This week, the World Youth Championships will host the second event of its spring season in Prague, Czech Republic. Players born in 2009, 2010 and 2011 will be split into three divisions of six teams each. Among those age groups will be participants from six different countries. The first stop of the World Youth Championship was held earlier this month in Philadelphia for those born in 2006, 2007 and 2008.
Over the course of the next four days, teams will compete in five pool-play matchups. Following that, the top four seeds in each division will advance to a semifinal playoff round. A champion will be determined by Saturday. Teams began arriving in the city last weekend, with many taking in the sights and sounds to get in the spirit.
Unreal first half of the WYC Prague in the books! Now time for some hockey 🏒 pic.twitter.com/NTNTbZ4gHG
— PLAY Hockey (@playhockeyna) May 30, 2023
TSH Selects and Top Speed are two of the 2009-born teams with loads of talent. Viggo Mallmin led No. 1 Swedish-ranked Brinkens IF to gold at the 2023 Uplandia Trophy. He will look to do the same here for Top Speed. Bolstering that squad will be Marks Gusevs from No. 4 SDE Hockey. Priam Lelang — a teammate of Mallmin’s on Brinkens — will be skating for TSH. The forward pair of Eric Wei and Conny Törnqvist will also aid TSH. Both hail from No. 2 Kiekko-Espoo Blues II.
East Coast Prime in the 2010 division will have a few of the top names from the 2022-23 winter season. Among them will be forwards Matthew Lynn and Bo Christini from the No. 1 ranked Philadelphia Jr. Flyers. The two have led the Jr. Flyers in previous tournaments this season such as the Eastern Exposure Cup and Penguins Elite Mid-Winter Classic. Joining them will be defenseman Samuel Fishbone from No. 5 Boston Jr. Eagles and Jack Riehl from No. 9 Pittsburgh Penguins Elite.
For the 2011s, forward Tyler Kyle from former No. 10 U.S.-ranked South Shore Kings will patrol the blue line for East Coast Prime.
You can watch all of the on-ice action this week with live streams of the games HERE.
Want more from the World Youth Championships? WHH will have exclusive coverage of the tournament in Prague all week long. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Discord and YouTube for more!
One of the biggest youth hockey summer tournaments is in full swing this month. Over the course of five weekends, boys and girls from multiple birth years take to the ice in the Montreal Meltdown. The field for the 30th Anniversary event will be made up of more than 200 teams across 10 age groups. Two divisions have already kicked off action earlier this month, with the next installment set to begin this weekend.
This year’s tournament starts with the youngest age groups of the 2014, 2015 and 2016 birth years and goes all the way up to an 18U division for ‘05, ‘06 and ‘07 birth years. Some age groups have as many as three different competition levels, presumably for AAA, AA and A-level teams.
Division 2 and 3-level ‘09, ‘10, ‘11, ‘12 and ‘13 age groups got underway on May 5th. The 18U and ‘08 age groups followed last weekend with 52 teams in action. Friday, 48 more teams from the ‘11 age group as well as ‘12, ‘13 and ‘14 teams will compete. Then, on June 1st, ‘09, ‘10 and ‘15 age groups will take to the ice. There is a AAA-level weekend for ‘12 through ‘16 birth years, however, dates have not been made public.
The pool of teams is made up primarily of Eastern Canada representatives, with a few U.S. clubs also taking part in the festivities from as far south as Tennessee. Matchups have been taking place at either the Sportplexe Pierrefonds or Complexe Sportif St-Raphael. The 2013, 2014 and D1 2011 divisions will each be split into two groups. The 2012 division is one group of nine teams. After this month-long competition, the next big date on the Canadian calendar will be the Brick Invitational. That is slated to begin July 4th and run through July 10th.
Fans can download an exclusive app to keep track of the latest scores, stats and standings HERE. Games will also be streamed live thanks to High Button Sports, which can be found HERE.
For more on the Montreal Meltdown and other upcoming tournaments and showcases be sure to follow WHH on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Discord and YouTube!
For the last 36 weeks, the most elite teams in AAA hockey have bolstered their resumes, won tournaments, league championships and national titles. The results are in, schedules completed and the World Rankings, presented by World Hockey Hub, have been finalized.
As the 2022-23 season comes to a close, we crown the No. 1 teams across six different age groups to finish as the best in the youth hockey landscape:
Ending the ‘22-23 campaign as National Champions among 2006-born U.S. teams, the Long Island Gulls cemented their status as the best program in that birth year. A 17-game unbeaten streak to start the season would only be a sign of further things to come for this squad. They secured a district title at the New York State Amateur Hockey Association (NYSAHA) with a 5-1 win over the Buffalo Jr. Sabres. That victory earned them a spot at USA Hockey Nationals, where the team skated to a 5-1-0 record. Long Island deservedly won the championship by shutting out Little Caesars 2-0 in the title matchup. In 15 of the 17 World Rankings updates this season, the Gulls were the No. 1 team.
Forward Jesse Orlowsky and defenseman Donato Bracco were invited to the USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program’s (USNTDP) annual U17 Evaluation Camp. Bracco was later announced as having earned a spot on the team. Earlier this month, five Gulls were selected in the United States Hockey League’s (USHL) Phase-I Draft. Orlowsky, Ethan Wyttenbach, Malachi McKinnon, Nicholas Sykora and Brendan DeFeo all had their names called.
You would be hard pressed to find another youth hockey team this season that won as much as ‘07 Little Caesars. After alternating wins and losses in the first four games of the year, the team hit its stride with a 46-game unbeaten streak. Along the way, Caesars nabbed titles at the CCM World Invite and USHL Youth Fall Classic. At USA Hockey Nationals, the skilled group was positioned as favorites to win the tournament. That was, until they fell in the semifinal round in overtime to Shattuck-St. Mary’s.
Despite a tough ending to an almost storybook season, players from Caesars were among some of the most popular this offseason. Goaltender Joey Slavick, defenseman Charlie Thretheway and forward Will Horcoff were named to the USNTDP U17 roster. Additionally, seven players — including Horcoff and Tretheway — were also chosen in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) Draft. Six others were also selected in the USHL’s Phase-I Draft as well.
The Vaughan Kings have held down the No. 1 spot in the ‘09 World Rankings for 24 consecutive weeks. They made their first big splash of the season by going undefeated at the Little Caesars Invitational. The team continued to roll along into the Vaughan Kings Classic, where they defeated York Simcoe Express in the final. The New Year began with another tournament win, this time by emerging as champions at the International Silver Stick. It was the second year in a row that the Kings were the last team standing at the major event. Next up was the Greater Toronto Hockey League (GTHL) Championships. It was here that Vaughan bested the Toronto Jr. Canadiens in a tough five-game series. The Kings wrapped up the campaign with an appearance at the U15 All-Ontario Championships. In the title game, they shut out the Soo Jr. Greyhounds 4-0.
The ‘09 Toronto Jr. Canadiens had a strong finish to their ‘22-23 schedule. This allowed them to hold onto the No. 1 World Rankings spot since May 7th. Since that date, JRC were winners in 10 of its final 13 contests. The pinnacle of their season was a 5-0-0 run at the U14 OHL Cup. Included in that performance were victories over fellow World-ranked teams Don Mills Flyers and Sun County Panthers. The club was undefeated in three different stretches of at least eight games. One of the most offensively gifted rosters in the world, the Jr. Canadiens finished with an incredible goal differential of plus-199.
What else can be said about 2011-born CSKA Moscow that hasn’t been written already? The team opened their schedule with one of the best winning streaks in recent memory. Winding up in the win column in the first 36 games of a season is nothing short of spectacular. And when adversity finally did hit, they rebounded in full. After they suffered their only loss of the season — in overtime to Spartak — . The major players who helped CSKA’s incredible performance were the dynamic duo of Nikita Siniken and Roman Andreev. Siniken used stellar hockey sense and puck-handling skills en route to putting up 76 goals and 169 points. Andreev managed to record 98 goals and 165 points. Odds were one of these two were tasked with getting the job done if a big play was needed.
One of two teams from the Jr. Canadiens program to finish atop the World Rankings, the ‘11 squad for Toronto hit the ground running this season. Thrown into heavy competition early at the Toronto Marlboros Friendship, JRC collected its first trophy of the season with a tournament win. Shortly after, a perfect 6-0-0 weekend saw Toronto take gold at the CCM Motown. The team once more made it to another tournament final, this time at the International Silver Stick tournament. However, a solid run of championship success ended when they became runners up after a 4-2 loss to the Mid-Fairfield Jr. Rangers. The club added to their trophy case when they nabbed a title at the Vaughan Kings Classic by defeating Little Caesars 6-2.
Be sure to check out the complete world rankings, including Top 10s by country and World Top 25s for each of the 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 birth years.
Some of the best 2009-born players in Western Canada took part in DraftDay’s annual All-Star Prospects Showcase in Alberta this weekend. The competitive event serves as an opportunity for athletes to show off their skills during an important time in their youth hockey careers. Players from the 2009 birth year are just 12 months away from potentially being selected in the WHL Bantam Draft. The All-Star Prospects Showcase has served as a launching point for many, including 94 participants from last year’s event.
The 2023 class of participants at the showcase proved to be loaded with top talent as well. One player to make a significant impact was Mirco Dufour. He along with Matthew Hilderman and Brock England, formed a power trio that helped Alberta South to a first place finish. Hilderman led all skaters with 11 goals, followed closely by England’s nine. The two were strong finishers who were often the recipients of Dufour’s incredible play-making ability. Dufour topped all skaters with 21 points in six showcase games.
After suffering a 3-1 loss to Saskatchewan in its opening game, Alberta South rattled off four consecutive wins to reach the championship game. It was an opportunity to exact some revenge on the very team who handed them that loss just a few days prior. Alberta took a 1-0 lead into the first intermission thanks to a goal from Nathan Cole. Once the second frame began, Dufour and Adam Halat each found the back of the net in just over two minutes. Before the period was over, Sam Failler made it a 3-1 game.
Saskatchewan tied the game with two goals in seven seconds at the start of the final period. The teams would continue to trade goals until the end of the third, where things ended tied at five. In overtime, Hilderman secured the victory for Alberta when he once again took a perfect pass from Dufour and sent it into the net. Dufour and Hilderman had a hand in Alberta’s final three goals of the game. Dufour alone either scored or assisted on four of the team’s six total goals.
Prior to their appearance in the championship game, no other team had been able to defeat Saskatchewan in five contests. A large portion of their high-powered offense was supplied by Blake Chorney and Kayden Stroeder. Chorney finished fourth in overall scoring with eight goals and 13 points. Stroeder ended up in a tie for fifth with Manitoba’s Tyden Lafournaise and Asher Gingras. Each player collected nine points. Both Chorney and Stroeder recorded hat tricks as well. Stroeder managed the feat in a 8-4 semifinal win over 2009 BC.
Alberta South and Saskatchewan had plenty of forwards with a knack for finding the scoresheet. But what helped the two sides reach the championship game were formidable attacks aided by offensively-gifted defensemen as well. Saskatchewan’s Calder Hamilton and Alberta’s Aden Bouchard finished tied for first among all defenders with seven points apiece. Bouchard’s biggest moment came in a semifinal battle with Manitoba. With the score deadlocked at 5-5 in the third period, Bouchard managed to put a shot through traffic into the net to break the tie. The goal would go on to serve as the game-winner, and was Bouchard’s only of the showcase.
Next weekend, DraftDay heads to the other side of the country for a similar showcase that will be held for top Ontario prospects. The All-Star Prospects Showcase is an exclusive invite-only event and will have All-Star and prospects teams, Under Armour apparel, and both on-ice and off-ice combines. The Ontario event will also feature ‘08 and ‘09 age groups with 10 teams in each division.
Want more highlights and information about future events like the All-Star Prospect Showcase? Follow WHH on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Discord and YouTube for the latest news, updates and more!