It’s the first big tournament of the 2022-23 schedule, which means one thing — hockey season is officially here. The 2022 AAA Kickoff Classic is back for its second year, bringing together talent from across the country — and the globe — to Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Played across the 14U, 15O, 16U and 18U age groups, the early-season event kicks off today at the Southside Ice Arena and Kentwood Ice Arena on the west side of the Great Lakes State.
Let’s take a look at the competition for each of the divisions:
Eight teams are coming to Grand Rapids for the 14U age group, as the 2008 birth year begins play in its first nationals-bound season. The first game of the age group, however, features one of the teams that won’t be competing for a USA Hockey national title — HC Trinec of Czech Republic. HC Trinec, which will play the Nashville Jr. Predators to kick things off at 3 p.m. EST, is joined by the Pilsen Wolves, as two 14U teams from Czechia are making the pilgrimage to Grand Rapids.
Joining those three squads in the eight-team field are the Chicago Fury, Team Wisconsin, Seacoast Performance Academy, Team Illinois and Fox Motors, Southside Ice Arena’s primary tenant.
The 4:35 time slot at Kentwood will be a good one; the matchup between SPA and Team Wisconsin will certainly be one to keep an eye on. Last year, TW finished as the No. 8-ranked team in the country on our World Hockey Hub rankings, while SPA checked in at No. 19 on MyHockeyRankings. Rosters change every fall, but when those two squads clash, it will be a good matchup of Top-20 teams in the country.
15O AAA
The 15-Only age group features six teams competing from the 2007 birth-year. Team Minnesota and Michigan Hockey Advancement bring high school talent from two hockey powerhouse states together for the tournament. SPA brings its ’07 group, Fox Motors is in, and the Pittsburgh Predators and the Nashville Jr. Preds battle for the title of best Preds squad in the age group. It may just be six teams, but it’s going to be a fun weekend of hockey in the age group.
On Saturday, MHA and Team Minnesota battle it out; that’s definitely one to tune in for.
16U AAA
In the 16U group, we have 10 teams slated to participate. Like the younger age groups, there’s SPA, Fox Motors, the Pittsburgh Preds, Team Wisconsin, Michigan Hockey Advancement, Team Minnesota and the Nashville Jr. Predators. To spice things up a bit, Little Caesars, the Tri-State Spartans and a Team Wisconsin Prep team also enter the ring for the 2006 birth-year bracket.
Last year, the Little Caesars ’06s finished ranked No. 5 in the country and No. 11 in the world by World Hockey Hub. The roster will look a little different this fall, like it will for most teams, as some of the players have moved on to junior hockey. Still, LC will be expected to compete for a national title again this season, and they’re one of the many teams in this group to keep an eye on.
Caesars takes on SPA on Saturday, and Team Wisconsin to round things out on Sunday. Each of those battles could provide a glimpse into our preseason rankings set to come out next month.
In the biggest field of any age group, 12 teams will be competing in the 18U division at the Kickoff Classic. HoneyBaked makes the drive from Metro Detroit to GR for the tournament, as does Compuware. They will be battling SPA, Fox Motors, Team Wisconsin, Chicago Fury, MHA, Tri-State Spartans, Team Minnesota, the Nashville Jr. Preds and the Pittsburgh Preds over the four-day span.
The 18U Nashville Preds and Team Wisconsin squads finished two spots apart in last year’s 18U final rankings on MyHockeyRankings — they clash on Saturday for a big early-season battle.
Fox Motors and SPA wrap up a wild first day of hockey with an 8 p.m. puck drop Thursday night as well.
WHH will have more coverage from the Kickoff Classic, and other major tournaments to start the 2022-23 season. Be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and YouTube for the latest news!
The bad news? It’s back-to-school season.
The good news? It’s hockey season.
While youth hockey players pack up their backpacks to begin another school year, they’re also loading up their hockey bags for the beginning of the fall hockey campaign.
While the Canadian hockey community may be waiting a few more weeks to really get going, the end of August marks the start of some big, early-season tournaments in both the United States and Europe.
Let’s take a look at some of the early-season offerings and tournaments the World Hockey Hub will be keeping an eye on as we put away our sunblock and dust off our preferred rink attire.
The AAA Kickoff Classic brings top talent to Grand Rapids, Michigan, for a season-opening tournament in the 14U through 18U age groups. At the 14U level, eight teams will do battle, including two from Czechia — HC Trinec and the Pilsen Wolves. The six-team 15U division features the likes of Team Minnesota and New Hampshire’s Seacoast Performance Academy, while 10 teams show up for 16U, including Little Caesars, Team Wisconsin, and the Nashville Jr. Predators. The largest field is a 12-team 18U division.
While the west coast of Michigan will have a big-time AAA tournament taking place, the east coast of the United States will be having one, as well. The NJ August Showcase for the Eastern Exposure Series is bringing a select group of teams together in the same 14U through 18U age brackets for an early-season tune-up. At 14U, the St. Lawrence Steel, Mercer Chiefs, New Jersey Devils and New Jersey Jets will square off for a five-game weekend, while the older groups will play three-game showcase-style tournaments. Showing up in the older brackets are the likes of the North Jersey Avalanche, the Philadelphia Hockey Club, the New Jersey Rockets, and the PAL Jr. Islanders. It will be some tough competition for teams that will be spending a lot of time together this year.
The Sweden Hockey Trophy tournament series kicks off Sept. 1 – 4 for the 2008 age group. 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 birth years will follow suit over the following weeks, making Stockholm the place to be in Sweden. This preseason event regularly sets the tone for top teams in the country, separating contenders from pretenders. It isn’t just local, either. Teams from Finland, Norway, Czech Republic, Slovakia and other Central European countries have competed in this Swedish tournament in recent years.
Another top-level, early-season Scandinavian event is the U15 DIF Elitcup, set to showcase 2008s next month. Hosted by one of the top clubs in the country, Djurgårdens IF welcomes other reputable programs like Frölunda HC, Färjestad BK and a select few others to compete in an elite eight-team tournament. Nearly 30 games in three days of some of the best teams in Sweden.
Tuki-Areena in Rauma, Finland, will host a bevy of teams from the 2010 age group across three different divisions. The AAA+ Division features arguably the top eight clubs in the country with Jokerit, Kärpät, and Tappara leading the way.
Just concluded over the weekend, but worth noting another event out of Finland. The Symppisturnaus featured 16 teams at the U15 age group across two divisons: AAA+ and AAA. Only one team was shut out on the weekend; each of the other 15 teams all picked up at least one point in the three-game round robin. Tappara Black defeated KalPa Black 3-2 in the AAA+ championship game; the last of 23 tournament games to be decided by two goals or fewer over the weekend.
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A tournament that typically features 40-50 summer hockey teams, hosted just 14 teams over the course of two weeks in Sweden and France. While it was significantly downsized, the European Hockeyfest had a very intimate feel in 2022. A smaller field of teams provided participants with an exclusive experience both on and off the ice.
While this year’s lineup was a fraction of what we’ve typically come to expect from Hockeyfest, it still featured players from as many as six different countries. Sweden, Finland, Norway, Czech, Latvia, U.S. and Canada were all represented in the two host cities of Stockholm and Paris. The 2010 age group got the event started on July 22, while the ’09s and ’12s closed it down on July 30.
Here’s a look at the results from all three birth years:
Sweden SHD Light Blue prevailed 6-2 over Sweden SHD Blue in the final. It was a revenge game for the Light Blue squad, after Sweden SHD Blue handed them their lone loss on July 29 — a 3-1 final. Aside from that, the Light Blue squad took care of business over the week, winning a bunch of tight contests before running away with things in both the semifinals and finals.
They topped Finland SHD Blue 6-3 to start, before recording a 3-2 win over Norway Selects, a 1-0 win over Sweden SHD Blue, a 5-3 win over Finland SHD Blue and a 4-3 win over Norway Selects in preliminary-round play.
To earn another match with Sweden SHD Blue in the final, they topped Norway 6-2 in the semifinals.
The Light Blue squad did it with balanced scoring, as Ludvig Westman was the only player to have more than a point per game; he finished with seven points in six games in the prelims. Filip Leijonhielm had six points, while Samuel Barthelson and William Olofsson had five apiece.
Yury Rodichev and Andrii Pyl split time between the pipes en route to the championship.
A pair of Sweden Blue skaters led the tournament in scoring, as Oscar Wennberg had 12 points in six games, and Filip Wahlen had 10. Norway’s Isak Bjorland also cracked the top five in scoring, registering seven points in six games.
Carl Johnsson and Vilmer Salen-Forsberg were outstanding between the pipes for Sweden Blue, as well — Johnsson finished with a .938 save percentage, and Forsberg had a .914.
The Czech Knights Gold squad got a wake-up call when they lost in the first round of the playoffs. After posting a perfect 5-0 mark in the preliminary round, they dropped a 5-4 battle to Finland SHD, but luckily for the Knights, they got a chance for redemption in Round 2.
There, they blanked the same Finland squad 7-0, and in the finals, they continued to roll, beating the Sweden SHD team 10-0.
The dominating performances in their final two games certainly represented the Knights’ trip to Paris; aside from the aforementioned loss to Finland, they were unstoppable all week.
In the preliminary round, they out-scored the competition 40-3 in their five games, beating Draftday Canada 6-1, ALPS SHD 16-0, the Czech Knights Black squad 8-0, Sweden SHD 5-1 and Finland 5-1.
Six of the top seven scorers in preliminary-round play were members of the Czech Gold squad. Denis Dobias led the field in scoring with 14 points in five games, while Jakub Milanic had 13, Nicholas Novak had 12 and Sven Stalder had 11. The lone player outside of the Czech Knights Gold team to crack the top seven was still a Czech skater; Czech Knights Black’s Erik Zahradnik had 11 points, as well.
Novak led the postseason in scoring with seven points in two games, while Dobias had six, which means that those two tied for the tournament overall scoring lead with 20 apiece in just seven games.
Sweden’s River Kallander posted some impressive numbers between the pipes, registering a 2.40 goals-against average and .910 save percentage in the five preliminary contests. August Uutela of Finland was right there with him, racking up a 2.67 goals-against and .909 save percentage.
As we’re sure you guessed from the numbers discussed above, Tobias Orechovsky of the Czech Gold team put up some remarkable stats, as well. He finished the prelims with a 0.60 goals-against average and a .946 save percentage.
Finland SHD Blue emerged victorious in a four-team field for the 2012 birth-year, topping Sweden SHD Blue in the last contest by a score of 6-2.
The 2012 birth-year featured a Finland SHD Blue squad, Sweden SHD Blue and Sweden SHD Yellow, and a Latvia SHD squad.
The Finland squad posted a 5-1 record in the preliminary rounds before recording a 13-0 win over Latvia in the semifinals, and the aforementioned final against Sweden in the championship.
Ashton Salts of Sweden Yellow and Robin Torkki of Finland Blue finished atop the scoring list with 16 points in six games apiece. Signar Klingzell of Sweden Blue had 15, while Neo Huang of Sweden Blue had 14, Liam Jarvinen of Finland had 13 and Mikael Saila of Finland had 12.
While the hockey world may be fired up for the rare summer edition of the Under-20 World Junior Championships coming up in August, there is also a pretty sizable international preseason tournament for bright, young stars that can’t be overlooked.
The 2022 Hlinka Gretzky Cup takes place July 31 through Aug. 6 in Red Deer, Alberta, as some of the world’s best Under-18 players converge on Canada.
It has had its share of different titles, debuting as the Phoenix Cup in 1991 in Yokohama and Sapporo, Japan. After three years there, it moved to Mexico City for one year, back to Japan in 1995 and then to Nelson and Castlegar, B.C., in 1996. In 1997, the tournament — by then called the Junior World Cup — moved to the Czech Republic and Slovakia, where it first alternated between countries from 1997-2001 and then became a joint affair from 2002-17.
The tournament was renamed in honor of Ivan Hlinka, the Czech hockey legend who passed away after a car accident in 2004. When it moved back to Canada in 2018 (Edmonton and Alberta), it was renamed once again, this time the Hlinka Gretzky Cup to include none other than Wayne Gretzky.
In short, it’s the kick-off event for the players’ NHL Draft season, and it’s always worth a watch when you consider some of the players that have skated in the tournament.
It’s a who’s-who of Canadian hockey royalty on the alumni list – Paul Kariya played in the inaugural event, while Jerome Iginla, Joe Thornton, Sidney Crosby, Carey Price, Steven Stamkos, Nathan MacKinnon, Aaron Ekblad and Alexis Lafreniere have represented their country at the event.
The international list is star-studded, as well, as the likes of Alexander Ovechkin, Gabriel Landeskog, Tomas Plekanec, Teuvo Teravainen, Kirill Kaprizov and Mikko Rantanen are just some off the top.
The Americans, however, handle the tournament a little differently. The Hlinka Gretzky Cup for USA Hockey is the opportunity to get international experience and exposure for the players not playing for the National Team Development Program. Talented players are on every roster – Johnny Gaudreau, Mikey Anderson, Casey Mittelstadt, Kailer Yamamoto, Alex Nedeljkovic and Kyle Connor are some of the more recent – but it’s not exactly the ‘best-on-best’ you will see at the World Juniors.
Ironically, the other countries are being forced to adopt a little bit of the Americans’ strategy this go-round, since players who are going to be competing in the World Juniors later in the month won’t be expected to play in two tournaments. The biggest name to not be skating in the tournament is Connor Bedard, the projected No. 1 overall pick in next summer’s NHL Draft. He was on Team Canada’s roster for the canceled World Junior tournament last winter, and he’s not on the Hlinka Gretzky roster, so we’re expecting to see him in action in the U20 event later in the month. Adam Fantilli is not on Canada’s Hlinka Gretzky roster, either, but he is a late ’04 birth-year.
Slovakia’s Maxim Strabak and Dalibor Dvorsky are 2023 NHL Draft eligible players who were on their country’s World Junior rosters in the first go-round, as well; Dvorsky especially is appearing high on way-to-early mock drafts.
And while COVID-19 may not be impacting the tournament like it has the last few seasons (Canada didn’t play last year out of safety concerns), the continuing war in Ukraine has led to tournament organizers deciding to not invite Russia to the Hlinka Gretzky.
Star-power abounds, nonetheless, as we are excited to see Brayden Yager of Moose Jaw (WHL), Calum Richie of Oshawa (OHL) and Zach Benson of Winnipeg (WHL) lead a high-powered Team Canada offense. Theo Lindstein is one to watch out of Sweden, as is Eduard Sale of Czechia and Kasper Halttunen of Finland.
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While it’s still not completely back to normal, the 2022 NHL Draft will feature teams selecting players following the closest to a traditional hockey season we’ve seen since 2019.
The World Juniors will be played later this summer, but for the most part, the leagues that produce the majority of NHL draftees played full seasons, and the scouts had opportunities to get a good look at who they will be trying to select this week when the draft takes place in Montreal on Thursday.
So who will be the top players selected? There seems to be a pretty clear No. 1, and he’s been at the top of the draft board for quite a while.
All signs point to Shane Wright being the first on stage when the NHL Draft officially begins on July 7. The captain of the Kingston Frontenacs has been making headlines for the better part of a decade at this point, as he has dominated at every stage of youth and junior hockey.
Wright, a Burlington, Ont., native whose family was not familiar with the sport, got his start with his hometown hockey program. At the age of 12, it was clear that he needed more challenges and opportunities, so Shane and his father, Simon, moved to Vaughan. There, Shane could suit up for the Don Mills Flyers. He played against older competition every year he was with Don Mills, and yet he thrived, helping the Flyers to a GTHL U15 and Ontario Hockey Federation Bantam AAA championship in 2017-18 before an even bigger season in 2018-19.
That’s when Wright posted 150 points in 72 games to lead Don Mills to the OHL Cup — he led the field in scoring with 18 points and was named MVP of the iconic season-ending tournament. Along the way, he was named GTHL Player of the Year, and earned a silver medal at the Canada World Games. All of it was enough for him to earn the rare ‘exceptional status’ from the OHL, where the Kingston Frontenacs were able to select him No. 1 overall a year before his 2004 birth-year class was eligible for the junior league selection process.
Wright served as an assistant captain his first year in the ‘O’ despite his under-ager status, and he was named CHL Rookie of the Year after posting 66 points in 58 games. He and John Tavares are the only 15-year-olds to receive that award.
While the 2020-21 OHL season was cancelled, he still led Canada to gold in the IIHF World Under-18 Championship, and this season, he was awarded the CHL Top Draft Prospect Award after registering 94 points in 63 games.
There’s no clear No. 2 overall pick after Wright, but the next player to take a look at is Logan Cooley of USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program (USNTDP). Cooley is a product of Pittsburgh, Pa., and he owes Sidney Crosby a ‘thank you’ card whenever he reaches the NHL. In the first year of the Little Penguins program — started by Crosby and the Penguins in 2008 — Cooley was one of the initial participants.
Unlike Wright, he did grow up in a hockey family, however — Cooley’s two uncles played Division-I college hockey and coach high school hockey programs in the area — while Cooley’s older brother plays for Ohio State University. That was enough to keep Cooley at home during his formative youth hockey days, as he rose through the ranks with the Pittsburgh Penguins Elite AAA program.
Cooley played for the Jr. Penguins at the Quebec International Pee Wee Hockey Tournament in 2016-17, and he played for the Upstate Kings in the World Selects Invitational in 2018-19. In the summer of 2019, he skated in the USA Hockey Select 15 Camp before playing up with the Pittsburgh Penguins Elite 16U team for the 2019-2020 season. There, he secured a spot with the NTDP Under-17 Team the following year. Quickly, he earned call-ups to the Under-18 Team, finishing his first season in the Plymouth, Mich., based program with 32 points in 28 games with the 17s and 14 points in 19 games with the 18s.
This past season, he registered 75 points in 51 games, finishing second on the NTDP in scoring behind only Isaac Howard, who had 82. Cooley also made the U.S. World Junior team that traveled to but didn’t end up completing the tournament due to its postponement.
A pair of Slovaks could make history on Thursday. Juraj Slafkovsky and Simon Nimec are both projected Top-5 picks according to several major news outlets, some of which even have Slafkovsky upending Wright for the No. 1 pick.
Slovakia has not produced a top-five selection since 2005, and have only produced four top-10 picks ever. If both Slafkovsky and Nimec are selected early as expected, it’d be the first time the European country — with a total population of just 5.5 million — produced multiple top-five picks.
Slafkovsky began playing youth hockey for HC Kosice in Slovakia. In 2018-19 though, he crossed the border into the Czech Republic to play for national powerhouse Mountfield HK for his U16 season. The next three seasons would be spent in Finland’s top junior league, SM-Sarja, with TPS.
An hour-and-a-half west, Nimec started his youth hockey career with HK32 Liptovsky Mikulas. Unlike Slafkovsky, Nimec stayed local, remaining in Slovakia and eventually playing in the country’s top professional league for the past two seasons with HK Nitra.
Both Slafkovsky and Nimec were important members of Team Slovakia in international competition at the 2021 under-20 World Junior Championships, 2022 Olympic Games and 2022 World Championships.
Turning attention back towards America for the next prospect, and this time, it’s a native of Scottsdale, Arizona, who was born in Sweden but played his formative years in Michigan. Cutter Gauthier, who was born in Skelleftea while his father, Sean, was wrapping up his career as a professional goaltender with Skellefteå AIK. The Gauthier family moved to Arizona when Cutter was 2, and by the time he was 10, they decided he needed to play for HoneyBaked in Metro Detroit to hone his craft as a talented young hockey player.
Gauthier played one year with the Compuware 16U team — it was the last year that Michigan players were allowed to skip the 15-only AAA age group and play up at 16U — and then made the NTDP to skate alongside Cooley and a talented ’04 American class. Along the way, he played for Team California at The Brick, then DraftDay Hockey for World Selects 12U, and Pro Hockey for WSI 14U and 15U. He also played for Team USA at the Youth Olympic Games, a team that made up the bulk of the NTDP group a few years later.
While it appears his draft stock is falling to some, talented forward Matthew Savoie is still one notable prospect worth mentioning as well. Born on Jan. 1, 2004, he has long been regarded as an top prospect in his birth year, despite his relatively small frame (Elite Prospects lists him at 5-foot-9 and 179 pounds).
Savoie got his start skating for his hometown St. Albert program in St. Albert, Alberta. After playing for the St. Albert Sabres U15 AAA in 2016-17, Savoie made the jump to the famed Canadian Sports School Hockey League (CSSHL) in 2017-18, playing for the Northern Alberta Xtreme U15 Prep team. It was there where he started to make his mark on the hockey world, as he posted 97 points in 30 games. The next season, skating for Northern Alberta Xtreme Prep in the CSSHL U18 division, Savoie posted 71 in 31.
He was the captain of the Team Brick Alberta squad for The Brick in 2013-14, and he played in three different WSIs with DraftDay Selects in 2015-16 and Western Canada Selects for 13U and 15U.
Savoie posted an impressive 18 points in six games at the John Reid Bantam tournament in 2017-18, and in 2019-2020 he also served as captain for Team Canada at the Youth Olympic Games.
The Winnipeg Ice used their first pick in franchise history to take Savoie No. 1 overall in the 2019 WHL Bantam Draft. He had previously applied for exceptional status but was denied by the WHL. It was a bit of a surprise when the Ice still selected him because Savoie had previously given a verbal pledge to the University of Denver, where his brother Carter plays.
Savoie ended up playing in 22 games with the ICE in 2019-2020, registering seven points. He played for RINK Hockey Academy Prep in the CSSHL for 22 games, as well, and posted 52 points. In 2020-21, he played in 34 games with the USHL’s Dubuque Fighting Saints, earning USHL All-Rookie Team honors after registering 38 points in 34 games.
Back with the Ice for 2021-22, Savoie posted 90 points in 65 WHL games to lead all rookies in scoring. He was named to the WHL First All-Star Team, as well.
World Hockey Hub will have extensive coverage of the 2022 NHL Draft through a youth hockey lens. Be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and YouTube for the latest youth hockey news at all levels of the game.
The U16 age group — or 15O in the U.S. — tends to be the most pivotal and important seasons for top-level youth hockey prospects. For many players worldwide, it is their final season at the youth levels before embarking on junior hockey careers and beyond.
In eastern Canadian provinces, 2007-born players have the next 10 months to bolster their resumes ahead of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) and Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) Drafts next spring. Western Canada is unique in that the Western Hockey League (WHL) has already selected top ‘07s in its Bantam Draft process that took place last month.
Similarly, one year from now, top players from Sweden, Finland and Russia will be promoted to the ranks of J18 Nationell, U18 SM-Sarja and MHL — each country’s comp to junior hockey in their respective regions.
For Americans, the goal for top 2007s is the country’s top player development model, the U.S. National Team Development Program (USNTDP). USA Hockey chooses the top 23 players through a pretty extensive selection process that is typically finalized by April of each year. That team competes in the United States Hockey League (USHL) and other major international tournaments.
So with the next several months being so pivotal for youth hockey players around the world, WHH takes a closer look at the biggest upcoming events for the age group and what to watch for this season.
An invite-only event designed to consolidate the top 68 players in the country from the age group in one place, at one time, for one weekend. The eighth annual CCM 68 Combine consists of on-ice practices and four games over the course of four days. College and professional coaching instructors are on-hand, and all participants get to sample new equipment products by CCM. The 68 skaters are split up into four teams to compete in some of the most high-level game action of the year at Seven Bridges Ice Arena.
The Sweden Hockey Trophy (SHT) hosts six different age groups over the course of four weekends in September. Last year’s tournament featured 63 teams from five different European countries, and the ‘07 tournament was headlined by four of the top 10 teams in Sweden as well as the top program in the Czech Republic. This year, the ‘07s are the featured age group now competing at the U16 level. Will names like Melvin Novotny, Ruben Westerling and Theo Stockselius return to the SHT to cement themselves as top prospects in the birth year? Or will new names arise as the tournament gets underway?
A Greater Toronto Hockey League (GTHL) official tournament, the Sylvia Jacobs Memorial Classic featured eight member teams and six other Ontario-based programs. The field included six of the top-10 teams in the country at the U16 age group last season. The championship game served as a prelude to the OHL Cup championship — more on that tournament later — as the Mississauga Senators and Toronto Jr. Canadiens clashed for the title. Thirty-five games over the course of four days at two different rinks; last year’s tournament featured 112 of the 303 players drafted in the 2022 OHL Priority Selection.
It’s the second event on this list hosted in the Windy City. The biggest factor in why the CCM World Invite in Chicago is the world’s largest youth hockey tournament? Location, location, location. Nestled in the heart of the Central District, the state of Illinois, its surrounding states and nearby USA Hockey Districts account for more than 35 percent of all registered hockey players in the country. More than 500 teams in total, and a full slate of 30-plus teams at the 15O age group, November will be a who’s who of top programs in youth hockey.
One of the more unique national tournaments in the world, the Federal District Championships are an all-star event of sorts for youth hockey in the country. Russia is segmented into eight federal districts — Central, Far Eastern, Moscow, Northwestern, Privolzhsky, St. Petersburg, Ural and Siberian — with each district responsible for assembling a team of the best players from their respective regions. Traditional youth hockey seasons are put on pause for 10 days while the best players in the country represent their districts in a round-robin style tournament. The St. Petersburg District went 7-0-0 in to win last year’s championship, thanks to SKA St. Petersburg’s Andrei Korablev and SKA Strelna’s Vyacheslav Vasilyev and Arseny Ilyin. Can the trio repeat as Federal District Champions again in 2022 or will they be dethroned by another district?
Arguably the most elite-level, highest-profile youth hockey tournament in the world with media coverage, full video-streaming broadcast and top teams from Ontario and the United States. Automatic bids, at-large spots, play-in games… the OHL Cup format is nothing short of professional in the youth hockey space and the product on the ice is as good as it gets. It’s also prospects’ last opportunity to make a big impression as the OHL Cup takes place just days before the OHL Draft and USHL Draft. It worked out well for 2007-born Michael Misa. He earned tournament MVP honors as an underager in the tournament this year and earned exceptional status. He will forego his final season of youth hockey to play in the OHL this fall. The remaining ‘07s will look to make their mark in the tournament next spring.
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