The 2009 IIHF World Junior Championship will be held in Ottawa, ON, beginning December 26th, 2008 and running until January 5th, 2009.

All ticket packages for the 2009 IIHF World Junior Championship have been sold out. The 2009 WJC Ticket Marketplace will be launched in November 2008, giving fans who have purchased ticket packages the ability to re-sell games that they cannot attend. The marketplace will be the official ticket reseller for the event and will be the best place for those without ticket packages to purchase tickets.

Check back for more details about the 2009 IIHF World Junior Championship, which will be posted on the 2009 National Junior Team site as it becomes available.

Hockey Canada runs the National Junior Team, the final step in its Program of Excellence, in cooperation with the Canadian Hockey League and its 59 member teams.

Hockey Canada has been sending a National Junior Team to the World Junior Championship since 1982. From 1977 to 1981, the Canadian team consisted of the previous year's Memorial Cup champions, bolstered by a few players. Canada did, though, ice an all-star squad in 1978, led by 16-year-old Wayne Gretzky, when it played host to the World Juniors in Montreal.

The National Junior Team, which is run by a policy committee of Hockey Canada and CHL officials, goes through several stages before reaching its final roster.

The first step begins as soon as the previous year's World Junior Championship ends. Hockey Canada's head scout immediately begins to scout and evaluate players for the next season. The steps that follow include naming the coaching and support staff, a development camp in August, the selection camp in December, and lastly the final 22-player roster announcement at the end of the selection camp. » more NJT history