On Episode 21 of The PuckPedia Hockey Show we welcome founder of The Pro Hockey Group and recurring guest Jason Bukala.

We wanted to bring Bukes on to preview the 2026 IIHF World Junior Championship in Minnesota, the annual best-on-best hockey tournament featuring the best under-20 hockey players in the world (2:30). Jason’s scouting reports are on PuckPedia’s website if you want to read up on some of the players in this tournament (4:30).

We start by previewing Team Canada, who are the odds-on favorites to win the tournament this year (6:30). Gavin McKenna and Michael Misa are the elite forwards up front, with Zayne Parekh and Keaton Verhoeff on the back end, and Carter George in net (14:00).

Then we preview Team USA, the two-time defending World Juniors champions (19:00). Some of USA’s top players like Gabe Perreault, Ryan Leonard, and Zeev Buium have aged out, but they still have some high-end talent. James Hagens is the best player up front for the Americans, alongside Teddy Stiga who scored the Golden Goal for USA last year, and Ryker Lee who had a viral goal in the NCAA this season. Lane Huston’s brother Cole will be one of the top defensemen for the USA this tournament (25:00).

Then we quickly talk about Sweden and some of their star power including: Ivar Stenberg, Anton Frondell, and Victor Eklund (31:00). We also touch on Finland, who sometimes is able to challenge the big 3 countries (33:30). Then we wrap up the episode talking about the players to watch out for this tournament (36:00). 

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