The IIHF announced that it has set its schedule for the 2020-21 season headlined by the Men’s World Championship. The start date has been delayed about two weeks longer than usual to May 21st and will run through June 6th in Belarus and Latvia. The later start should help offset any potential delays to the start of seasons both in North America and Europe due to the ongoing pandemic.
The groups for the tournament will be as follows:
Group A: Russia, Sweden, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Slovakia, Denmark, Belarus, Great Britain
Group B: Canada, Finland, USA, Germany, Latvia, Norway, Italy, Kazakhstan
Meanwhile, the Women’s Worlds will take place in Nova Scotia starting April 7th which was slated to host this year’s event before it was cancelled. Their groups will be:
Group A: USA, Canada, Finland, Russia, Switzerland
Group B: Japan, Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark, Hungary
The tournament that NHL scouts will undoubtedly want to keep their eye on is the Men’s Under-18 Worlds. It features many of the top draft-eligible prospects as well as providing a final opportunity for some of the lower or mid-tier players to boost their stock heading into the 2021 draft. It will kick off in mid-April in Michigan with the following groups:
Group A: Sweden, Canada, Belarus, Latvia, Switzerland
Group B: Russia, USA, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany
Today’s announcement from the IIHF pertained to end-of-year tournaments so the World Juniors was not among the ones that were mentioned. As things stand, they remain scheduled to start on December 26th although things could certainly change between now and then depending on how things play out with the pandemic and if they are able to play the event in front of spectators.
Sorry, event cancelled…….3rd wave Corona might break loose by then. :D
@Gbear – What have I told you about using the “outside voice”? ;)