WYC 2026: Vegas and Minnesota are the finalists

The CMJ 2024 kicked off this morning, and it’s been some ordinary hockey.

These aren’t the most action-packed games, but it’s still Day 1, and I imagine the intensity will pick up over the next few days.

In short,Filip Mesar’s Slovaks beat the Czechs in the curtain-raiser.

After that, Canada defeated Finland, the USA disposed of the Norwegians and finally, the Swedes defeated the Latvians. So there were no surprises on the first day of the tournament in Sweden.

As we know, the IIHF rotates between North America (Canada and USA) and Europe to determine the tournament hosts. Next year, the CMJ will be held in Ottawa, the national captaincy, and the following year, our neighbors to the south will have the home ice advantage.

We don’t know exactly where in the U.S., but it would be between the cities of Vegas (obviously) and Minnesota.

As noted in the tweet above, Seattle and St. Louis have tried to host the tournament, but to no avail.

The folks in Minnesota would be confident they’d get the junior tournament, themselves. And honestly, I think the kids would love it. People in the state are passionate about hockey, but sports in general. The arenas, football stadiums and baseball stadiums are always full.

In the NHL, the Xcel Energy Center, home of the Wild, is third in terms of percentage capacity since the start of the season (103%). Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena is slightly better (103.4%).

In short, Minnesota and Vegas are both good choices, but if I had to choose, I’d go with Minnesota. As one user put it on Instagram, “fans fill arenas for high school hockey like it’s nothing”. Imagine a world championship, featuring the best U20 players in the world…

And for Vegas, the city had the All-Star festivities in the Bettman circuit not so long ago and will have the 2024 draft. I know that Las Vegas is an extraordinary city, but you have to leave room for others too, don’t you?

In gusts

– Too bad.

Wild: the employee who filed the complaint against Bill Guerin is leaving https://t.co/7sXhh8v3nb

– TVA Sports (@TVASports) December 26, 2023

– Good thing.

– Hurricanes recall Antti Raanta.

– Zach Wilson is still dealing with concussion symptoms.

– Good news.