Ottawa, Ontario (WGR Sports Radio 550) - The annual post-Christmas tradition that is the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship returns on Thursday, this time in the Canadian capital of Ottawa for the first time since 2009.
The 2025 World Juniors begins Thursday with Day 1 of the Preliminary Round, featuring an action-packed four-game slate with some of the world's best nations in action.
The Buffalo Sabres will, once again, be well-represented at the World Juniors with six prospects set to lace up the skates and don the colors of their nation's flag, hoping to wear a medal around their necks upon the tournament's conclusion on Jan. 5.
In Thursday's opening game of the tournament, a pair of Sabres prospects will face off at TD Place, home of the Ontario Hockey League's Ottawa 67's. Both players make their returns to the tournament after some decent success in last year's World Juniors in Sweden.
2023 second-round pick Maxim Strbak (45th overall) is set to play in his fourth-straight World Junior Championship representing Slovakia. The 19-year-old will, once again, serve as one of the top blue liners for a Slovakian team that comes into the tournament with a nice mix of youth and veteran fire power, looking to take the tournament by storm.
Over his four years playing for Slovakia at the World Juniors, Strbak has fared quite well with 14 games played, scoring a goal and adding nine assists for 10 points. He's also stayed disciplined from the blue line with just six penalty minutes, while registering a plus-1 from the back end.
At last year's tournament, Strbak was a force to be reckoned with on the Slovakia blue line with a goal and six assists for seven points in five games. However, his group was eliminated in the quarterfinal round in a heartbreaking overtime loss to Finland.
Strbak will be part of the leadership group for Slovakia this tournament, serving as an alternate captain along with St. Louis Blues prospects Juraj Pekarcik (alternate) and Dalibor Dvorsky (captain).
So far this season as a Sophomore at Michigan State University, Strbak has scored a goal and added eight assists for nine points in 16 games played with the Spartans.
Meanwhile, Sweden will see the return of forward Anton Wahlberg, who joins the group after starting his 2024-25 season in the American Hockey League with the Rochester Americans.
In his first World Juniors tournament last year after being a second-round pick (39th overall) of the Sabres in the 2023 NHL Draft, Wahlberg scored a goal and added two assists for three points in seven games played for the Swedes. While Sweden made it to the Gold Medal Game on home soil in 2024, they ended up losing and earning the silver medal against the United States.
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So far this season in Rochester, Wahlberg has shown some strong play as a power winger with four goals and six assists for 10 points in 25 games played as a 19-year-old. The Swede also made an impact with the Amerks last year in the playoffs, suiting up in five games and scoring a goal.
Wahlberg will be looked upon to provide more of an offensive presence up front for the Swedes in the 2025 World Juniors tournament.
At 2:30 p.m. EST at the Canadian Tire Centre, home of the NHL's Ottawa Senators, the defending champion United States will look to begin its title defense against the Germans, who avoided relegation in last year's tournament against Norway.
On the U.S. side, a couple of Sabres prospects will be making their debuts at the World Juniors, as they hope to help the Americans back atop the podium at the tournament.
2024 second-round pick Adam Kleber (42nd overall) joins the U.S. roster after a good start to his Freshman season at the University of Minnesota-Duluth.
The 18-year-old defenseman will likely be relied upon to be a solid bottom-four presence on the U.S. blue line, as the Americans will also have Zeev Buium (Minnesota Wild) and Drew Fortescue (New York Rangers) returning to the group from last season.
The right-shot defenseman plays a very solid game for a player of his size at 6-foot-6, with a solid shot to his arsenal and good skating mechanics and mobility. So far in his Freshman season, Kleber has registered an assist in 15 games played, and is a minus-1 for the Bulldogs.
This will be the first time Kleber has represented the U.S. in any international tournament hosted by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF).
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Meanwhile, Brodie Ziemer will be suiting up for the third time wearing the Red, White and Blue in international competition, but the first time at the World Juniors tournament.
Last year at the IIHF Under-18 World Championship, Ziemer was instrumental in helping the U.S. win a silver medal, captaining the Americans, while also scoring three goals and adding nine assists for 12 points in seven games.
Despite being just 5-foot-11, Ziemer is a tenacious player and very tough to play against at a solid 196 pounds. So far as a Freshman at the University of Minnesota, Ziemer has excelled with eight goals and three assists for 11 points in 20 games with the Golden Gophers.
For this year's tournament, the 18-year-old is expected to play a solid bottom-six depth role on a U.S. team very well-stacked, and primed to win a second-straight World Juniors title.
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On the other side of the ice for this game, defenseman Norwin Panocha will be taking part in his second World Juniors tournament representing Germany.
The 19-year-old blue liner returns and will serve in a leadership role with the Germans as an alternate captain, along with captain Edwin Tropmann and fellow alternate captain Julius Sumpf.
While last year's tournament was nothing much to write home about for the Germans, Panocha did manage to score a goal in five games played, helping his team to remain in the top division of the World Juniors tournament for another year.
The left-shot defenseman is currently playing in the United States Hockey League (USHL) with the Green Bay Gamblers after starting his season in the Western Hockey League (WHL) with the Prince Albert Raiders. He's registered three assists and a minus-5 in 15 games played with Green Bay.
Panocha was a seventh-round pick (205th overall) of the Sabres in the 2023 NHL Draft.
Then in the final game of Day 1 of the 2025 tournament, it will be Buffalo's most recent first-round pick Konsta Helenius helping lead Finland in a matchup with the host nation Canada at the Canadian Tire Center at 7:30 p.m. EST.
Helenius is among a number of players making their return to the Finnish roster from last year's team that finished fourth in Sweden, losing to Czechia in the Bronze Medal Game. In seven games at the tournament as a 17-year-old, Helenius managed a goal and an assist while playing more as a depth player on the roster.
The 5-foot-11 center also earned a spot on Finland's roster at the 2024 IIHF World Championship, where he played four games and picked up an assist in limited action.
After playing two seasons of professional hockey in Finland's top league, Helenius made the jump to North America as an 18-year-old, and has started his first season with the Amerks quite well with 17 points (6+11) in 28 games played.
Helenius is expected to have an increased role with the Finns in this year's tournament.
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The other teams participating in the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship this year includes Canada, Czechia, Switzerland, Latvia and Kazakhstan.