ST. PAUL, Minn. — The 2026 IIHF World Junior Championships are being played from the 26th to January 5th. Day one featured four games and all four were a treat.

As a part of a tracking project, we will be tracking every single game in the tournament and recording analytics. 

Here is what is being tracked. Click Here.

Here is a link to 2023's stats. 

All of these stats are 5-on-5 stats only. So who stood out on Day 1 of the tournament?

Zone Exits

Out of the four games played, Czechia's Adam Jiříček went 14-for-14 on zone exits which was the highest controlled exits by any player on day one. Jiricek is the brother of Wild prospect David and is a St. Louis Blues prospect.

Canada's Zayne Parekh went 10-for-10 and Finland's Aron Kiviharju went 11-for-11. Sweden's Sascha Boumedienne also went 11-for-11 in zone exits. Those four defensemen exited the zone cleanly and helped push offense from their own end.

Parekh is a Calgary Flames prospect and Kiviharju is a Minnesota Wild prospect. Boumedienne is a Winnipeg Jets prospect.

Zone Entries

Finland's Joona Saarelainen led the day with seven zone entries. He was 7-for-7. Saarelainen is a Tampa Bay Lightning prospect. In a 6-3 loss to USA, Germany forward David Lewandowski went 6-for-6 on clean zone entries. He is an Edmonton Oilers prospect.

Canada's Michael Misa went 6-for-7 on zone entries. He is a San Jose Sharks prospect. Lastly, Czechia's Adam Benak went 5-for-5 on zone entries. He is also a Minnesota Wild prospect.

Shot Assists

A new stat that I love tracking is shot assists. A shot assist is given to a player if they pass a puck to another player who shoots it on net in 1-4 seconds after the pass.

A shot assist expected goal (SAxG) is when a playerX passes a puck to playerZ who shoots it on net. That shot is given a xG of .388 which peans playerX gets a SAxG of .388 and playerZ is given a xG of .388.

Czechia's Petr Sikora lead the day with five shot assists. No one had more than four, other than him. The Washington Capitals' prospect also lead with a 1.82 expected goals on his shot assists.

So based on the five passes he made that were turned into shots, Sikora had an expected assist rate of 1.82. He finished the game with one goal and one assist.

Misa was second with four shot assists in Canada's win on Friday. He had an SAxG of 1.75. Kiviharju was tied with USA's Brendan McMorrow and Germany's Dustin Willhöft with three shot assists.

Kiviharju finished the game with two assists and was Team Finland's player of the game. McMorrow finished with one assist and was USA's player of the game. Willhoft finished with two assists in Germany's 6-3 loss to USA.

Willhoft is an undrafted forward and McMorrow is a Los Angeles Kings prospect.

Expected Goals

Lastly, we have expected goals. I touched on it above what an expected goal is.

Roope Vesterinen on Team Finland led the way with an impressive 1.95 expected goals. He had just four shots against Denmark but they all carried a high expected goals. He had two goals in the win and is an undrafted forward.

Czechia's Vojtěch Čihař was not far behind Vesterinen. He finished the night with an expected goals rating of 1.92 in the loss to Canada. He was selected in the second round of the 2025 NHL Draft and is a Los Angeles Kings prospect.

Parekh had one of the more complete games of the day. He scored twice and had an expected goals rating of 1.44 in the win. Utah Mammoth prospect, Tij Iginla had a goal and an xG of 1.35 as well. 

Jiricek played great as well. Not only did he lead the day in clean zone exits, he was fifth in xG as a defenseman and was second amongst all defenders in that category. Jiricek didn't score but had an xG of 1.26.

Chicago Blackhawks top prospect, and recently drafted with the third overall pick in 2025, Anton Frondell was incredible for Team Sweden. He led them in shots with nine and the tournament. He played 18:08 and had an xG of 1.24. He recorded a lot of his shots on the power play.

Capitals' prospect Cole Hutson had a very good game for USA. He went 8-for-8 on zone exits, 4-for-5 on zone entries, had two shot assists, a SAxG of .876, an xG of 1.34 on three shots, was a plus-5 and played 24:20 which was the most of any player on USA.

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