Rochester to host teams, exhibition games for 2025-26 World Junior Hockey Championship

Rochester to host teams, exhibition games for 2025-26 World Junior Hockey Championship

The best Under-20 men's hockey players in the world will descend upon Minnesota in late 2025 and early 2026. The Rochester Recreation Center will be a staging site for two of the teams.

ROCHESTER — In recent years, the names have included Connor Bedard, Trevor Zegras, Cale Makar and Casey Mittelstadt.

Looking back over the past two decades, names such as Carey Price, Zach Parise, John Tavares, Marc-Andre Fleury and Filip Forsberg stand out.

The common theme: Those NHL stars were all MVPs of the IIHF Under-20 World Junior Championships before moving on to college and professional hockey.

Fifteen months from now, the next batch of U20 superstars from around the world will be in Minnesota for the 2026 IIHF U20 World Junior Championships .

And some of them will play and practice in Rochester.

The event, which spans nearly two weeks in late December of 2025 and early January of 2026, will take place primarily in the Twin Cities, at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul and 3M Arena at Mariucci in Minneapolis.

But, as was the case 42 years ago — the last time the World Juniors took place in the State of Hockey — Rochester will be part of the 10-team event, of which the United States is the reigning champion. Team USA won its sixth title at a U20 World Championship back in early January, as Denver University head coach David Carle guided the team to a gold medal with a 6-2 victory against host team Sweden in the final. On the same day that the U.S. won gold this year — Jan. 5 — the announcement was made that the WJC will come back to Minnesota .

For the 2025-26 event, two teams will call the Rochester Recreation Center home for 10 days leading up to the start of the tournament on Dec. 26, 2025. A total of 29 tournament games will be played at the Xcel Center and Mariucci, with the gold-medal game set for Jan. 5, 2026.

Rochester, as one of five staging sites for the buildup to the tournament, will host two teams for 10 days of practices and exhibition games. Practices are expected to be open to the public, while exhibition games will likely be ticketed events, with tickets expected to cost in the $15 range. More information on ticket availability and price will be released late next year.

Mankato will also be a host site in southern Minnesota.

It is not yet known which countries will practice in this part of the state — there will be three pre-tournament host sites in northern Minnesota, as well — but either the U.S. or Canada will be in the southern part of the state. The teams staging in Rochester and Mankato will be determined next November. They are expected to travel back and forth between those two cities to play their pre-tournament exhibition games.

The last time the WJC was held in Minnesota, in December of 1981 and January of 1982, Rochester hosted the de facto gold medal game, a 3-3 tie between Canada and what was then Czechoslovakia, on Jan. 2, 1982. At that time, the WJC was an eight-team round-robin tournament, with each team playing the other seven teams once. The tie in Rochester gave Canada a 6-0-1 final record, and 13 points, edging Czechoslovakia, which finished as the silver medalist with a 5-1-1 record. Finland won the bronze and the U.S. placed sixth.

Forty-two years later, Rec Center manager Caryn Rooney and Matt Esau, the Executive Director of Rochester Sports, have worked closely with Minnesota Sports and Events — the Minneapolis-based organization that worked on the bid to bring the WJC to Minnesota — to ensure the WJC returns to Rochester and that the Rec Center meets the International Ice Hockey Federation's requirements.

The two teams that stage at the Rec Center will move into the arena for a 10-day stretch in mid-December next year, from Dec. 14-24. One of the teams is expected to use the Rochester Grizzlies' locker room while the other will take over one bank of four smaller rooms on the east side of the Rec Center's ice level. Among the upgrades expected for those locker rooms will be the installation of permanent individual storage units that will remain in place for local high school and youth players to use when they practice or play at the Rec Center.

Potential U.S. team members

Players are eligible to compete for their country if their 20th birthday falls in or after the year in which the tournament ends; in this case, players who were born in 2006 or later will be eligible.

Here's a look at some of the top U.S. players who could be on the U.S. roster for the 2026 WJC, with hometown, college team and draft status in parentheses:

Defensemen — John Whipple (Morristown, N.J.; University of Minnesota; Detroit Red Wings 2024 5th-round pick); Logan Hensler (Woodbury, Minn.; University of Wisconsin; potential 2025 first-round NHL draft pick); Adam Kleber (Chaska, Minn.; Minnesota Duluth; Buffalo Sabres 2024 2nd-round pick); Cole Hutson (North Barrington, Ill.; Boston University; Washington Capitals 2024 2nd-round pick); E.J. Emery (University of North Dakota; New York Rangers 2024 1st-round pick); Tory Pitner (Greenwich, Ct.; University of Denver; Colorado Avalanche 2024 6th-round pick).

Forwards —
Max Plante (Hermantown, Minn.; University of Minnesota Duluth; Detroit Red Wings 2024 2nd-round pick); LJ Mooney (West Mifflin, Pa.; University of Minnesota; potential 2025 first-round NHL draft pick); Brodie Ziemer (Carver, Minn.; University of Minnesota; Buffalo Sabres 2024 3rd-round pick); Mac Swanson (Anchorage, Alaska; University of North Dakota; Pittsburgh Penguins 2024 7th-round draft pick); Cole Eiserman (Newburyport, Mass.; Boston U.; N.Y. Islanders 2024 1st-round pick); James Hagens (Hauppauge, N.Y.; Boston College; potential 2025 first-round NHL draft pick); AJ Spellacy (Westlake, Ohio; Windsor Spitfires, OHL; Chicago Blackhawks 2024 3rd-round pick); Teddy Stiga (Sudbury, Mass.; Boston College; Nashville Predators 2024 2nd-round pick); Cullen Potter (Hortonville, Wis.; Arizona State University; 2025 draft eligible; son of former U.S. Olympic gold-medal winner Jenny Potter).

Goalie — Nick Kempf (Morton Grove, Ill.; Notre Dame; Washington Capitals 2024 4th-round pick); Jack Parsons (Ithaca, N.Y.; Providence College; undrafted).