Alberta's 2027 World Juniors groups crystallize as top teams advance. Discover how rankings and venue considerations are shaping the tournament matchups.
With the quarterfinals of this year’s tournament now decided, the groups for the 2027 IIHF World Junior Championship in Edmonton and Red Deer, Alta., Canada, are now becoming a bit clearer.
With Sweden, Canada, Czechia and Finland advancing to the semifinals, their seedings will be decided on Monday. But the other six teams have already been placed sixth through tenth, and therefore this is how the groups are shaping up after the quarterfinals:
1st group: Norway, Latvia, Switzerland, bronze medalist, silver medalist
2nd group: Germany, Slovakia, USA, 4th place finisher, gold medalist
Norway, winner of the U20 World Championship Division I Group A this year, will take the place of Denmark, which was relegated.
The names of the groups and which venues they get designated to will depend on where Canada finishes. The group Canada is in will play at Rogers Place in Edmonton, home of the Edmonton Oilers, and the other group will play at Marchant Crane Centrium in Red Deer.
At first glance, the second group looks stronger than the first, but one thing to keep in mind is that local organizers have the option of switching two teams in order to help boost attendance. That happened at this year’s World Juniors when Minnesota organizers opted to move Canada from Group A, which included the host USA, to Group B, so that each venue had a marquee draw. It’s possible that Alberta organizers do the same thing in the event Canada finishes either first or fourth in this tournament and ends up in the same group as the USA.