The USA will host the IIHF U-18 World Championships in 2027 and 2029, ice hockey’s world governing body recently announced at its semi-annual congress in Rhodes, Greece.
This announcement is apparently “part of a potential upcoming deal between the IIHF, USA Hockey and the NHL,” so we’ll see if more details about that are soon released.
The IIHF U18 World Championship is a popular tournament for NHL GMs and scouts because it’s the last major event that many eligible players will participate in prior to the NHL Entry Draft, which occurs roughly two months later. As far back as 2021, then-newly-elected IIHF president Luc Tardif said about the U18 Worlds, “(W)e’re organizing an event for NHL scouts.”
The USA is already set to host this season’s U-18 Worlds in Frisco and Allen, Texas from April 23 to May 3, 2025. The 2026 edition of the tournament has been awarded to Slovakia.
On the ice, the USA has dominated the U-18 Worlds thanks to the creation of its National Team Development Program in 1996. Since 2002, the Americans have medalled at 20 of 22 U-18 World Championship tournaments, capturing 11 golds, six silvers and three bronzes in that time. The USA has previously hosted the event in 2009 (Fargo, North Dakota and Moorhead, Minnesota), 2016 (Grand Forks, North Dakota) and 2021 (Frisco and Plano, Texas).
Conversely, Canada has never hosted the U-18 Worlds and hasn’t performed as strongly. Both of those are due to the fact that the tournament conflicts with the CHL playoffs, and therefore many top players are not available and arena availability cannot be guaranteed well in advance. Canada dominates the annual U-18 Hlinka Gretzky Cup in the summer when all of its players are free, while the USA sends what is essentially a B-team to that event.
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