GOTHENBURG, Sweden – The 2026 IIHF World Junior Championship has been awarded to Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, a source confirmed. The news was first reported by The Rink Live.

The hosts are due to be revealed formally on Jan. 5 during an IIHF media conference ahead of the medal games that will conclude the 2024 World Juniors.

Each year, the tournament is held from Dec. 26 to Jan. 5.

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Officials from Minnesota’s Twin Cities that will operate as the local organizing committee were in Gothenburg Wednesday, touring the current facilities that are hosting the 2025 World Juniors in Sweden.

The tournament is expected to be held with a primary venue at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, home of the NHL’s Minnesota Wild. 3M Arena at Mariucci, home of the University of Minnesota’s men’s hockey team in Minneapolis, will be the secondary site that will host the group that does not include the United States.

USA Hockey accepted bids from multiple cities. Sources have indicated that Seattle, Tampa and Las Vegas were among cities believed to have been in the running, with Seattle making it to the final round in the process before the tournament was awarded to Minnesota.

The World Juniors will be the latest in a series of high-profile hockey events held at the Xcel Energy Center. The Wild’s home rink is also home to the Minnesota State Boys’ High School Hockey Tournament, has been home to multiple Men’s Frozen Fours including the upcoming 2024 Frozen Four and has hosted multiple college hockey conference tournaments over the years. It has been home to Minnesota's NHL team since the area was granted a new NHL franchise in 2000 and is still widely considered among the class facilities across professional hockey.

Minneapolis and St. Paul co-hosted the 1982 World Junior Championship, the first ever WJC to be held in the United States. That was only the sixth year since the tournament became an IIHF-sponsored event. Canada won its first of its record 20 WJC gold medals that year.

The United States has hosted the World Junior Championship five times previously, with each of the last two held in Buffalo, N.Y. Grand Forks, N.D., and Thief River Falls, Minn., hosted in 2005, and Boston hosted in 1996.

World Juniors popularity has soared in the U.S. since 2010 when the Americans won their second ever World Junior gold medal. Team USA won bronze each of the last two times USA hosted the tournament. Team USA has also won gold in 2004, 2013, 2017 and 2021, in addition to the 2010 win.

As hosts, Team USA will be expected to play its games in Xcel Energy Center. The rest of the groups will be decided by the final standings from the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship, which will be contested in Ottawa, Ontario.

The 2024 World Juniors is about to head into the semifinals Thursday. The United States will play Finland, while host Sweden is set to take on Czechia. The winners of each game will move on to the gold-medal game on Friday.

2024 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships Semifinals

The semifinals begin on Jan. 4 with games starting at 9 a.m. EST and finishing at 1:30 p.m. 

2024 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships Finals

The Bronze Medal Game of the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships begins at 9 a.m. EST on Jan. 5. 

The Gold Medal Game is at 1:30 p.m. EST.  

World Juniors Stream, TV In 2023- 2024

The World Juniors Championships will air the NHL Network in the U.S.

World Juniors Hockey On TSN In Canada

In Canada, the event will be televised on TSN and streamed on TSN+.

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