To celebrate the 10th edition of the World Junior A Challenge, Hockey Canada will count down the top 10 alumni in WJAC history. Fans can have their say on who will be No. 1, so get your ballot in now!
This year marks the 10th edition of the World Junior A Challenge, and to celebrate the occasion Hockey Canada will be counting down the top 10 alumni in tournament history.
In addition to a Hockey Canada selection committee, fans will rank the alumni based on their careers since they played in the World Junior A Challenge. Alumni will be ranked from No. 1 to No. 10, with a first-place vote worth 10 points and a 10th-place vote worth one point. Ranking points will be added up to create the final top 10 list.
Fans are able to download the #10YearsofWJAC ballot, choose their top 10 and email it to wjac@hockeycanada.ca. The deadline for entries is 11:59 p.m. ET/8:59 p.m. PT on Sunday, Nov. 29.
Once all entries are received, one randomly-chosen entry will win a WJAC/Hockey Canada prize pack.
The World Junior A Challenge alumni list includes a number of the NHL’s top young players, including names like Turris, Tarasenko, Schwartz and Yakupov, among others.
Since the first World Junior A Challenge in 2006, more than 230 NHL draft picks have played in the tournament, including 32 first-round selections (Beau Bennett, Brock Boeser, Alexander Burmistrov, Joe Colborne, Kyle Connor, Nikolaj Ehlers, Nikita Filatov, Mikhail Grigorenko, Denis Guryanov, Dmitri Kulikov, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Elias Lindholm, Hampus Lindholm, John Moore, Vladislav Namestnikov, Riley Nash, Valeri Nichushkin, Dylan Olsen, David Pastrnak, Ilya Samsonov, Jordan Schmaltz, Nick Schmaltz, Jaden Schwartz, Brendan Smith, Evgeny Svechnikov, Vladimir Tarasenko, Kyle Turris, Alexander Wennberg, Andrei Vasilevski, Jakub Vrana, Nail Yakupov and Jakub Zboril).
Once the official top 10 list is finalized, the countdown will begin Thursday, Dec. 3, with one player per day unveiled at www.hockeycanada.ca/wjac. The No. 1 alumnus in World Junior A Challenge history will be announced on Saturday, Dec. 12, the day before the puck drops in Cobourg and Whitby, Ont.