World U-17 Hockey Challenge

Not to be confused with IIHF World U20 Championship or IIHF World U18 Championship.

World U-17 Hockey Challenge

Upcoming season or competition: 2025 World U-17 Hockey Challenge
Sport	Ice hockey
First season	1986
Most recent champion(s)	Canada White
Most titles	Canada Ontario (8)
Sponsor(s)	Hockey Canada
Related competitions	Canadian Junior Hockey League World Junior A Challenge
Official website	World U-17 Hockey Challenge

The World U-17 Hockey Challenge, originally known as the Quebec Esso Cup, is an international ice hockey tournament held annually in Canada. Prior to 2011, ^{[note 1]} the tournament did not operate during years in which the Canada Winter Games were held. As such, the World Under-17 Challenge was held three out of every four years. It is organized by Hockey Canada and is the first major international competition for male hockey players under the age of 17. The tournament is the first step in Hockey Canada's Program of Excellence and is used to identify players moving on to the U18 and National Junior Team.

Origins

The inaugural World Under-17 Hockey Challenge took place in Quebec as the 1986 Quebec Esso Cup. At the time, it was considered the unofficial world championship of midget hockey. It was also used as a development tool for the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association to identify players for further development as well as expose them to their first taste of international competition. The tournament was among ten teams, five regional teams from Canada, Finland, Czechoslovakia, the United States, Sweden, and the Soviet Union. Team Quebec, led by future NHL first overall pick Pierre Turgeon captured gold by defeating the Soviets, who featured the likes of Sergei Fedorov and Alexander Mogilny.

Prior to November 2014, the tournament was held from late December through to early January. Originally, Canada would field five teams, selected on a regional basis.

Current tournament

The World Under-17 Hockey Challenge has continued to grow over the years to the point where it is perhaps the largest annual event administered under Hockey Canada's own auspices. Although the tournament is not sanctioned by the IIHF, it attracts U17 teams from the United States, Sweden, and Russia on an annual basis and Czech Republic, Finland, and Slovakia on a semi-annual basis.

The tournament is currently held in November of each year.

Participating teams

Canada enters three teams each year. Prior to November 2014, Canada entered five regional teams

Other participating nations have included:

•   United States
•   Finland
•   Russia
•   Sweden
•   Slovakia
•   Czech Republic
•   Germany
•   Soviet Union (now defunct)
•   Czechoslovakia (now defunct)

Results

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Host city (cities)
1986	Canada Quebec	Soviet Union	Canada Pacific	Quebec City
1988	Soviet Union	Sweden	Canada Quebec	Quebec City
1990	Finland	Canada Quebec	Soviet Union	Quebec City
1991	The ice hockey tournament at the 1991 Canada Games was held in place of a 1991 tournament.
1992	Canada Ontario	Canada Quebec	Czechoslovakia	Sudbury
1994	Canada Quebec	United States	Canada Pacific	Amos
1995	Canada Ontario	Finland	Canada Quebec	Moncton
1997	Canada Ontario	Sweden	Canada Quebec	Red Deer
1998 I [note 2]	Canada Ontario	Czech Republic	Canada Quebec	Kitchener
1998 II [note 2]	Canada West	United States	Finland	Swift Current
1999	The ice hockey tournament at the 1999 Canada Games was held in place of a 1999 tournament.
2000	Russia	Canada Ontario	Canada Pacific	Timmins / Chapleau / Cochrane / Haileybury / Hearst / Kapuskasing / Kirkland Lake / New Liskeard / Smooth Rock Falls / Rouyn-Noranda
2001	United States	Canada Pacific	Canada Ontario	New Glasgow / Truro
2002	United States	Canada Pacific	Canada Ontario	Selkirk / Stonewall
2003	The ice hockey tournament at the 2003 Canada Games was held in place of a 2003 tournament.
2004	Canada Ontario	Canada Pacific	Canada Quebec	St. John's
2005	Canada West	Canada Pacific	Canada Atlantic	Lethbridge
2006	Canada Quebec	United States	Czech Republic	Balgonie / Fort Qu'Appelle / Indian Head / Milestone / Moose Jaw / Regina / Southey / Weyburn
2007	The ice hockey tournament at the 2007 Canada Winter Games was held in place of a 2007 tournament.
2008	Canada Ontario	United States	Canada West	London / Lucan / St. Thomas / Stratford / Strathroy / Woodstock
2009	Canada Ontario	Canada Pacific	United States	Campbell River / Courtenay / Duncan / Nanaimo / Parksville / Port Alberni
2010	United States	Canada Ontario	Sweden	Timmins / Iroquois Falls / Cochrane / Kapuskasing / Kirkland Lake / New Liskeard
2011 [note 1]	Canada Ontario	United States	Canada Pacific	Winnipeg and Portage la Prairie
2012	Russia	United States	Canada Ontario	Windsor
2013	Sweden	Russia	United States	Drummondville and Victoriaville
2014 (Jan.)	United States	Canada Pacific	Russia	(Sydney/North Sydney/Port Hawkesbury)
2014 (Nov.)	Russia	United States	Sweden	Sarnia and Lambton Shores
2015	Canada White	Russia	Sweden	Dawson Creek and Fort St. John
2016	Sweden	Canada Black	Russia	Sault Ste. Marie
2017	United States	Canada Red	Czech Republic	Dawson Creek and Fort St. John
2018	Russia	Finland	Sweden	Saint John and Quispamsis
2019	Russia	United States	Czech Republic	Medicine Hat and Swift Current
2020	Tournament cancelled due to coronavirus pandemic. [1]			Charlottetown and Summerside
2021	Tournament cancelled due to coronavirus pandemic.			Charlottetown and Summerside
2022	United States	Canada Red	Finland	Langley and Delta
2023	Canada White	United States	Sweden	Charlottetown and Summerside
2024	Canada White	Canada Red	Sweden	Sarnia
2025				Truro

Medal table

Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Medals
Canada Ontario	8	2	3	13
United States	6	9	2	17
Russia   Soviet Union	5 1 6	2 1 3	2 1 3	9 3 12
Canada Quebec	3	2	5	10
Canada White	3	0	0	3
Sweden	2	2	6	10
Canada West	2	0	1	3
Finland	1	2	2	5
Canada Pacific	0	6	4	10
Canada Red	0	3	0	3
Czech Republic   Czechoslovakia	0 0 0	1 0 1	3 1 4	4 1 5
Canada Black	0	1	0	1
Canada Atlantic	0	0	1	1

Medals by Nations (1986–2024)

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Canada  (CAN)	16	14	14	44
2	United States  (USA)	6	9	2	17
3	Russia  (RUS)	6	3	3	12
4	Sweden  (SWE)	2	2	6	10
5	Finland  (FIN)	1	2	2	5
6	Czech Republic  (CZE)	0	1	4	5
Totals (6 entries)		31	31	31	93

Notable participants

In bold, players selected first overall in the NHL entry draft

Pierre Turgeon, Team Quebec, 1986 Sergei Fedorov, Team USSR, 1986 Alexander Mogilny, Team USSR, 1986 Joe Sakic, Team Pacific, 1986 Jeremy Roenick, Team USA, 1986 Pavel Bure, Team Soviet Union, 1988 Mats Sundin, Team Sweden, 1988 Jere Lehtinen, Team Finland, 1990 Sami Kapanen, Team Finland, 1990 Martin Lapointe, Team Quebec, 1990 Nikolai Khabibulin, Team USSR, 1990 Chris Gratton, Team Ontario, 1992 Ethan Moreau, Team Ontario, 1992 Todd Harvey, Team Ontario, 1992 Jamie Storr, Team Ontario, 1992 Alexandre Daigle, Team Quebec, 1992 Éric Dazé, Team Quebec, 1992 Jocelyn Thibault, Team Quebec, 1992 Radek Bonk, Team Czechoslovakia, 1992

Viktor Kozlov, Team USSR, 1992 Adam Deadmarsh, Team Pacific, 1992 Darcy Tucker, Team Pacific, 1992 Niklas Sundström, Team Sweden, 1992 Daniel Brière, Team Quebec, 1994 Jean-Sébastien Giguère, Team Quebec, 1994 Jarome Iginla, Team Pacific, 1994 Brad Larsen, Team Pacific, 1994 Bryan Berard, Team USA, 1994 Joe Thornton, Team Ontario, 1995 Roberto Luongo, Team Quebec, 1995 Patrick Marleau, Team West, 1995 Brian Gionta, Team USA, 1995 Scott Gomez, Team USA, 1995 Martin Hyun, Team Germany, 1995 Sascha Goc, Team Germany, 1995 Mika Noronen, Team Finland, 1995 Vincent Lecavalier, Team Quebec, 1996 David Legwand, Team USA, 1996

Duncan Keith, Team Pacific, 2000 Ilya Kovalchuk, Team Russia, 2000 Joni Pitkänen, Team Finland, 2000 Ryan Kesler, Team USA, 2001 Alexander Ovechkin, Team Russia, 2002 Jack Johnson, Team USA, 2004 Phil Kessel, Team USA, 2004 Jonathan Toews, Team West, 2005 Erik Johnson, Team USA, 2005 Patrick Kane, Team USA, 2005 Taylor Hall, Team Ontario, 2008 Aaron Ekblad, Team Ontario, 2012 Bo Horvat, Team Ontario, 2012 Auston Matthews, Team USA, 2014 Mitch Marner, Team Ontario, 2014 Matthew Tkachuk, Team USA, 2014 Andrei Svechnikov, Team Russia, 2015 Brady Tkachuk, Team USA, 2015 Jack Hughes, Team USA, 2017

See also

• World Junior A Challenge
• IIHF World U20 Championship
• IIHF World U18 Championship

Notes

1. The ice hockey tournament at the 2011 Canada Games was supposed be held in place of a 2011 tournament. This is no longer true. The Canada Games tourney is now for U16 players, which will be played at the 2011 Games in Halifax. The U17 tournament will be played as planned in Winnipeg and Portage la Prairie, Manitoba. The female U18s nationals is off this year due to the Canada Games, but not the men.
2. Split events were held in 1998

References

1. "Hockey Canada statement on 2020 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge, presented by TELUS". Hockey Canada.

External links

• World U-17 Hockey Challenge