The 2023 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships are the 47th edition of the IIHF World Junior Championship, scheduled to be held from December 26, 2022 through January 5, 2023 in Halifax,

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

and Moncton,

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

. They were originally scheduled to be hosted by Novosibirsk and Omsk,

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

, but Russia's hosting rights were pulled in February 2022 in condemnation of the country's

invasion of Ukraine The territory of present-day Ukraine has been Invasion, invaded or Military occupation, occupied a number of times throughout History of Ukraine, its history. List See also *List of invasions *List of wars involving Ukraine References

...

. Halifax and Moncton were announced as the new hosts in May 2022, marking the third consecutive World Junior Championships to be hosted by Canada (the last two, both impacted by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, have been principally hosted by

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

), and the second to be hosted by Halifax (which co-hosted the 2003 tournament with Sydney, Nova Scotia).

Background

On May 23, 2018, the IIHF announced Novosibirsk, Russia as host city. Novosibirsk was to host Group A matches, while the city of Omsk was to host Group B matches. In February 2022, in condemnation of the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...

, the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...

(IOC) called for Russia to be stripped of hosting rights to all international sporting events. Russia's hosting of the World Juniors and

2023 IIHF World Championship The 2023 IIHF World Championship will be co-hosted by Tampere, Finland and Riga, Latvia. The tournament is scheduled to be held from 12 to 28 May 2023, and will be organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). Host nation bid The ...

was scheduled to be discussed in a meeting of the IIHF council on 28 February 28, 2022. The IIHF suspended Russia and Belarus from international ice hockey until further notice, and stripped Russia of its hosting rights for the World Junior Championships. In late-March 2022, Sportsnet NHL insider Jeff Marek reported that the IIHF had considered Canada as a possible host country for the tournament, which would make it the third consecutive World Junior Championship to be hosted in the country (the previous two tournaments have been hosted in Alberta with

as the main host city, but were held behind closed doors and postponed to August 2022 respectively due to the

). On May 5, the IIHF and Hockey Canada announced that Halifax and Moncton would be the hosts of the tournament, beating out announced bids by Regina/

Saskatoon Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Yellowhead Highway, and has served as th ...

, Ottawa/

Quebec City Quebec City ( or ; french: Ville de Québec), officially Québec (), is the capital city of the Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the metropolitan area had a population of 839,311. It is t ...

, and

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

/ Waterloo. It will also mark the 20th anniversary of Halifax's previous hosting of the tournament in 2003.

Top Division

* * * * * * * * * *

Division I

Group A

* * – Promoted from Division I B * * *

Group B

* * – Relegated from Division I A * – Promoted from Division II A * * *

Division II

Group A

* * – Relegated from Division I B * * * *

Group B

Division III

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ice Hockey, World Junior Championships, 2023

2023 Events Predicted and scheduled events * January 1 ** In the United States, books, films, and other works published in 1927 will enter the public domain, assuming there are no changes made to copyright law. ** Croatia will adopt the eu ...

World Junior Championships World Junior Championships World Championships, Junior Sports events affected by the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine