It’s getting to be that time of year again. The World Junior Hockey Tournament is (in our humble opinion) one of our favorite hockey tournaments of the year.
The 2018 IIH World Junior championship is the 42nd World Junior Championship, this year hosted in Buffalo New York.
Each year, the gear in the tournament gets better and better. We’ve got a couple huge storylines, including “Which set will USA Goalie Jake Oettinger wear for the tournament?” and a few early looks at some Bauer 2S setups that will blow your mind.
Without further ado, we’d like to introduce our first annual World Junior Gear tracker!
2018 World Junior Hockey Tournament Gear Tracker
There are two groups in the World Junior tournament for 2018 (as always). As rosters are finalized and each teams goalies are announced, we’ll come back to update this post.
If you think we’re missing something, send us a DM on Instagram.
Here are the teams in the 2018 World Junior Hockey Tournament.
| Group A | Group B |
|---|---|
| United States (USA) | Russia (RUS) |
| Canada (CAN) | Sweden (SWE) |
| Denmark (DEN) | Czech Republic (CZE) |
| Slovakia (SVK) | Switzerland (SUI) |
| Finland (FIN) | Belarus (BLR) |
Group A Teams and Goalies
An incredibly tough group with the USA, Canada and Finland, can the USA repeat a championship from last year’s tournament? Regardless of whether or not the USA can pull it off, the style competition in this group is getting heated.
Canada
Canada has an incredible tandem between the pipes this year in Colton Point and Carter Hart. Both property of NHL Clubs (Dallas and Philadelphia, respectively), this is going to be a tough team to beat.
1- Colton Point’s Bauer 2S Pads
I love them. I absolutely love it. Bauer has stole the show at this year’s tournament and it’s not even started. Instagram lost it’s mind when this gear was dropped (and we’ll be seeing a lot more of it).
2- Carter Hart
Although Hart wore a set of Vaughn V7 gear as recently as this summer during Philadelphia’s development camp, he made the switch back to CCM for this season. He will wear a set of CCM E-Flex 3 pads during this tournament, with a Bauer 960 XMP bucket. A fun note on that, since cat eye masks are not allowed in the WHL (they can be worn in IIHF play) he will stick to a straight bar cage for the tournament.
Hart dominated last season in the WHL upon return from this tournament, he has incredible stats this season (great story on his stats here) and is one of my favorite goalie prospects.
United States
If Group A has anything going for it, it’s a plethora of extra elite level talent (the entire tournament does, it’s a must watch). USA has a couple of studs between the pipes in Jake Oettinger, Jeremy Swayman and Joseph Woll.
1- Jake Oettinger’s Bauer Set
Actually, he has been caught wearing a couple of different sets in pre-tournament practice. The second post here has his second set.
HUGE storyline of the tournament. What gear will he wear?
2- Jeremy Swayman
Swayman is a CCM goalie at the University of Maine and will not change brands for the tournament. He does, however, break out a custom set of USA themed CCM E-Flex 3 gear.
3- Joseph Woll
Woll, a Vaughn goalie, will stick with Vaughn for the 2018 World Junior Tournament. Vaughn gear is not branded for international play. During the regular season, Woll wear’s an awesome eagle themed bucket at Boston College. Hopefully he debuts a similar mask during this tournament.
Denmark
1- Emil Gransøe
Emil wears Bauer Vapor 1X gear, nothing changed for the tournament. For the most part, goalies who debut special gear for the tournament come from the US, Canada, Russia, Sweden and Finland. Though, this year we do not see special gear for Team Finland.
2- Mads Søgaard
3- Kasper Krog
Slovakia
1- Roman Durný
Durny is wearing CCM Premier 2 for this tournament, all white as pictured here.
2- Jakub Kostelný
3- Dávid Hrenák
Hrenak has wore a set of CCM Premier 2 pads since his time with the USHL’s Green Bay Gamblers and he will stick with his college gear for this tournament. SCSU’s colors are black and red and the set looks just fine with the Slovakia colors.
Finland
1- Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen
Luukkonen will stay with the same E Flex 3 set he wears during his regular season. It’s the best color clash in the tournament and actually isn’t terrible to look at.
2- Lassi Lehtinen
3- Niilo Halonen
Group B Teams and Goalies
Russia
1- Vladislav Sukhachyov
2- Mikhail Berdin
3- Alexei Melnichuk
Sweden
1- Filip Larsson
Larsson is wearing Bauer 2S pads for the tournament, a switch from the CCM E-Flex 3 pads he wears with his USHL team, the Tri City Storm. Scroll all the way to the right for his setup here.
2- Filip Gustavsson
The first Bauer Vapor 1X setup that’s been released with Bauer’s Digital Printing. Classy look and I love the subtle changes in Blue behind the Tre Kronor (Three Crowns).
3- Olle Eriksson Ek
Czech Republic
1- Jakub Škarek
Skarek stays with the CCM Premier II pads he wears with HC Dukla Jihlava in the Czech league.
2- Josef Korenar
Korenar, a recent entree level contract signee with the San Jose Sharks, will wear a blue E-Flex 3 set for the tournament. Josef Korenar signed with the Sharks after spending time in the USHL during the 2016/17 season.
He currently plays with HC Benatky nad Jizerou in the Czech league.
3- Milan Kloucek
Switzerland
Belarus
1- Dmitri Rodik
2- Andrei Grischenko
Team Belarus will need to lean heavily on Grischenko to prevent being relegated during the 2018 tournament. Two teams will not make the medal rounds and face off with the loser relegated to Division 1A.
3- Nikita Tolopilo
