The 2023 World Selects Invitational spring series of events begins on Wednesday, with the ’08 WSI Elite tournament getting underway in Nashville, Tennessee, USA. More than 500 of the top prospects from the 2008 birth year will compete in the six-day event. Participants will represent 12 different countries, as they compete across 30 select teams assembled specifically for this tournament.
This tournament series dates all the way back to 2009, when names like Alexander Barkov, Filip Forsberg and Radek Faksa debuted on the youth hockey scene. Them, along with 650 other WSI tournament alumni have gone on to be selected in the NHL Draft over the past 10 years. This year, North American prospects like Michael Berchild, Caleb Malhotra and Ethan Garden look to make their mark on international youth hockey. Additionally, top Euros like Oliver Torkki, Arvid Ermeskog and Vladimir Provorov will make the trek across the Atlantic to go toe-to-toe with North America’s best.
Last year, Ryan Roobroeck broke the tournament record for points with 28 in nine games. Twelve months later, he’s projected to be a Top-5 pick in the 2023 OHL Priority Selection. His teammate in the WSI last spring, Gavin McKenna, went on to be the first overall selection in the 2022 WHL Draft. Together, they led Pro Hockey to the 15U championship against an International Stars team that was loaded with top American-born prospects. So much so that seven players from the Stars’ roster were just named to the 2023-24 U.S. National Team Development Program roster.
Bottom line, the WSI regularly serves as a launching point for top prospects in youth hockey.
Still dealing with the fallout of COVID-19 last spring, the 2022 tournament only featured five European teams. Travel restrictions and difficulties kept others from making the trip overseas. This spring, that number is expected to double, as teams from Sweden, Finland, Russia, Czech, Slovakia and Kazakhstan will be in attendance. The Ford Ice Centers in Nashville will be packed with wall-to-wall action all week and WHH will have exclusive coverage of all the action.
The province of Ontario will be well represented in the Music City. In fact, 20 players from five of the Top-10 teams in the country are expected to be on hand for the ’08 WSI. The No. 1 ranked ‘08 team in the world, Vaughan Kings, will have five players competing for two different teams. Two of their top scorers, Caleb Malhotra and Zach Nyman will skate for CCM Selects. Their regular-season teammate and goaltender Joseph D’Angelo will suit up for opposing team Carolina Whalers; he is one of five Canadians playing for the U.S.-based select team.
Some other top performers from Ontario includ Maximus Crete, Bryson Morgan and Nikolas Rossetto. They were among the top scorers at the U15 All-Ontario Championships earlier this month. Goaltenders Cameron Ingram and Colin Elsworth were also impressive in that tournament with 1.00 and 1.50 goals-against averages respectively.
There is a plethora of American talent expected as well. Each of the top nine teams in the country will be represented by multiple players. Some of the more notable being No. 1 Shattuck-St. Mary’s leading scorer Michael Berchild. He finished the ‘22-23 season with 106 points; the fourth-most among ‘08s in the country. J.P. Hurlbert III led all U.S. skaters with 195 points in 75 games. Him and Berchild will be teammates at the ’08 WSI for ID Selects.
Lukas Zajic and Camden Nimmer will also skate for ID Selects. They were among some of the top performers at USA Hockey Nationals earlier this month. They also went head-to-head in the national title game, as Nimmer and his Bishop Kearney Selects took home gold.
The last time a European team won the North American WSI, Oliver Wahlstrom, Rasmus Sandin and Ryan Merkley were playing for Sweden Selects. Wahlstrom is in his third season for the New York Islanders. Sandin just finished his second season in the NHL with the Washington Capitals. Merkley made his NHL debut for the San Jose Sharks last season.
None of those three will be able to help Sweden claim World Selects gold in Nashville this week. However, players like Arvid Ermeskog, Salim Ismailov and Fabian Merkle-Rohdin certainly could.
Ermeskog is a standout forward for the No. 1 ranked team in Sweden, Nacka HK. He led the Sweden Hockey Trophy in scoring last fall with 11 points in seven games. Ismailov finished closely behind with 10 points for Flemingsbergs IK. On top of that, Merkle-Rohdin was a top performer at the U15 DIF Elitcup in September as well. He scored 14 points in that tournament for HV71. He also spent 23 games playing up an age level with the club’s U16 team.
Speaking of under-agers, Oliver Torkki and Jiko Laitinen were among some of the top scorers in Finland’s U16 SM-Series this season. Playing amongst competition where 85 percent of the players were older than these two ‘08s, Torkki and Laitinen finished third and fourth in points. Torkki scored 33 goals and 77 points in 39 games for HIFK. Laitinen finished with 76 points in 40 games. They will certainly be a force for Finland Selects at the ’08 WSI.
While he maintains dual citizenship being born in Tampa, Florida, Alex Theodore played the ‘22-23 season for the U15 Pilsen Wolves. He led the team in scoring with 53 points in 34 games. He also scored 16 points in 10 games with the club’s U17 team as well. Teammate Ben Reisnecker is another standout performer from Central Europe. From the blue line, Reisnecker scored 63 points in 47 games between the Wolves’ U15 and U17 teams as well. The pair will likely lead the Czech Knights’ offensive attack this week in Nashville.
In addition to the 2008 Elite event in Nashville, two other tournaments get underway this week as well. The U14 Girls event begins on Wednesday as well, hosted in Chamonix, France. Additionally, the 2011 AAA tournament kicks off from Bolzano, Italy, on Thursday.
Twelve girls teams from nine different countries will compete for the U14 championship. Czech Selects won the tournament last year. That snapped a three-year run of North American teams winning gold.
DraftDay, Minnesota Prospects, Premier Ice Prospects (PIP) Hockey and Pro Hockey will travel across the Atlantic to represent the U.S. and Canada. Select teams from Czech, Finland, France, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland will make the field of teams at the U14 tournament one of the most diverse among WSI events this spring.
The 2011 AAA tournament — open to all AAA-level players — consists of 13 teams from as many as nine different countries. It is the first of three WSI events to take place in the city of Bolzano.
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The U13 Resport Trophy and U14 Uplandia Trophy regularly close the book on the youth hockey season in Scandinavia. In Sweden and Finland, the only national tournaments at the youth hockey level happen at the U16 age level. So, teams in younger age groups compete at iconic events like Resport and Uplandia, serving as de facto season-ending tournaments.
The pair of events featured 50 teams at the A, AA and AAA levels. Participants hailed from the host country of Sweden, as well as Finland, Norway, Iceland, Latvia, Denmark and Austria.
Brinkens IF, the No. 1 ranked 2009 team in Sweden, proved why it’s the top-ranked team in the country. They went 8-0-0 to win the Uplandia Trophy in Sollentuna, Sweden. Meanwhile, 15 minutes away in the city of Solna, Lukko, earned the championship at Resport Trophy.
Both tournaments were full of top teams, with representation throughout Europe and Scandinavia.
From the opening game of the tournament, forward Viggo Mallmin dominated the AAA Division at Uplandia Trophy. He scored twice in Brinkens’ 4-0 win over Flemingsbergs IK. It was the second time that top-ranked Brinkens had played the No. 2 ranked FIK. Both resulted in shutouts in favor of Mallmin and Brinkens.
The left-handed forward continued to make his presence felt, scoring two goals in each of the next two games. In those games, Brinkens knocked off Diskos 6-0 and Bäcken HC 7-1. On the final day of pool play, Mallmin assisted on the game-winning goal in a 2-0 win over No. 7 Kållered SK. But his best performance came in a four-point game against Latvia’s Baltic Wolves, where Brinkens won 5-2.
That wrapped up a perfect 5-0-0 run in pool play that earned Brinkens the top seed in the playoffs.
They drew unranked Viggbyholms IK in the quarterfinals, and Mallmin and company made quick work of them with a 9-3 win. In the semifinals, a familiar foe waited in Flemingsbergs. The second time the two teams had met in the tournament — and third time this season — it was tied 3-3 at the halfway point of the game. In the second half, Ognjen Martinovic scored a pair of goals, while Oskar St. John-Parker, Eric Sevallius and William Fällström all found the back of the net as well. FIK had kept the game close as long as they could, but Brinkens’ offense eventually blew the doors wide open. An 8-3 final score would give Brinkens its third victory over FIK as well as a spot in the championship.
In the final, the top team in Sweden took on the top team from Austria, Red Bull Salzburg. A balanced attack put Red Bull into the championship, as five skaters came in averaging a point per game. Their lone blemish in the tournament thus far was a 4-3 overtime loss to Södertälje SK on the final day of pool play.
Red Bull played Brinkens tough; something they had done to opponents all tournament long. While Mallmin and Brinkens maintained a significant 3-to-1 edge in shots, the game remained close down to the wire. With Mallmin held off the scoresheet for the first time in the tournament, Sevallius saw an opportunity to step up. He scored three consecutive goals to provide Brinkens with enough of a cushion, as they hung on to a 4-2 championship win.
Other champions from the 2023 U14 Uplandia Trophy include SDE Hockey, who won the AAA Tier-2 playoffs. Iceland’s One Ice Stars won the AA Division as well with a 6-3 victory in the championship.
For the first time in five seasons, a team from Finland won the U13 Resport Trophy. The No. 4 ranked team in the country, Lukko was one of three Finnish teams in the AAA Division. The other five teams in the tournament’s top division included four that were among Sweden’s Top 10 and Latvia’s Baltic Wolves.
With a jam-packed field of talented teams, Lukko went 2-1-0 on the first day of the tournament. It’s lone loss was a 1-0 decision to Sweden’s No. 3 ranked Järfälla HC. The next day would bring another one-goal loss, this time 4-3 at the hands of Sweden’s No. 6 ranked Flemingsbergs IK.
Lukko entered the playoffs as the 3-seed, where they met Flemingsbergs for the second time in as many days. This time, though, Lukko would be victorious as the offense put 41 shots on goal to overwhelm FIK in a 4-3 win.
After making quick work of the Baltic Wolves in the semifinals, Lukko set its sights on another rematch. Järfälla, the top team in the tournament — and highest ranked in the field — had already defeated Lukko on Thursday.
The championship would be all blue and white right from puck drop. Kaapo Honkaheimo made it 1-0 Lukko less than two minutes into the game. Two minutes later, Joona Lautamäki made it 2-0. Sixty seconds later, Honkaheimo scored again to swell the early lead to 3-0. Then, after a four-minute lull in the action, Lautamäki struck again as well to make it a 4-0 lead heading into the half.
Lautamäki completed the hat trick 11 minutes into the second half, and Vilho Aaltonen scored his fifth goal of the tournament to wrap up the scoring.
The 6-0 final meant Lukko had won the U13 Resport Trophy, avenging both of its tournament losses in the process. It is the first time on record that a Finland-based club has won the event, as the trophy remained with a Sweden team each of the previous four tournaments.
Mälmö Redhawks Red won the AA Division championship with a 6-1-0 record. The A Division playoffs also went to a Finland-based team, as Ässät won 5-1 over Jarfalla.
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The 15th season of the World Selects tournament series will begin on April 25th. Following that day, 12 different events will take place over the following weeks. They’ll be hosted in five exotic locations across six different age groups for both boys and girls international youth hockey players.
The World Selects Invitational has a long and decorated history as one of, if not, the most iconic tournament series in youth hockey today.
More than 650 participants have gone on to be chosen in the NHL Draft. That includes 2022 first overall selection Juraj Slafkovsky (Slovakia Selects), 2021 sixth overall selection Simon Edvinsson (Sweden Selects), 2020 second overall selection Quinton Byfield (Canada) and 2019 second overall selection Kaapo Kakko (Finland Selects). Every NHL roster features at least one name that’s been etched in the World Selects halls of history.
The next wave of top-tier talent in youth hockey will take the stage this Spring. It begins with the 2008 Boys Elite tournament in Nashville, Tennessee, USA on April 25th. The U14 Girls Elite event will take place at the same time 4,600 miles across the globe in Chamonix, France. Also taking place that week is the 12U Boys AAA tournament in Bolzano, Italy.
That trio of events will signify the beginning of a World Selects season of events that will decorate the calendar over the next three months. Here’s a complete list of dates, ages and locations:
World Selects tournaments fall into two categories. The first is the Elite events, where participating teams apply for entry, and go through a thorough vetting process. Those teams compete in the World Selects Invitational. Participants include franchises such as DraftDay Hockey, Eastern U.S. Selects, NorthStar Elite, Premier Ice Prospects, Pro Hockey, Sweden Selects, Finland Selects and other European Selects programs.
In total, 20 different North American programs and 20 European programs will be represented this season. Additionally, teams from more than 18 different countries will take the ice including the United States, Canada, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Czechia, Slovakia, France, Norway, Latvia and Kazakhstan, among others.
Teams consist of players that are carefully recruited and selected to compete in the Elite events. These are high-level AAA players capable of competing against the absolute best in the world. These teams typically represent the best youth hockey players their respective countries have to offer. Hundreds of futures NHL players, thousands of NCAA college hockey athletes and countless national team representatives from around the world.
The AAA events provide the same, exotic experience offered in Elite events, but are open to any AAA caliber youth hockey player. Hosted in many of the same locations as the Elite events, the AAA World Selects Trophy tournaments provide players — and teams — with an opportunity to compete, perform and potentially be promoted to compete at Elite events in the future.
World Hockey Hub is the exclusive media provider for all 12 World Selects tournaments and will produce one-of-a-kind content you won’t find anywhere else in youth hockey. Games can be live-streamed on SolidSport, and WHH will have complete breakdowns, commentary, analysis, highlights, photo galleries, interviews and more from some of the top players and teams in the WSI.
Join more than 28,000 people in following WHH on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Discord and YouTube. The WHH community will be the first to receive updates as the WSI unfolds this spring. Additionally, you’ll receive announcements regarding upcoming events, future tournaments and other news about the World Selects tournament series.
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.
World Hockey Hub prides itself on being the pulse of youth hockey, covering all things in the sport worldwide and being your number one resource for news, rankings, updates and more. In an effort to continue connecting with the community — while also providing a platform for the community to connect with each other — WHH has launched a Discord channel for everyone to talk all things youth hockey.
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It is one of the most iconic events in youth hockey.
The 2022 World Selects Trophy 15U tournament returns to Music City, USA, for the second consecutive year. A field of 32 teams from the United States, Canada, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Central and Western Europe will feature some of the absolute best 2007-born youth hockey players in the game today. More than a dozen different countries will be represented at the 13th annual 15U WSI — a tournament that has seen more than 400 future NHL Draft picks and 1,000 NCAA athletes during its run.
The 2022 event is sure to be loaded with top talent yet again, with programs like DraftDay, Pro Hockey and ELD Hockey Academy representing the best players from across Canada. Stateside, various programs come from coast to coast. From the California Patriots to New England’s Exposure Hockey, and everywhere in between. Hockey hotbeds like Minnesota, Michigan and Massachusetts represented by MN Fire, International Stars and Power Play Operations. Other notable programs like 1NE Academy, DHI Octane, HD Engine, Live Polar Hockey, Northstar Elite, Pittsburgh Oilers, Topline Selects and Total Package Hockey filling in any gaps throughout the lower 48.
European programs like Sweden Selects, Finland Selects, Norway Selects and Czech Knights will compete on behalf of their native countries. Alps Selects are made up of as many as eight central European countries on its own, and Barys will bring some of the best from western Europe.
Teams will take to the ice on Wednesday, May 11, where they will compete in five pool games. The top 20 teams will advance to the elimination rounds that will begin on Saturday morning, and will be whittled down to a champion by Sunday afternoon. Complete tournament schedule, standings and stats will be available HERE.
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