Report: World Junior Championships cancelled!

UPDATE: It's now official, the 2022 World Junior Championships has been cancelled.

What an absolute preventable shame. Shame on the IIHF for mishandling things so badly.

For our earlier report on this developing story, read below.

This just in, according to insider Chris Peters, the World Junior Championships has been cancelled due to an outbreak in positive COVID-19 cases amongst players and a rash of cancelled and forfeited games.

UPDATE: TSN insider Bob McKenzie is now confirming Peters' report.

More to come including official confirmation.

Yesterday team USA was forced to forfeit their game against Switzerland after two players tested positive for COVID-19 and their entire team was forced into quarantine. Today Russia was forced to forfeit their game against Slovakia for the same reasons, ditto for Czechia against Finland.

Now, the IIHF has decided apparently to nix the entire tournament... over half a dozen positive cases from asymptomatic players. I mean... there's got to be a better solution, no? Is the IIHF this blindsided by positive test cases? They had to have known that this was a possibility and have a contingency plan that prevents an outright cancellation? Well... evidently not. Such a sad state of affairs...

I literally cannot believe this is happening... but then again how many times have I said that to myself in 2020 and 2021?

This was an entirely predictable outcome and if the IIHF wasn't prepared to "push through" a rash of positive test cases, then the entire tournament should have been held in a bubble like it was in 2020/2021. You may recall that last year the tournament ran without a hitch while the players quarantined themselves in hotels, restaurants and Edmonton's Rogers Place. This year the IIHF elected to open things back up a bit and... well here we are. Again, entirely predictable. If the IIHF wasn't prepared to deal with a number of positive test cases then they either should have run this entire tournament in a bubble or they should have outright cancelled or postponed it. It's clear to me that there was a ridiculous lack of foresight and now the IIHF is scrambling to get things under control... in the end it's hockey fans who pay the ultimate price. So tired of this...