The world’s juniors are about to begin. Why not hold the World Junior Championships?

Inside an arena in Tampere, Finland in mid-December, the best future PWHL draft candidates faced off in a tournament final.

On the Women’s European Hockey Tour (or Six Nations Championship), the Canadians faced an American roster loaded with national team talent, including Lacey Eden, Abby Murphy, Caroline Harvey and Layla Edwards.

The Canadian team with less international experience remained stuck in the game until the final minutes, when the Americans took the lead on a Murphy goal for an eventual 5-3 win. Canadian goalkeeper Eve Gascón made 33 saves in the loss, putting in a performance her coach described as “exceptional.”

“It’s not necessarily the results we were hoping for against the United States, but we’re very proud of our team’s performance throughout the tournament,” Allison Domenico, head coach of the Canadian National Development Team, said in an interview with CBC Sports.

“That last game we came back on our own, down by two, it could have been easy to overcome.”

Although many of the players on both sides of this final were likely high draft picks in the PWHL over the next few years, the tournament was not broadcast in Canada, nor was it broadcast by Hockey Canada.

While many Canadians will be watching the NHL’s top prospects at the U20 Men’s World Junior Hockey Championship, which begins Dec. 26, there is no world championship for women of the same age.

There’s the Women’s Under-18 World Championship, which will be held in Finland in January and broadcast nationally on TSN.

But there are few international opportunities between that tournament and the senior national team, creating a development gap as women aim to reach the highest level in the sport.

For fans, it also means fewer opportunities to see and get excited about future PWHL stars. Most will move on from the Under-18 tournament to play in the NCAA, but those games aren’t always easy to find in Canada either.

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Earlier this year, FIFA said a women’s world junior championship was on the horizon, but was unlikely to happen for several years, the Canadian Press reported.

The player pool is growing

In Europe, the problem is that there are not enough female players to fill out squads in the under-18 team, the senior national team, and the other age group in between, according to Mike Helper, director of hockey operations at Swedish Ice Hockey. organized.

“What will happen in the end is that our best players will play in at least two of the tournaments, maybe even all three,” Helper said in an interview with CBC Sports.

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On the other hand, it is difficult for players to develop without having opportunities to play against the best players. Helper’s goal is to increase the number of Swedish players between the ages of 19 and 24, and to attract more of those players coming to North America to attend college.

These players grow playing against the best Canadian and American players, and bring what they’ve learned to Sweden when they return to their national team, Helper said.

“We need to get more players to North America to see how good the players really are,” said Helper, an American who played collegiate hockey at the University of Michigan. “They are shocked sometimes.”

Once the number of players grows, Helper would be open to seeing a world championship for college-age players.

In the meantime, he still wants to see Swedish players get opportunities to compete against other countries.

He likes the format of the Six Nations, and is also looking for opportunities for the Swedish team to compete against American college teams.

“They need to see the level at which North American athletes are playing,” he said. “The best way to do that is to find ways to play against them.”

Highlighting future PWHL talent

Countries were not limited to sending players of a certain age to the Six Nations. The PWHL took a break during the tournament but most European PWHL players chose to remain with their club teams, with a few exceptions, such as Boston Fleet goaltender Emma Söderberg (Sweden).

As with the United States, Canada fielded its own development team, which only has a handful of opportunities to compete each year. The team also played a three-game series against the Americans last summer, with the USA winning two games to one.

Some of the players on the development squad could form a big part of Canada’s national team in the 2030 Olympics and beyond, including defender Nicole Gosling, who won a world championship with the senior team in April, and Kaitlyn Creamer, Canada’s all-time leading scorer at the U18 Women’s World Championship.

With no world championship among these players, it is important to find ways to continue gaining international experience, Domenico said.

“Any way we can get them to play with other countries and even get used to traveling abroad and having a jet lag plan,” she said. “Getting through all of those experiences is really important when you get to the next level.”

For the PWHL, there could be some benefit to having the best up-and-coming college-age players competing against each other.

It can help teams explore prospects. It could also help introduce a player like Kramer to more fans before she is drafted to the PWHL, just as the World Junior Championship did for top young players like Macklin Celebrini or Connor Bedard.

“The PWHL supports the development of women’s hockey at all levels, which includes events that will provide greater player development opportunities and that continue to grow the game globally,” said Jayna Hayford, league vice president of hockey operations. CBC Sports.