OTTAWA, Ontario – The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) has announced that beginning this year, the Most Valuable Player of the IIHF World Junior Championship will receive the Murray Costello Award.

Costello, who led the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA) and Hockey Canada as president for two decades, passed away in July 2024 at the age of 90.

“As an IIHF Lifetime Member and an inductee of the IIHF Hall of Fame, Murray had such a significant impact on hockey in Canada and around the world throughout his career,” said Luc Tardif, president of the International Ice Hockey Federation. “We thank his family for their support of this recognition and look forward to them handing out the Murray Costello Award to the tournament MVP tonight in Ottawa, where Murray lived for most of his life.”

As president of the CAHA, Costello created the Program of Excellence and was instrumental in organizing the first IIHF World Women’s Championship in 1990. Four years later, he led the merger of the CAHA and Hockey Canada.

Internationally, Costello was a member of the IIHF Council from 1998 to 2012, including as vice-president for five years. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame as a builder in 2005.

“We are grateful to the IIHF for renaming the World Juniors MVP award in Murray’s honour and extending the connection between him and this tournament that meant so much to him,” said Katherine Henderson, president and chief executive officer of Hockey Canada. “Hockey continues to benefit from Murray’s tremendous contributions to the game, and we cannot think of a more deserving tribute to one of our sport’s greatest leaders.”

To learn more about Hockey Canada, please visit HockeyCanada.ca, or follow along through social media on Facebook, X, Instagram and TikTok.

OTTAWA, Ontario – Hockey Canada has announced the eight current and former athletes who have been elected by their peers to form its new National Team Athlete Committee.

The committee, which will represent the voice of Hockey Canada’s high-performance athletes across men’s, women’s and para hockey, will meet quarterly at a minimum and be empowered to make recommendations to Hockey Canada on issues that impact their fellow national team athletes.

Billy Bridges, Michael Mastrodomenico, Tyler McGregor, Bailey Mitchell (Bram), Markus Phillips, Alyssa Regalado, Kyle Turris and Kendra Woodland will each serve multi-year terms.

“Hearing from our athletes directly is critical to ensure that we are delivering the best possible experiences for our national teams, and we cannot wait to learn from the eight representatives on this new committee throughout their terms,” said Jonathan Goldbloom, chair of the Hockey Canada Board of Directors. “Gillian Apps and Amanda Fowler from our board invested a lot of time to help launch this initiative, and we are appreciative of their contributions that have led us to today’s announcement.”

To be eligible to run for election, athletes had to have competed for Canada at a world championship sanctioned by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) or World Para Ice Hockey (WPIH) within the last eight years.

“The athlete voice is so important to all national sport organizations, and the creation of this committee is an exciting step to further strengthen the connection between Hockey Canada and our national teams,” said Katherine Henderson, president and chief executive officer of Hockey Canada. “We are grateful that Gillian, Amanda and their colleagues on the board have been so supportive of this committee, which will benefit all of our national team athletes.”

The election, which was overseen by AthletesCAN and scrutineered by a third-party organization, took place in fall 2024 and included votes from athletes who represented Canada in the last five years at an IIHF or WPIH championship.

To learn more about Hockey Canada, please visit HockeyCanada.ca, or follow along through social media on Facebook, X, Instagram and TikTok.

OTTAWA, Ontario – Hockey Canada and the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) have announced that five IIHF women’s championships will be played in Canada between 2026 and 2030 as part of a historic agreement between the two federations.

It will be the first time in women’s hockey history that a country hosts five championships in as many years.

Canada will welcome the best women’s hockey players in the world at the 2027 and 2030 IIHF Women’s World Championships, as well as the top under-18 players at the 2026, 2028 and 2030 IIHF U18 Women’s World Championships.

“Hosting IIHF championships is a tremendous privilege we do not take for granted, and we are grateful for their support of this landmark agreement,” said Katherine Henderson, president and chief executive officer of Hockey Canada. “Investing in the growth and development of women’s and girls’ hockey is a top priority for Hockey Canada, and we are thrilled that our athletes, coaches and staff will participate in an unprecedented number of world championships on home ice in the coming years.

“We look forward to welcoming the competing federations to Canada and elevating the tournament experience, including for our fans and alumnae as their support and contributions have made hosting this many marquee women’s hockey championships possible.”

The bid process for the 2026 IIHF U18 Women’s World Championship is now open, with a tournament location expected to be announced in the spring.

Tomorrow, Canada will open the 2025 IIHF U18 Women’s World Championship against Slovakia at 1:30 p.m. ET/10:30 a.m. PT, one of 14 tournament games broadcast by TSN and RDS.

Canada’s National Women’s Team will finish the 2024-25 Rivalry Series with games in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Summerside, P.E.I., in February, before the defending world champions travel to Czechia for the 2025 IIHF Women’s World Championship in April.

All of Canada’s National Women’s Team’s games this season are broadcast on TSN and RDS.

To learn more about Hockey Canada, please visit HockeyCanada.ca, or follow along through social media on Facebook, X, Instagram and TikTok.

OTTAWA, Ontario – With the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship beginning today, Hockey Canada is proud to recognize and thank the corporate partners who are supporting the tournament in Ottawa.

“The 2025 World Juniors would not be possible without the tremendous support we’ve received from our partners across the National Capital Region and beyond,” said Dean McIntosh, senior vice-president of revenue, fan experience and community impact. “From the moment Ottawa was awarded the tournament, we have worked with the host organizing committee to engage organizations that are excited to contribute to the legacy of this year’s event, which has led to one of the largest group of partners in World Juniors history.”

The successful bid to host the World Juniors was a partnership between the Ottawa Senators, Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group (OSEG), Ottawa Tourism, Hockey Eastern Ontario (HEO), the City of Ottawa and the Province of Ontario.

Hockey Canada has 11 of its corporate partners activating at this year’s tournament, including Esso, TELUS, Tim Hortons, Bauer, BFL CANADA, PepsiCo, OK Tire, Timber Mart, AMJ Campbell and SportsPay.

TSN/RDS, the official broadcasters of the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship, will broadcast all 29 tournament games.

In addition, 10 event partners are supporting the delivery of one of international hockey’s most prestigious tournaments: Access Storage, BUMP, Bumper to Bumper, Canadian Blood Services, FLO, LP Building Solutions, Myers Automotive Group, Niagara College, Supplement King and Walker Real Estate Group with RE/MAX.

The 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship begins today, with extremely limited ticket inventory for select games available at HockeyCanada.ca/Tickets.

To learn more about Hockey Canada, please visit HockeyCanada.ca, or follow along through social media on Facebook, X, Instagram and TikTok.

CALGARY, Alberta – Twenty-six players will wear the Maple Leaf when Canada’s National Men’s Team looks to capture a record 17th championship at the 2024 Spengler Cup, Dec. 26-31 in Davos, Switzerland.

The three goaltenders, nine defencemen and 14 forwards were selected by co-general managers Brad Pascall (Coquitlam, BC/Calgary, NHL) and Joe Thornton (St. Thomas, ON), alongside assistant general manager Hnat Domenichelli (Edmonton, AB/HC Lugano, NL).

“All of the players named today are extremely excited to represent their country and wear the Maple Leaf as they compete at the Spengler Cup,” said Pascall. “Our management group feels we have a good mix of experienced players with a wealth of skill and leadership. This is a unique and exciting tournament, and we know these players will embrace the challenge in front of them.”

The roster includes three players - Philip-Michaël Devos (Sorel-Tracy, QC/HC Ajoie, NL),Jonathan Hazen (Val-Bélair, QC/HC Ajoie, NL) and Josh Jooris (Burlington, ON/Genève-Servette HC, NL) – who will be representing Canada at the prestigious annual invitational tournament for the second year in a row. Jooris helped Canada win its most recent title in 2019.

In total, seven players have previous Spengler Cup experience with Team Canada (Carr, Curran, Devos, Gagner, Grégoire, Hazen, Jooris) and three represented Canada at the IIHF World Junior Championship (Bowey, Gagner, Hudon).

Canada opens the 2024 Spengler Cup against host HC Davos on Dec. 26 at 2:15 p.m. ET/11:15 a.m. PT and will also face the DEL’s Straubing Tigers in preliminary-round play. The championship game is set for Dec. 31 at 6:10 a.m. ET/3:10 a.m. PT.

TSN, Hockey Canada’s official broadcast partner, will broadcast all 11 tournament games; check local listings for details.

For more information on Hockey Canada and the Spengler Cup, please visit HockeyCanada.ca  or follow along via social media on Facebook, X, Instagram and TikTok.

OTTAWA, Ontario – Hockey Canada has announced that Brayden Yager (Saskatoon, SK/Lethbridge, WHL) will wear the ‘C’ for Canada’s National Junior Team at the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship in Ottawa.

Joining Yager on the leadership group are Tanner Molendyk (McBride, BC/Saskatoon, WHL) and Calum Ritchie (Oakville, ON/Oshawa, OHL), who will serve as alternate captains.

“I am honoured to be named captain of Team Canada for the World Juniors on a team with so many great leaders, and I am excited for our group to take the ice in Ottawa and continue working towards our goal of winning a gold medal on home ice,” Yager said. “Tanner and Calum are great players and teammates that are deserving of this honour, and I look forward to serving on the leadership group with them and wearing the Maple Leaf with pride in front of Canadian fans.”

The 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship begins on Boxing Day with four games, which includes Canada taking on Finland at the Canadian Tire Centre at 7:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. PT. Canada’s National Junior Team will also face off against Switzerland on Dec. 19, Sweden on Dec. 21 and Czechia on Dec. 23 in pre-tournament action on the Road to the World Juniors.

TSN and RDS, the official broadcast partners of Hockey Canada, will once again provide extensive coverage of the event, broadcasting all 29 tournament games and all three Team Canada pre-tournament games.

For more information on Hockey Canada and Canada’s National Junior Team, please visit HockeyCanada.ca, or follow along via social media on Facebook, X, Instagram and TikTok.

CALGARY, Alberta – Hockey Canada and its Members have published their annual Tracking Maltreatment in Sanctioned Hockey report, as part of their collective efforts to better track, identify and respond to maltreatment in the sport.

The report includes nation-wide data collected during the 2023-24 season of behaviours that breach Section 11 – Maltreatment of the Hockey Canada Playing Rules, and reviews two independent complaint management mechanisms: Hockey Canada’s Independent Third Party (ITP) and the Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner (OSIC).

“This year’s report is extremely important to better understand the behaviour that is occurring in our communities, as it now includes all tracked penalties and allegations of incidents related to Section 11 – Maltreatment, in addition to the statistics from OSIC and referenced data from the ITP,” said Natasha Johnston, vice-president of sport integrity for Hockey Canada. “Across the country, we are seeing much greater awareness of what constitutes maltreatment on and off the ice, which is encouraging as we seek to remove all forms of it from hockey.”

In December 2022, Hockey Canada and its Members published a report of all incidents of verbal taunts, insults or intimidation based on discriminatory grounds which occurred during the 2021-22 season, under Rule 11.4 – Discrimination.

Last year, the report expanded its scope to track more broad maltreatment behaviours, including the complaint intake data from the ITP and OSIC, tracking of Rule 11.4 penalties and allegations and pilot project data that tracked other maltreatment-related penalties with specific Members.

As part of its efforts to better prevent and address maltreatment behaviours, Hockey Canada will continue to make national reports on maltreatment publicly available and accessible on an annual basis as part of its overall sport integrity framework.

To learn more about Hockey Canada, please visit HockeyCanada.ca, or follow along through social media on Facebook, X, Instagram and TikTok.

CALGARY, Alberta – Hockey Canada and its Member partners – Hockey Nova Scotia, Hockey Newfoundland and Labrador, and Hockey Quebec - have announced the host communities and tournament dates for two of its international events – the 2025 U17 World Challenge and 2025 Junior A World Challenge, along with the U18 Women’s National Championship.  

“Hockey Canada takes great pride in welcoming premier hockey events and hockey talent to communities across the country,” said Dean McIntosh, senior vice-president of revenue, fan experience and community impact with Hockey Canada. “From sponsors to volunteers, communities over the years have proven to be excellent hosts, ensuring lasting memories and legacy for all participants.”

The U17 World Challenge will return to Nova Scotia for a third time (and first since January 2014) when Truro plays host from Oct. 31-Nov. 8. The tournament is the first step in Hockey Canada’s Program of Excellence and includes two Canadian teams and four international entries.

The U18 Women’s National Championship will be hosted in Newfoundland and Labrador for the first time when the City of Mount Pearl and Town of Conception Bay South welcome eight provincial and regional teams – Alberta, Atlantic, B.C., Manitoba, Ontario Blue, Ontario Red, Quebec and Saskatchewan – to compete for a national championship from Nov. 3-9.

The Junior A World Challenge will be hosted in Quebec for the first time, Dec. 7-13 in Trois-Rivières. An international showcase of some of the best young hockey talent, more than 300 NHL draft picks have played at the tournament since 2006, including 45 first-round draft picks.

Fans can stay up to date on schedules, ticket information and other promotions by signing up to become a Hockey Canada Insider.

For more information on Hockey Canada please visit HockeyCanada.ca or follow along via social media on Facebook, X, Instagram and TikTok.

CAMROSE, Alberta – Canada West earned its first win of the 2024 Junior A World Challenge on Sunday afternoon, a 5-2 victory over Canada East to win the bronze medal at the Camrose Recreation Centre. It is the third bronze and 12th medal overall for Canada West in tournament history.

“The guys grinded even though they could have quit, but they didn’t and that speaks to their character,” said Canada West head coach Mike Reagan (Flin Flon, MB/Flin Flon, MJHL). “A lot of people will look at the round-robin and wonder what happened, but at the end of the day I thought our guys played a heck of a game in the semifinal. The score (a 6-0 loss to Sweden) wasn’t indicative of the game, and today we showed up with our best effort. It just goes to show that if you stick with something, you can be rewarded. I’m extremely proud the guys and our staff.”

Canada West opened the scoring seven minutes into the first period when Ellis Mieyette (Lumsden, SK/Drumheller, AJHL) beat Canada East goaltender Noah Tegelaar (Georgetown, ON/Collingwood, OJHL).

East would tie the game on a goal from Parker Forlin (Niagara Falls, ON/Niagara Falls, OJHL) at 7:07 of the second period before Koen Senft (Regina, SK/Flin Flon, SJHL) scored twice in just over five minutes for a two-goal Canada West lead after 40 minutes.

Jack Plandowski (Halifax, NS/Calgary, AJHL) and Garrett Thom (Edmonton, AB/Camrose, AJHL) added third-period goals for West – sandwiched around an East marker from Cameron Menard (Carp, ON/Espanola, NOJHL) - to round out the scoring.

“It’s a great feeling even though we didn’t have the first couple of games that we wanted,” said Senft. “In the end, we came together; today we put together a full 60 minutes and it’s a great feeling in the room right now. We just knew that if we won today, it would erase the results of the week. We just had to simplify our game and stick with it.”

Canada East fell 3-2 to the United States in a hard-fought Saturday semifinalto set up Sunday’s all-Canadian bronze medal game.

“I think we just had no more gas left in the tank,” said Canada East head coach Bruce Richardson (Pincourt, QC/Valleyfield, LHJAAAQ). We gave it all yesterday; our mindset was all about fighting for a gold medal. We came up short in that goal and we had nothing left for today. The guys tried today, but their emotions were still down a bit from yesterday. I’m still proud of how they competed today and all week.”

A full game summary is available HERE.

In Sunday night’s gold medal game, the United States captured its 10th gold medal with a 7-4 win over Sweden. Will Zellers led the Americans with a pair of goals, while Lucas Van Vliet and Luke Osburn chipped in with a goal and an assist apiece. The U.S. now has 16 medals (10 gold, one silver, five bronze) at the Junior A World Challenge.

Following the game, the tournament all-star team was announced.

Goaltender: Caleb Heil (United States)

Defence: Zachary Deleau (Canada East)

Defence: Jacob Rombach (United States)

Forward: Eric Nilson (Sweden)

Forward: Ivar Stenberg (Sweden)

Forward: Lucas Van Vliet (United States)

For more information on Hockey Canada and the 2024 Junior A World Challenge, please visit HockeyCanada.ca/WJAC, or follow along via social media on Facebook, X, Instagram and TikTok.

TAMPERE, Finland – Canada’s National Women’s Development Team came up short in the gold medal game at the 2024 Women’s Euro Hockey Tour, falling 5-3 to the United States on Sunday.

“It has been an incredible experience for our group,” said head coach Alison Domenico (Ottawa, ON/University of Ottawa, OUA). “We had a couple of new players from summer camp, we saw a lot of progress from our four games together and I’m really happy with where we ended off.”

Canada jumped out to the early lead when Anne Cherkowski (Coldstream, BC/Clarkson University, ECAC) converted a shorthanded penalty shot at 17:56 of the first period.

The Americans would strike for three goals in a span of 4:28 in the second period to take a two-goal lead into the intermission, but Jocelyn Amos (Ailsa Craig, ON/Ohio State University, WCHA) and Alex Law (Brooklin, ON/Boston University, HE) brought Canada back even at 3-3 with less than six minutes to go before the U.S. retook the lead and added insurance into an empty net.

Canadian goaltender Ève Gascon (Mascouche, QC/University of Minnesota Duluth, WCHA) was terrific, finishing the game with 33 saves.

A full game summary is available here.

“I’m super proud of the group. In the dressing room between the second and third periods, we never lost belief in each other,” said Amos. “We came out and knew we had to battle and make a push for it right away, and I’m proud we managed to tie the game up. We’re a younger team; I thought the tournament was a good opportunity to prove ourselves and it’s always an honour to represent Canada.”  

Canada reached the gold medal game allowing just one goal in its first three games; it finished atop Group B in the preliminary round with wins over Sweden (2-1) and Czechia (3-0), and blanked host Finland 3-0 in the semifinals.

Amos finished as Canada’s leading scorer in the tournament with five points, including three goals, while Gascon fashioned a 1.69 goals-against average and .932 save percentage across her three appearances.

For more information on Hockey Canada and Canada’s National Women’s Development Team, please visit HockeyCanada.ca, or follow along through social media on Facebook, X, Instagram and TikTok.