Team Canada will look to win world juniors gold on American soil, and Craig Leipold wants its fans to come watch. The Minnesota Wild [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/minnesota-wild] owner discussed the importance of rooting on the Canadians at the 2026 World Junior Championship in Saint Paul and Minneapolis, Minn., in an interview with The Hockey News owner W. Graeme Roustan for the upcoming 2026 Money & Power issue [https://thehockeynews.store/products/print-subscription]. Team Canada will play its Group B round-robin matches at 3M Arena at Mariucci in Minneapolis, while the semifinals and medal rounds will take place at Grand Casino Arena, which Leipold's Minnesota Sports & Entertainment operates. Minnesota Wild owner Craig Leipold, right, talks to Graeme Roustan about the importance of Canadians cheering on their world junior team in Minnesota. "This is all about your young Canadian hockey players," Leipold said. "It's about supporting them. Their headquarters is another arena, and you don't want them not being supported. They want to sense everything that all the other Canadian teams in the world juniors have sensed in the last 10 tournaments." Canada hosted the world juniors six times in the last 10 years, including in Ottawa last year, when the United States captured gold for a second straight tournament. Canada lost in the quarterfinal. The U.S., meanwhile, last hosted the world juniors in Buffalo in 2018, when the Americans won bronze, and the Canadians won gold. As the number of visitors to Minnesota from north of the border have dropped about 18 percent in 2025 [https://wjon.com/minnesota-travel-decline-2025/] compared to 2024 as of August, partly due to negative sentiment toward the U.S., Leipold called for hockey fans to make the trip. "Please come – we're going to have great seats available right now, and our hope is that as we get closer, the political issues will kind of, 'OK, we're going to set them aside; we need to support our Canadian young hockey players,' " he said. Team Canada's world junior camp began during the weekend at the Gale Centre in Niagara Falls, Ont. (Allison Kennedy Davies-@alliekphoto) [https://deweb-519a7.b-cdn.net/post-images/8956c10c-8163-42b1-bf3c-54a2b6e02fe6.jpeg] Team Canada's world junior camp began during the weekend at the Gale Centre in Niagara Falls, Ont. (Allison Kennedy Davies-@alliekphoto) This year, Canada and the United States are in different groups during the preliminary round, with the latter playing every game at Grand Casino Arena in Group A. That means if they meet up, it would be in the quarterfinals, semis, bronze medal game or gold medal game. And Leipold knows a thing or two about the Canada-USA rivalry partly with the Wild's battles with the Winnipeg Jets [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/winnipeg-jets] in the NHL's Central Division. "We have a tremendous amount of respect with the Canadians," he said. "I mean, Winnipeg and Minnesota, right there, there's a huge rivalry that started Day 1 when (the Atlanta Thrashers) moved to Winnipeg. So it's a friendly rivalry." The 2026 World Junior Championship kicks off on Dec. 26 and runs through Jan. 5. The Americans start their pursuit of a third straight gold medal against Germany at 6 p.m. ET, while Canada faces Czechia at 8:30 p.m. ET. "We hope they come down, and we'll enjoy a beer with them at night," said Leipold. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Image [https://deweb-519a7.b-cdn.net/post-images/09e5783c-b383-4b7c-a422-db351c0210a1.webp] For action-packed issues, access to the entire magazine archive and a free issue, subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/free [https://thehockeynews.store/products/print-subscription?_gl=1*1ols0i0*_ga*NDAxOTY4NTMuMTc1NTg5NTA0Mg..*_ga_ZET34ZFCGX*czE3NjQ0MjY3MjUkbzM1OSRnMSR0MTc2NDQyNjcyNSRqNjAkbDAkaDA.]. Get the latest news and trending stories by subscribing to our newsletter here [http://eepurl.com/i7OC4I]. And share your thoughts by commenting below the article on THN.com or creating your own post in our community forum.
