Edmonton has been awarded the 2021 World Junior Hockey Championship. The tournament was initially to be played in Edmonton and Red Deer, Alberta, but changes were made due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The 2021 World Juniors will be played in a bubble format at Rogers Place. There will not be in any spectators during the tournament. There have been 16, 274 cases of coronavirus in Alberta and 254 deaths.
The International Ice Hockey Federation also announced the 2022 World Junior Hockey Championship is to be played in Edmonton and Red Deer. It is hopeful by that time coronavirus will be over, there will be a vaccine, and spectators will be in the seats.
Gothenburg, Sweden was to host the 2022 World Junior Hockey Championship. They will now host the tournament in 2024. The 2023 World Junior Hockey Championship will be in Omsk and Novosibirsk, Russia. Meanwhile, all lower divisions of the World Junior Hockey Championships have been cancelled for the season.
This will be the third and fourth time Edmonton has hosted the World Junior Hockey Championship. Edmonton previously hosted alongside Red Deer and Calgary in 1995, and with Calgary in 2012. However this will be the first time the gold medal game will be in Edmonton. Canada won the gold medal a quarter of a century ago, while Sweden won gold in Calgary in 2012.
