January 4, 2025 by Ryan Lotsberg

To say that Team Canada’s performance in the 2025 World Junior Tournament was disappointing would be a massive understatement. Canada lost to Czechia in the quarterfinals for the second consecutive year. Canada had not placed fifth or worse in consecutive World Juniors since 1979 – 1981 (5th, 5th, 7th) before Thursday’s loss. This is the first time that Canada has failed to win a medal in the tournament in back-to-back years since 2013 and 2014 (both 4th place finishes).

It wasn’t just the result that was disappointing. It was the way that it happened. Latvia beat Canada for the first time in its history in the preliminary round of this tournament. Credit to Latvia for the win. Their program has improved markedly in recent years. While it was a nice story for Latvia, it was a bitter pill for Canada to swallow.

Canada also lost to the Americans 4-1 in a highly touted New Year’s Eve matchup. The Americans showed that they were a class above Canada this year, which doesn’t sit well with Canada and its fans.

Add the fact that the tournament was played on home soil in Ottawa, and you get a complete disaster.

I’m not here to pile onto the kids that competed in this tournament. They should be proud that they earned the opportunity to represent their country, and they did so with great passion and pride. Unfortunately though, this edition of Team Canada will be remembered as one of the worst iterations of the team in the history of the tournament.

Canada has access to the largest pool of junior hockey players in the world. It has more ice hockey rinks than any other country in the world. Canada could build multiple teams that could compete for medals in the World Juniors. Hockey Canada can’t use a lack of resources as an excuse for poor performance in this tournament.

We have to acknowledge that the competition has improved in this tournament. Czechia has a chance to win medals in three consecutive tournaments for the first time since 1989-1991. We have seen a noticeable increase in the amount of NHLers being drafted from countries like Germany, Switzerland, and Denmark in recent years. Latvia got multiple wins in the preliminary round of this tournament for the first time ever. Belarus upset the Americans in the preliminary round last year.

We also have to understand that not every draft class from Canada is superior to every other country’s draft class every year. There are some years where Canada spits out the world’s best talent, and other years where the best talent comes from other countries.

I could write a whole other piece on the relationship between the number of players selected in the first round of the NHL draft and the country’s performance in the World Junior tournament that features that draft class. For now, it’s sufficient to say that there is an indirect correlation between those two factors.

19-year olds thrive in the World Juniors. While some players drafted in the most recent NHL draft play in the tournament, it’s the players drafted two NHL drafts ago that usually shine. The feature players from the 2025 Canadian World Junior team were drafted in the 2023 NHL draft. 12 Canadian players were taken in the first round of the 2023 NHL draft, and we know how the 2025 World Juniors ended for Canada. There were just 9 Canadians taken in the first round of the 2022 NHL draft, and the 2024 Canadian World Junior team also lost in the quarterfinals.

There were 18 Canadian players selected in the first round of each of the 2020 and 2021 NHL drafts. Canada won gold at the World Juniors in 2022 and 2023.

There isn’t always such a strong correlation between those two things, but the numbers are what they are for the last four years. Connor Bedard (2023 1st overall), Adam Fantilli (2023 3rd overall), and Zach Benson (2023 13th overall) are all in the NHL right now. The three best players of an already weak Canadian draft class were unavailable to Hockey Canada for this tournament. The same can be said of 2024 first overall pick Macklin Celebrini.

That can’t be an excuse for Hockey Canada though. Canada has too many options available to them to put together a team that performed this poorly.

Canada scored thirteen goals in five games in the tournament, and they had twelve different goal scorers. Canada has scored more than thirteen goals in some individual games in previous tournaments! The leading Canadian goal scorer, Bradly Nadeau, had just two goals in the tournament. Canada has only recorded less than thirteen goals in a World Junior tournament once. They scored twelve goals in the 1976 tournament. Canada also scored thirteen goals in the 1998 tournament.

People complain about the roster choices that Hockey Canada makes for this tournament every year, but the complaining is the loudest I’ve ever heard it this year.

Matthew Wood (2023 15th overall) has 23 points in 20 games for Connecticut in the NCAA this season, and he was a late cut by team Canada. Andrew Cristall (2023 40th overall) has 60 points in 27 games for the Kelowna Rockets, and he was a late cut as well. 

There were some younger players that were controversially left off this team as well. Beckett Sennecke (2024 3rd overall) was only invited to camp as an injury replacement, and he was eventually cut. He has 56 points in 32 games for the Oshawa Generals. Zayne Parekh (2024 9th overall) would’ve made a decent powerplay quarterback (which is something the team didn’t have), and his mobility would’ve been welcomed on the back end. Michael Hage (2024 21st overall) has 20 points in 16 games for the Michigan Wolverines.

Canada had two seventeen year olds on their roster (Gavin McKenna and Matthew Schaeffer). McKenna is the next up and coming phenom. He didn’t light this tournament up, but he showed some promise. Schaeffer unfortunately broke his collarbone early in the tournament, but he showed promise as well. Seventeen year old Michael Misa is among the scoring leaders in the CHL this season with 64 points in 33 games for the Saginaw Spirit, and he didn’t make the team. He’s a more impactful player than most of the players on the Canadian team, but the other exceptional seventeen year olds didn’t thrive in this tournament, and they rarely thrive.

Coaching was a big issue in this tournament as well. Dave Cameron has had a positive history as the coach of this team, but Cameron made several mistakes this time around. First of all, the team didn’t practice at any point after they lost to the United States on New Year’s Eve. He cited player fatigue. I’m sorry, but not practicing after a 4-1 loss heading into the knockout stage of the tournament is unacceptable!

Cameron also challenged a goal that was waived off due to goaltender interference in the quarterfinal. In my opinion, it was clearly and obviously goaltender interference and not worth challenging; but he challenged it anyway. The call was unsurprisingly upheld, and Czechia was awarded a powerplay.

He had Oliver Bonk running the top powerplay unit. His London Knights teammate, Sam Dickinson, runs the powerplay for the Knights. Dickinson was also on the Canadian team. Bonk doesn’t even run the top powerplay over Dickinson for their club team, and he was put in that role on team Canada! It doesn’t make sense.

It also doesn’t make sense that Carson Rehkopf (2023 50th overall) was the extra forward on this team. 48 points in 28 games for the Brampton Steelheads of the OHL wasn’t enough to get an opportunity to play on a team that couldn’t score goals apparently.

Cameron didn’t really juggle the lines at all until the third period of the quarterfinal. The team was clearly struggling to score goals throughout the tournament. You can’t just ride it out hoping for a change of luck in a short tournament like the World Juniors. You have to do SOMETHING different to get things going, but Cameron didn’t do it early enough.

Hockey Canada executive Scott Salmond was the only member of Hockey Canada’s management team that took any accountability for the performance of the team and the decision making process. 

Salmond said that it’s too soon to be specific on any changes that will be made to the management team and the selection process, but he did share that “[i]n the past, we’ve had a model historically where we built teams based on some sort of a ‘ghost roster’ where we had skill players, we had checking players, and we had players that brought energy.”

That “ghost roster” is the biggest issue that Canadian fans have had with Hockey Canada’s selection process for many, many years. Players whose strengths are checking and “energy” are consistently chosen over superior hockey players in an effort to build a complete team.

I won’t argue that it takes many different types of skills to win hockey games. My argument is that scorers can check, but checkers can’t score. You don’t score goals and put up points if you can’t get the puck from the opponent. You can’t rely on other players to get the puck for you. You have to get it yourself.

There are elite point producers that never make it at the professional level because they can’t defend at the level needed to succeed there, but we aren’t talking about professional hockey here. We’re talking about a short tournament that features the best junior players from around the world. Even the best junior players make mistakes at that level. You need as many players that can make other teams pay for those mistakes as you can stuff onto the roster.

Hockey Canada also has a history of deferring to nineteen year olds over younger players. While it’s true that players that thrive in the World Juniors are usually nineteen year olds, you can’t pick an inferior player just because of his age. If there’s an eighteen year old that is a better hockey player than the nineteen year old, then you should take the eighteen year old.

The bottom line is that you need to select the best hockey players for this tournament. Hockey Canada consistently fails to do that because of their reliance on this “ghost roster” and their insistence on deferring to older players.

Canada has won more gold medals at the World Juniors than any other country. Canada is perennially a threat to win gold. Perhaps we have become entitled as Canadian hockey fans. Hockey is Canada’s pride and joy though. As I said earlier, Canada has more players and rinks than any other country in the world. Winning should be the expectation.

The first round of the 2024 NHL draft had eighteen Canadians selected. McKenna, Schaeffer, and Misa will likely also be on that team. I expect that the 2026 Canadian World Junior team will be MUCH stronger than the 2025 team.

Related: 2025 World Juniors Preview