The IIHF announced that Halifax, N.S. and Moncton, N.B. will be the two host sites for the 2023 tournament in December. 

It is the second time that Halifax will have the tournament in its city. Previously, Halifax was the home of the tournament in 2003 when it co-hosted the World Juniors with Sydney. 

This is the first time that the annual competition will be in Moncton. 

The tournament was originally scheduled to be hosted in the cities of Novosibirsk and Omsk in Russia. However, due to the country’s invasion into Ukraine, the IIHF removed the tournament. 

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Why was the 2023 tournament moved from Russia?

Due to Russia’s invasion into Ukraine, the IIHF and its council made the decision to remove the 2023 tournament from the country. 

In the statement it released, the IIHF stated this was the reasoning behind the decision:

The IIHF has also banned Russian and Belarusian national teams from competing in any international tournament, including the World Juniors. 

When is the next World Juniors tournament?

The next World Juniors tournament is actually not in December. The 2022 tournament was rescheduled for August this year after the IIHF was forced to shut down the tournament in December due to escalating COVID-19 cases. 

Exact dates and schedules have yet to be announced yet, but Red Deer and Edmonton remain as the host sites for the tournament. 

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Where are the next World Junior Championships taking place?

There has been some recent shuffling of the locations of the tournament. 

In addition to the removal of the tournament in Russia, Canada and Sweden switched years to host the event due to COVID-19. Sweden was originally set as the location for the 2022 tournament, but instead it swapped with Canada and now will host the event in 2024. 

The specific host cities are only known through 2024, but the countries in which the tournament will take place in have been named all the way until 2032.