Tournament History

“Hockey Canada is very excited to be hosting the World Jr A Challenge in the community of Camrose, Alberta. Camrose is known for their great Jr A Hockey history with the Kodiaks as well as their great international jr hockey hosting experience with the Viking Cup. With the support of the Alberta Junior Hockey League and Hockey Alberta the Camrose Sport Development Society will be an exceptional host to one of Hockey Canada’s Premier events. Please join Hockey Canada and the Canadian Junior Hockey League in making the 2008 World Jr A Challenge the best yet!”
Bob Nicholson, President and CEO of Hockey Canada

World Junior A Challenge History

2006 was the first year for the World Jr A Challenge, the event was formed in partnership with the Canadian Junior Hockey League and Hockey Canada to help showcase Jr A Hockey on an international stage. In year one aprox 18,000 fans came out to rinks all across Saskatchewan and Manitoba to see exhibition and tournament games, with Russia, Germany, Belarus and Slovakia competing with Canada East and West for tournament supremacy. In the end it was the Canadian teams that would end up on top with Canada West beating Canada East in the final. Games were held in 11 different communities where fans young and old were able to see a very high level of talent compete for the first ever World Jr A Challenge.

Following the first year of this event it became quite evident just how impressive this level of talent was, when 11 players were drafted in the 2007 NHL draft that had competed in the 2006 World Jr A Challenge, of those players three of them were taken in the first round, including number three over all pick Kyle Turris, who was taken by Wayne Gretzky and the Phoenix Coyotes.

Other players drafted were:

• Riley Nash (Canada West) – 1st Round 21st – Edmonton Oilers
• Bredan Smith (Canada East) – 1st Round 27th – Detroit Red Wings
• Sergei Korostin (Russia) – 3rd Round 64th – Dallas Stars
• Evgeni Dadonov (Russia) – 3rd Round 71st – Florida Panthers
• Casey Pierro-Zabotel (Canada West) – 3rd Round 80th – Pittsburgh Penguins
• Louis Caporusso (Canada East) – 3rd Round 90th – Ottawa Senators
• Maxim Mayorov (Russia) – 4th Round 94th – Columbus Blue Jackets
• Ben Winnett (Canada West) – 4th Round 104th – Toronto Maple Leafs
• Maxim Goncharov (Russia) – 5th Round 123rd – Phoenix Coyotes
• Dennis Reul (Germany) – 5th Round 130th – Boston Bruins
• Alain Goulet (Canada East) – 6th Round 159th – Boston Bruins
• Sergei Gayduchenko (Russia) 7th Round 202nd – Florida Panthers

In 2007 the event moved to Trail/Nelson, British Columbia. The event definitely picked up steam in the second year of the event being hosted by Hockey Canada. With over 25,000 fans taking in the exhibition can tournament games being held in Okotoks, AB, Castlegar, BC and Trail and Nelson. Year two saw USA replace Slovakia which created one more rivalry for this great event. The final game saw Team Canada West repeat as Gold Medal winners over Team Canada East in front of a capacity crowd that will long be remembered by the community of Trail. Many fans from this past year that will saw names of several players from the 07 event called by one of the NHL teams on draft day, including pick Nikita Filatov of Russia and Joe Colborne of Canada West.

Camrose, AB will be the next host of this very important event for Hockey Canada and the Canadian Junior Hockey League. It is going to be a great event in Camrose and the state of the art Edgeworth Centre with some of the best Jr Hockey fans in Canada. Currently there are over half the tickets sold to the World Junior A Challenge 2008 Hockey Tournament.