International competition is so important to the world of hockey. Unlike other popular North American games like football, basketball, and baseball, which fail to entertain in Olympic or World Championship events due to lack of coverage or meaningful competition, hockey stands alone as our preeminent multi-national sporting outlet. Part of its success is how early these competitions are introduced to the future of the sport, and no event is more prominent than the IIHF World Junior Championship. The best 20-and-under players, many in this past summer's NHL Amateur Draft and quite a few that will highlight 2016's iteration.
What you need to know
Who: USA, Canada, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Russia, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Finland, Belarus
What: Each country is divided into two round robin pools and will play every team in their pool once.