylan Cozens, Peyton Krebs, Alex Newhook, Ryan Suzuki and Thomas Harley. Sweden will have an exciting defense core as usual but also a couple of strong 2002-born forwards in Lucas Raymond and Alexander Holtz that’ll be key players this season.
Our coverage will give you some in-depth information on the top nations and their top players to watch.
I and fellow McKeen’s team member Marco Bombino will be at the tournament and will provide you with further reports.
Drop the puck!
Jimmy
For further coverage on the U18 World Championship check out McKeen's U18 previews by linking here: