The world juniors are about to begin. Why isn't there a women's world junior tournament?
Women's under-18 world championship set for January, but there's no under-20 tourney for women
Inside an arena in Tampere, Finland in mid-December, future top PWHL draft prospects faced off in a tournament final.
At the Women's Euro Hockey Tour (or Six Nations Tournament), the Canadians faced an American roster stacked with senior national team talent, including Lacey Eden, Abbey Murphy, Caroline Harvey and Laila Edwards.
A Canadian squad with less international experience stuck in the game until the final minutes, when the Americans pulled ahead on a Murphy goal for an eventual 5-3 win. Canadian goaltender Ève Gascon had 33 saves in the loss, putting up a performance her coach described as "phenomenal."
"Not necessarily the results against the U.S. that we were hoping for, but we are super proud of our team's performances throughout the course of the tournament," Canadian national development team head coach Alison Domenico said in an interview with CBC Sports.
"In that last game alone to kind of come back, being down a couple, it could have been easy to pack it in."
Even though several players on both sides of that final are likely to be high draft picks in the PWHL within the next few years, the tournament wasn't broadcast in Canada, nor was it streamed by Hockey Canada.
While many Canadians will watch top NHL prospects at the world junior hockey championship for men under 20, which begins on Dec. 26, there's no world championship for women of the same age.
There's a world championship for women under 18, which will take place in Finland in January and is broadcast nationally on TSN.
But there are few international opportunities between that tournament and the senior national team, creating a development gap as women aim to reach the highest level of the sport.
For fans, it also means fewer opportunities to see and get excited about future PWHL stars. Most will go from the under-18 tournament to play in the NCAA, but those games aren't always easy to find in Canada, either.
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Earlier this year, the IIHF said a women's world junior championship is on the horizon, but isn't likely to happen for several years, the Canadian Press reported.
Growing the player pool
In Europe, the problem is that there aren't enough female players to fill teams on the under-18 side, a senior national team and another age group in between, according to Mike Helber, the director of hockey operations for the Swedish Ice Hockey Association.
"What will end up happening is that our best players will play at least in two of the tournaments, maybe even all three," Helber said in an interview with CBC Sports.
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On the flip side, it's difficult for players to develop without opportunities to play against top players. Helber's goal is to increase the number of Swedish players between the ages of 19 and 24, and to get more of those players coming to North America for college.
Those players grow playing against top Canadian and American prospects, and bring what they learn back to Sweden when they return to their national team, Helber said.
"We need to get more players over towards North America to see how good the players actually are," said Helber, an American who played collegiate hockey at the University of Michigan. "They're shocked at times."
Once the player pool grows, Helber would be open to seeing a world championship for college-aged players.
In the meantime, he still wants to see Swedish players getting opportunities to compete against other countries.
He liked the format of the Six Nations tournament, and is also looking for opportunities for the Swedish team to compete against American college teams.
"They need to see the level that North American athletes play at," he said. "The best way to do that is to find ways to play against them."
Spotlight on future PWHL talent
Countries weren't limited to sending players of a certain age to the Six Nations tournament. The PWHL took a break during the tournament but most European PWHL players opted to stay with their club teams, with a few exceptions, like Boston Fleet goaltender Emma Söderberg (Sweden).
Like the United States, Canada sent its development team, which has only a handful of opportunities to compete each year. The team also played a three-game series against the Americans this past summer, which the U.S. won two games to one.
Some players on the development team could be a big part of Canada's senior national team at the 2030 Olympics and beyond, including defender Nicole Gosling, who won a world championship with the senior team in April, and Caitlin Kraemer, Canada's all-time leading goal-scorer at the women's under-18 world championship.
With no in-between world championship for those players, it's important to find ways to keep getting them international experience, Domenico said.
"Any way we can get them playing other countries and even just getting used to going overseas, getting the jet lag plan," she said. "Going through all of those experiences are really important when you get to that next level."
For the PWHL, there could be a few benefits to having the best up-and-coming college-aged players competing against each other.
It could help teams scout prospects. It could also help introduce a player like Kraemer to more fans before she gets drafted into the PWHL, just like a world junior tournament has done for top young players like Macklin Celebrini or Connor Bedard.
"The PWHL is supportive of the development of women's hockey at all levels, which includes events that would provide greater opportunities for player development and that continue to grow the game globally," the league's senior vice-president of hockey operations, Jayna Hefford, told CBC Sports.
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