Today the 2022 IIHF World Junior Championship taking place in Red Deer and Edmonton in Alberta were officially cancelled due to COVID-19.
Official Announcement: The 2022 #WorldJuniors have been cancelled due to Covid-19.
Full statement at https://t.co/TNNT2FHecn pic.twitter.com/xnPs9nDWli
— IIHF (@IIHFHockey) December 29, 2021
From the IIHF’s statement:
Following a recommendation by the tournament COVID-19 Medical Group and the IIHF Medical Committee, the IIHF Council has decided that, due to the ongoing spread of COVID-19 and the Omicron variant, the 2022 IIHF World Junior Championship will be cancelled to ensure the health and safety of all participants.
The decision comes following a positive case on a player on the Russian national team, which would have necessitated a forfeit of the Russia-Slovakia game scheduled for 29 December. The game is the third to be cancelled due to positive cases, following Switzerland-USA and Finland-Czechia.
In addition to ensuring the health and safety of participants, the Council has determined that with another forfeiture – the third forfeited game in two days – the sportive integrity of the event has been compromised, and the event must be cancelled.
The news isn’t surprising, and it seemed like an inevitability after everything that transpired. The Golden Knights had four prospects who were part of teams in the tournament, and that includes Jakub Brabenec (Czechia), Lukas Cormier (Canada), Jakub Demek (Slovakia) and Jesper Vikman (Sweden).