It’s the best time of year. With the holidays finally here, it’s World Juniors Day. Following Christmas, the World Junior Championships arrive on Boxing Day. This year, the prestigious tournament takes place in the great hockey state of Minnesota.

The 2026 WJC features 10 countries participating in two groups. Entering play, Team USA are the two-time defending champions. Featuring returning stars such as Cole Hutson, James Hagens, Cole Eiserman, Brodie Ziemer, and gold medal hero Teddy Stiga, they’ll be coached by 2017 gold medal winner Bob Motzko.

Gone are key contributors Ryan Leonard, Oliver Moore, Danny Nelson, Gabe Perreault, and Brandon Svoboda. Trey Augustine was the winning goalie the past two years. The Red Wings prospect is continuing to develop nicely playing for Michigan State. He’ll one day tend the starter’s net for Detroit.

Without Augustine, USA will turn to Nick Kempf. In an interesting development, Kempf won’t play in the first game against Germany tonight. Instead, it’ll be Caleb Heil getting the start. 2026 draft eligible prospect Brady Knowling will be the backup.

USA is in Group A which features Germany, Slovakia, Sweden, and Switzerland. Sweden is expected to seriously challenge the Americans for the top spot in the group. Led by Anton Frondell, Sweden has a strong roster that includes Victor Eklund, Jack Berglund, Lucas Pettersson, and top prospect Ivar Stenberg.

In the first game of the day, Sweden jumped out to a 2-0 lead against Slovakia on power-play goals from Frondell (game-high nine shots) and Eklund.

Despite some dominant play from Frondell, who was the game’s best player, Slovakia rallied thanks to a goal from Tomas Pobezal on a 5-on-3 with less than five seconds left in the second period. They drew even in the third period on a goal from Tomas Tibiak that was set up Tobias Pitka.

With the game still tied, Stenberg broke in and beat Alan Lendbak by tucking a backhand in with less than four minutes remaining. Eddie Genborg made a good pass that led Stenberg in for his first of the tournament. An explosive player, the 18-year-old Stenberg leads Frolunda HC in scoring with 24 points (6-18-24). He’s expected to challenge Canadian prospect Gavin McKenna for the top pick in the 2026 NHL Draft.

Sweden will play USA on New Year’s Eve. In Group B, Canada should get some competition from Finland and pesky Czechia. At last check, Finland was in control with a 6-2 lead over Denmark. Roope Vesterinen has a pair of goals and Aatos Koivu has a goal for Finland.

Canada will face Czechia in the night’s late game. They’re loaded with talent that includes McKenna, Michael Misa, Tij Iginla, Brady Martin, Porter Martone, and Zayne Parekh. Carter George is the starter. Adam Jiricek and Petr Sikora are two headliners for Czechia. Adam Novotny and Adam Benak are key players as well.

Group B also includes Latvia. It probably isn’t as deep as Group A. On paper, Canada looks like the heavy favorite. We’ll see if they can deliver on US soil.