Hockey Canada is now in the process of accepting bids for inaugural World Junior A Challenge, an Invitational International Hockey Canada event. This annual event will be added to the Hockey Canada yearly event schedule with the first event slated for early October 2006. The plans for this event evolved from the partnership between Hockey Canada, and the Canadian Junior A Hockey League.

The World Junior A Challenge will be comprised of eight (8) teams in two (2) divisions including two Canadian teams, one in each of the respective pools.   One Canadian team will be selected from Junior A eligible players from the Junior A leagues in Western Canada (BC, AB, SK, MB) and the other Canadian Team will be will be selected from Junior A eligible players from the Junior A leagues in Central and Eastern Canada (ON, QB, NS, PEI, and NB).The International teams will be confirmed at the 2005 IIHF Semi Annual congress slated for September 2005.

The tournament format will include a single round robin featuring four games per day followed by two (2) semi final games and two (2) medal games for a total of sixteen (16) games over 6 days.

The attached bid guidelines package can be downloaded from the Hockey Canada website. Letters of intent for submission of the bids deadline is September 15th, 2005 with the complete bid application deadline is September 30, 2005.