2026 IIHF WJC Awards

[JimPavese]

IIHF Directorate Awards
Best Goalkeeper: Love Harenstam - Sweden
Best Defender: Adam Juricek - Czechia
Best Forward: Anton Frondell - Sweden

Media All-Star Team & MVP
Goalkeeper: Love Harenstam - Sweden
Defender: Zayne Parekh - Canada
Defender: Tomas Galvis - Czechia
Forward: Michael Hage - Canada
Forward: Anton Frondell - Sweden
Forward: Vojtech Cihar - Czechia
MVP: Vojtech Cihar - Czechia

[Rollin' on the River]

I don’t understand the love for Parekh personally.

Dude can wheel it, but his defensive game isn’t the best.

[a smell of green grass]

I don’t understand the love for Parekh personally.

Dude can wheel it, but his defensive game isn’t the best.

I wasn't that impressed with Parekh either. However, in fairness, he was +5 in plus/minus, and he was constantly involved in their offense.

When you look at the +/- leaders for the tournament, the players with the most positive statistics were the most impressive I think.

I think that the Jiricek love is a little over-hyped. His plus/minus score was zero. A lot of people mentioned him, so maybe the STATS lie. Good for him and the Blues, obviously.

[Jeff Goldblum]

He got voted best defender by the tournament chairs, but he is over-hyped. LOL

[BleedingBleu]

He got voted best defender by the tournament chairs, but he is over-hyped. LOL

+1

Never mind that sick game-winner

[STL fan in MN]

With Jecho and Kos injured, the Blues ended up with only 2 players in the tourney this season and both took 2 of the 3 Directorate Awards. That’s pretty (bleep) good!

Love was good the entire tournament. He’s a legit NHL goalie prospect. Great find late in the draft. My son plays goalie as a Squirt so he gravitated to Love and we ended up rooting for Sweden in this tourney (see pic below).

Jiricek was also very good in this tourney. I would’ve voted for Parekh as top d-man but there’s no denying Parekh’s actual defensive play is quite suspect. He’s going to be the type of player where his team hopes his offense is so good it makes up for the bad defense. Sort of like a Karlsson type.

But back to Jiricek, he was more solid defensively than I’ve seen of him a lot the last couple seasons. Even in the OHL this season, he’s been hit and miss defensively but he was quite solid in this WJC. I see a future #2-3 d-man most likely.

[callitwhatyouwant]

With Jecho and Kos injured, the Blues ended up with only 2 players in the tourney this season and both took 2 of the 3 Directorate Awards. That’s pretty (drat) good!

Love was good the entire tournament. He’s a legit NHL goalie prospect. Great find late in the draft. My son plays goalie as a Squirt so he gravitated to Love and we ended up rooting for Sweden in this tourney (see pic below).

Jiricek was also very good in this tourney. I would’ve voted for Parekh as top d-man but there’s no denying Parekh’s actual defensive play is quite suspect. He’s going to be the type of player where his team hopes his offense is so good it makes up for the bad defense. Sort of like a Karlsson type.

But back to Jiricek, he was more solid defensively than I’ve seen of him a lot the last couple seasons. Even in the OHL this season, he’s been hit and miss defensively but he was quite solid in this WJC. I see a future #2-3 d-man most likely.

Awesome to see you supporting the Blues out there. I imagine those tickets were fairly cheap? Crowds looked sparse which was a bummer. I only caught a few games on Fubo during the tourney but they were all Czechia or Sweden games. It looks like the Blues did well. Jiricek was always boom or bust but he looked to have a pretty good stick breaking up passes and jamming plays up a bit. It's a bummer the Blues didn't have their whole group of players that would have been selected there present because I think they might have gotten some legit national attention again.

Last year they had the most participation and people said, none of their players play for the strong teams. This year, they had 2 players in the finals and grab 2 of 3 awards. Pretty impressive. Shows that the scouting department is doing a good job. Whether or not development does it's job we will see.

I think keeping Faulk around next year to see if LM continues to grow is crucial. Hopefully can bring Lindstein up. If it seems like those guys development is pathing the right way, I think we could see Jiricek at the end of next year or to start 2 years from now and take over for Faulk.

[seattleblue]

With Jecho and Kos injured, the Blues ended up with only 2 players in the tourney this season and both took 2 of the 3 Directorate Awards. That’s pretty (drat) good!

Love was good the entire tournament. He’s a legit NHL goalie prospect. Great find late in the draft. My son plays goalie as a Squirt so he gravitated to Love and we ended up rooting for Sweden in this tourney (see pic below).

Jiricek was also very good in this tourney. I would’ve voted for Parekh as top d-man but there’s no denying Parekh’s actual defensive play is quite suspect. He’s going to be the type of player where his team hopes his offense is so good it makes up for the bad defense. Sort of like a Karlsson type.

But back to Jiricek, he was more solid defensively than I’ve seen of him a lot the last couple seasons. Even in the OHL this season, he’s been hit and miss defensively but he was quite solid in this WJC. I see a future #2-3 d-man most likely.

Awesome! I want the World Juniors to come to Seattle. I keep dropping little amusing comments about our upcoming Kelowna trip at the end of May, which is not a real thing until I get her to commit to the joke.

[STL fan in MN]

With Jecho and Kos injured, the Blues ended up with only 2 players in the tourney this season and both took 2 of the 3 Directorate Awards. That’s pretty (drat) good!

Love was good the entire tournament. He’s a legit NHL goalie prospect. Great find late in the draft. My son plays goalie as a Squirt so he gravitated to Love and we ended up rooting for Sweden in this tourney (see pic below).

Jiricek was also very good in this tourney. I would’ve voted for Parekh as top d-man but there’s no denying Parekh’s actual defensive play is quite suspect. He’s going to be the type of player where his team hopes his offense is so good it makes up for the bad defense. Sort of like a Karlsson type.

But back to Jiricek, he was more solid defensively than I’ve seen of him a lot the last couple seasons. Even in the OHL this season, he’s been hit and miss defensively but he was quite solid in this WJC. I see a future #2-3 d-man most likely.

Awesome to see you supporting the Blues out there. I imagine those tickets were fairly cheap? Crowds looked sparse which was a bummer. I only caught a few games on Fubo during the tourney but they were all Czechia or Sweden games. It looks like the Blues did well. Jiricek was always boom or bust but he looked to have a pretty good stick breaking up passes and jamming plays up a bit. It's a bummer the Blues didn't have their whole group of players that would have been selected there present because I think they might have gotten some legit national attention again.

Last year they had the most participation and people said, none of their players play for the strong teams. This year, they had 2 players in the finals and grab 2 of 3 awards. Pretty impressive. Shows that the scouting department is doing a good job. Whether or not development does it's job we will see.

I think keeping Faulk around next year to see if LM continues to grow is crucial. Hopefully can bring Lindstein up. If it seems like those guys development is pathing the right way, I think we could see Jiricek at the end of next year or to start 2 years from now and take over for Faulk.

The first 2 games I went to I had bought tickets months prior so I paid full price for those unfortunately. They still weren’t bad but more than they ended up going for on the resale market. But the other 2 games I went to were very cheap. I went to the semis for like $30. I considered going to the gold medal game since tickets plummeted to as low as $35 each once both the US and Canada were knocked out but I had gotten home from the semis the night before at 1am so was dead tired and just didn’t want to do that drive again so simply enjoyed both games on tv.

[Hockey Pete]

With Jecho and Kos injured, the Blues ended up with only 2 players in the tourney this season and both took 2 of the 3 Directorate Awards. That’s pretty (drat) good!

Love was good the entire tournament. He’s a legit NHL goalie prospect. Great find late in the draft. My son plays goalie as a Squirt so he gravitated to Love and we ended up rooting for Sweden in this tourney (see pic below).

Jiricek was also very good in this tourney. I would’ve voted for Parekh as top d-man but there’s no denying Parekh’s actual defensive play is quite suspect. He’s going to be the type of player where his team hopes his offense is so good it makes up for the bad defense. Sort of like a Karlsson type.

But back to Jiricek, he was more solid defensively than I’ve seen of him a lot the last couple seasons. Even in the OHL this season, he’s been hit and miss defensively but he was quite solid in this WJC. I see a future #2-3 d-man most likely.

Awesome to see you supporting the Blues out there. I imagine those tickets were fairly cheap? Crowds looked sparse which was a bummer. I only caught a few games on Fubo during the tourney but they were all Czechia or Sweden games. It looks like the Blues did well. Jiricek was always boom or bust but he looked to have a pretty good stick breaking up passes and jamming plays up a bit. It's a bummer the Blues didn't have their whole group of players that would have been selected there present because I think they might have gotten some legit national attention again.

Last year they had the most participation and people said, none of their players play for the strong teams. This year, they had 2 players in the finals and grab 2 of 3 awards. Pretty impressive. Shows that the scouting department is doing a good job. Whether or not development does it's job we will see.

I think keeping Faulk around next year to see if LM continues to grow is crucial. Hopefully can bring Lindstein up. If it seems like those guys development is pathing the right way, I think we could see Jiricek at the end of next year or to start 2 years from now and take over for Faulk.

The first 2 games I went to I had bought tickets months prior so I paid full price for those unfortunately. They still weren’t bad but more than they ended up going for on the resale market. But the other 2 games I went to were very cheap. I went to the semis for like $30. I considered going to the gold medal game since tickets plummeted to as low as $35 each once both the US and Canada were knocked out but I had gotten home from the semis the night before at 1am so was dead tired and just didn’t want to do that drive again so simply enjoyed both games on tv.

Dude. let's talk about that sign... Solid work there.

[dhsux]

With Jecho and Kos injured, the Blues ended up with only 2 players in the tourney this season and both took 2 of the 3 Directorate Awards. That’s pretty (drat) good!

Love was good the entire tournament. He’s a legit NHL goalie prospect. Great find late in the draft. My son plays goalie as a Squirt so he gravitated to Love and we ended up rooting for Sweden in this tourney (see pic below).

Jiricek was also very good in this tourney. I would’ve voted for Parekh as top d-man but there’s no denying Parekh’s actual defensive play is quite suspect. He’s going to be the type of player where his team hopes his offense is so good it makes up for the bad defense. Sort of like a Karlsson type.

But back to Jiricek, he was more solid defensively than I’ve seen of him a lot the last couple seasons. Even in the OHL this season, he’s been hit and miss defensively but he was quite solid in this WJC. I see a future #2-3 d-man most likely.

Awesome to see you supporting the Blues out there. I imagine those tickets were fairly cheap? Crowds looked sparse which was a bummer. I only caught a few games on Fubo during the tourney but they were all Czechia or Sweden games. It looks like the Blues did well. Jiricek was always boom or bust but he looked to have a pretty good stick breaking up passes and jamming plays up a bit. It's a bummer the Blues didn't have their whole group of players that would have been selected there present because I think they might have gotten some legit national attention again.

Last year they had the most participation and people said, none of their players play for the strong teams. This year, they had 2 players in the finals and grab 2 of 3 awards. Pretty impressive. Shows that the scouting department is doing a good job. Whether or not development does it's job we will see.

I think keeping Faulk around next year to see if LM continues to grow is crucial. Hopefully can bring Lindstein up. If it seems like those guys development is pathing the right way, I think we could see Jiricek at the end of next year or to start 2 years from now and take over for Faulk.

The first 2 games I went to I had bought tickets months prior so I paid full price for those unfortunately. They still weren’t bad but more than they ended up going for on the resale market. But the other 2 games I went to were very cheap. I went to the semis for like $30. I considered going to the gold medal game since tickets plummeted to as low as $35 each once both the US and Canada were knocked out but I had gotten home from the semis the night before at 1am so was dead tired and just didn’t want to do that drive again so simply enjoyed both games on tv.

Dude. let's talk about that sign... Solid work there.

Very cool!

[STL fan in MN]

With Jecho and Kos injured, the Blues ended up with only 2 players in the tourney this season and both took 2 of the 3 Directorate Awards. That’s pretty (drat) good!

Love was good the entire tournament. He’s a legit NHL goalie prospect. Great find late in the draft. My son plays goalie as a Squirt so he gravitated to Love and we ended up rooting for Sweden in this tourney (see pic below).

Jiricek was also very good in this tourney. I would’ve voted for Parekh as top d-man but there’s no denying Parekh’s actual defensive play is quite suspect. He’s going to be the type of player where his team hopes his offense is so good it makes up for the bad defense. Sort of like a Karlsson type.

But back to Jiricek, he was more solid defensively than I’ve seen of him a lot the last couple seasons. Even in the OHL this season, he’s been hit and miss defensively but he was quite solid in this WJC. I see a future #2-3 d-man most likely.

Awesome to see you supporting the Blues out there. I imagine those tickets were fairly cheap? Crowds looked sparse which was a bummer. I only caught a few games on Fubo during the tourney but they were all Czechia or Sweden games. It looks like the Blues did well. Jiricek was always boom or bust but he looked to have a pretty good stick breaking up passes and jamming plays up a bit. It's a bummer the Blues didn't have their whole group of players that would have been selected there present because I think they might have gotten some legit national attention again.

Last year they had the most participation and people said, none of their players play for the strong teams. This year, they had 2 players in the finals and grab 2 of 3 awards. Pretty impressive. Shows that the scouting department is doing a good job. Whether or not development does it's job we will see.

I think keeping Faulk around next year to see if LM continues to grow is crucial. Hopefully can bring Lindstein up. If it seems like those guys development is pathing the right way, I think we could see Jiricek at the end of next year or to start 2 years from now and take over for Faulk.

The first 2 games I went to I had bought tickets months prior so I paid full price for those unfortunately. They still weren’t bad but more than they ended up going for on the resale market. But the other 2 games I went to were very cheap. I went to the semis for like $30. I considered going to the gold medal game since tickets plummeted to as low as $35 each once both the US and Canada were knocked out but I had gotten home from the semis the night before at 1am so was dead tired and just didn’t want to do that drive again so simply enjoyed both games on tv.

Dude. let's talk about that sign... Solid work there.

Ha! He may have gotten help from dad with the Tre Kronor…

[John Cocktoastin]

Good stuff, Pierre. Glad you were able to enjoy it with your son!

[Pierre McGuire]

Good stuff, Pierre. Glad you were able to enjoy it with your son!

Twasn’t me.

[John Cocktoastin]

Good stuff, Pierre. Glad you were able to enjoy it with your son!

Twasn’t me.

Shoot.

Good stuff, anyway!