World Juniors Today: Welcome to Ottawa as the 2025 tournament begins

The 2025 World Juniors begin today in Ottawa and The Athletic will be with you every step of the way. Along with daily analysis from our prospect experts Corey Pronman and Scott Wheeler, we’re introducing World Juniors Today to set up each day’s slate of games. The Athletic’s Senators beat reporter Julian McKenzie and staff editor Sarah Jean Maher will both be on-site to document the sights and sounds of the tournament.

Here’s a quick introduction to your two intrepid World Juniors Today guides for the next week and a half.

McKenzie: I remember watching the Canada-Russia semifinal in 2009 upstairs at my grandparents’ place on a small TV in their bedroom. I remember watching a 16-year-old Rasmus Dahlin at the 2017 World Juniors in Montreal with some old friends, and we ended up on the JumboTron! And now, I get to write about the tournament for The Athletic! The WJC is a holiday tradition that so many hockey fans, including myself, enjoy. To be in a position to provide coverage of the games and write features about the players is an honor.

This year’s tournament is going to be fun to watch. There’s always pressure on Canada, especially this year considering the talent they left off their roster. But what about the Americans and potential 2025 No. 1 pick James Hagens? The Swedes are a force, too. Nine players who won silver at last year’s tournament are back. To be able to witness potential greatness in person is not lost on me and I’m excited for the World Juniors to start.

Maher: I still have a scar on my right hand from when I accidentally scratched myself in celebration of Jordan Eberle’s dramatic tying goal for Team Canada the last time Ottawa hosted the World Juniors. It’s one of my favorite “Where were you?” sports moments, and I was a high school student on my parents’ couch harboring dreams of working in media that would unknowingly lead me to sports journalism in the capital city in the near future.

Sixteen years later, the World Juniors are back in Ottawa (the city I still call home) and I’m excited to be part of The Athletic’s coverage. I’ve covered multiple World Juniors tournaments over the years but nothing beats covering your favorite time of the season in your own city. From getting my start covering the Ottawa 67’s at TD Place (then the Civic Centre) to working with the NHL out of Canadian Tire Centre in Kanata for nearly four Senators seasons (and let’s not forget the frigid Hockey 100 Classic in December 2017), I’ve been fortunate enough to cover a lot of ground in the cold capital.

Canada is hungrier than ever for gold after last year’s devastating quarterfinal loss. Team USA has never won back-to-back gold medals. The No. 1 pick in the 2025 NHL Draft is up in the air. Not to mention the slew of exciting NHL prospects ranging from Sweden, Czechia, Finland, Slovakia and Kazakhstan (!) we’ll get a front-row seat to see. There’s a lot to be excited about this winter.

Today’s schedule

• Sweden vs. Slovakia, noon ET/9 a.m. PT
• Germany vs. USA, 2:3o p.m. ET/11:30 a.m. PT
• Switzerland vs. Czechia, 5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT
• Canada vs. Finland, 7:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. PT

Oliver Bonk, Denton Mateychuk and Maveric Lamoureux react to Canada’s quarterfinal loss to Czechia in January 2024. (Christinne Muschi / The Canadian Press via AP)

‘Resilient’ Bonk returns for Canada

It was a flukey goal that eliminated Canada early from last year’s World Juniors. Still, defenseman Oliver Bonk says his team has something to prove on home soil.

“Definitely not happy how last year happened or how we performed or how good we did,” he said of Canada’s heartbreaking 3-2 quarterfinal loss to Czechia last January.

Jakub Stancl’s wrist shot went off Bonk’s stick and past goalie Mathis Rousseau with 11.7 seconds left in the game, sending Czechia to the semifinals. It was simply an unlucky bounce for Canada.

“It’s just sad to like get a bounce like that, but it happens,” Bonk said. “I’ve scored goals to tie this year to win the game off of guys, like it happens all the time. So it’s really unfortunate it happened to you but there’s nothing you can do about it.

“At the moment, like kind of 24 hours after, you’re still really sad about it, but it happens.”

Bonk, a 2023 first-round pick of the Philadelphia Flyers and son of former NHLer Radek Bonk, is one of four returnees to Canada’s roster alongside captain Brayden Yager, Carson Rehkopf and Bonk’s London Knights teammate Easton Cowan.

Radek recently told the Ottawa Citizen that Oliver was “devastated” after the loss and condemned the “keyboard warriors” who criticized his son on social media following the game.

Knights defenseman Sam Dickinson remembers his fellow blueliner’s disappointment upon his earlier-than-expected exit from the tournament but says it didn’t phase him for long as the Knights got hot.

“He’s very resilient. When you watch him play, he doesn’t let things get to him,” said Dickinson, also a member of Team Canada this year. “You’d have to be disappointed with the play, but it’s such a flukey play. Not much he could have really done there. So I know he’s moved on and he’s looking forward to the tournament this year and how much he’s going to be a big part of this team and contribute as well.”

Bonk, Dickinson and Cowan went on to win an OHL championship with the Knights last season, an experience Bonk says he can use to play a leadership role this winter.

“I think (I will) definitely try to be a leader on the team and kind of put the boys in the right direction from what we maybe should’ve done last year and what we could do better this year,” he said.

So what can they do better this time? Bonk says “being more dialed in” and “prepared” on a team that is “ready to go this year more than we were last year.” It’s hard to compare teams, but he’s convinced this year’s is stronger, with “no real weaknesses.”

“I think I feel more prepared because I know what’s coming,” he said. “So I kind of got to get ready for it, got to get the team ready for it and just make sure we’re a lot better than last year.”

Peter Anholt, part of Canada’s management group, touts this year’s back end as one of the team’s biggest strengths, diverse with hardness and size. Head coach Dave Cameron, who coaches the OHL’s Ottawa 67’s, didn’t know Bonk too well coming into the tournament but is familiar with his skill.

“All they do down in London is win,” Cameron said. “I do know (Bonk) because he’s from Ottawa, and I coach in Ottawa, I can ask questions. He’s known in the community and a character kid, a good kid and a hell of a hockey player.”

Reclaiming gold after last year’s disappointment is obviously the goal, but doing so in front of family and friends in his hometown — and in the same rink his father played in for 10 seasons with the Senators — would make this year’s experience all the more special for Bonk.

“It’s going to be really fun,” Bonk said. “Most of my mom’s side of my family’s in Ottawa, so they’re definitely going to come do their best to come watch the games and yeah, excited to have them all here.”— Maher