World Juniors 2026 schedule, scores & standings
- Games played
- 29/29
- Teams
- 10
- Home wins
- 62%
- Avg goals
- 8
Every game below has a win probability (overtime and shootout included), a projected score and lines for the puck line and total goals; where bookmakers price a game, the pick leans toward their consensus.
Next games
Full scheduleNo World Juniors games scheduled in the next seven days.
How the World Juniors work
The IIHF World Junior Championship, the World Juniors, is the under-20 world championship, played every year over the holidays: it starts around 26 December and ends with the final on 5 January. Ten national teams are split into two groups of five, and each team plays the other four of its group once. A regulation win is worth three points, a win after overtime or a shootout two and a loss after overtime or a shootout one.
The top four of each group reach the quarter-finals, where the group winners meet the fourth-placed teams of the other group. From there it is single knockout games: semi-finals, the bronze game and the final. The bottom of the groups play to stay in the top division.
What decides World Juniors games
Every roster is new each year: players must be under 20, so most of them play two tournaments at most, and a team that won last year can look very different. The best prospects often play in the NHL, the AHL or the European top leagues, and whether their clubs release them changes a team a lot.
The tournament is played in one host country, and the home crowd matters when the host plays; for every other game there is no home ice. Our model rates each team from its games at the tournament, starting from the last edition, and blends that with the betting market where bookmakers price the game.
Reading the schedule, the tables and the picks
Once the schedule is out, this page lists every game with the face-off time in your time zone and our winner pick with its probability, overtime and shootout included. During the tournament it shows both group tables with the quarter-final places marked, then the knockout games.
Between tournaments the page keeps the last edition's results and fills again as soon as the next schedule is published.
World Juniors predictions: questions
- When are the next World Juniors?
- The World Juniors are played every year from around 26 December to 5 January. The games of the next edition appear on this page as soon as the schedule is published, with the face-off times in your time zone.
- How many teams play at the World Juniors?
- Ten, in two groups of five. The top four of each group go to the quarter-finals, followed by the semi-finals, the bronze game and the final.
- Who can play at the World Juniors?
- Players under 20. Each national team picks its own roster, so the line-ups change every year as players age out.
- How accurate are the World Juniors predictions?
- Every pick is settled in public on the accuracy page, by competition and by confidence, so the record can be checked game by game.
- How many goals are scored in World Juniors games?
- Finished World Juniors games this season have averaged 8 goals in total, and the home team has won 62% of them. Each game's own projected total is on its prediction page.
- When are World Juniors predictions published?
- Up to 7 days before the face-off. Each prediction is updated as the betting market moves, until the game starts.
- What do the puck line and the total mean?
- The puck line is hockey's handicap: −1.5 means the favourite has to win by two goals or more, +1.5 that the underdog covers if it wins or loses by one. A win after overtime or a shootout is always by one goal. The total is the number of goals both teams score together, overtime included and a shootout counted as one goal; the over/under pick says whether the game should finish above or below the line.
- Are the World Juniors predictions free?
- Yes. The win probability, projected score, puck line and total goals of every World Juniors game are free to read, with no sign-up.
- How are the predictions made?
- Each team gets attack and defence ratings from this season's games in regulation, weighted toward recent form and adjusted for the opponents faced, plus a home-ice edge measured for each league. A Poisson model turns them into the chance of every score, ties go to overtime and the shootout, and where bookmakers price a game the model is blended with their consensus.