The annual IIHF World Junior Championship is a great tournament, arguably the second-best in sports behind the Stanley Cup playoffs. In addition to featuring some great hockey, past World Juniors have represented some big leaps forward in the development of several prominent Flames.
Here’s a snapshot at the World Junior history, and highlights, of the current Flames roster.
Gold medalists
There are four World Junior gold medalists in the Flames organization.
Joakim Nordstrom captured gold with Sweden in 2012, coincidentally enough in Calgary. Mika Zibanejad scored in overtime to win.
The next year, Johnny Gaudreau (who didn’t make Team USA in 2012) dominated the tournament in 2013 on route to gold.