IIHF announces Russia's replacement for 2022 World Juniors, other events

The International Ice Hockey Federation announced a slew of changes for upcoming events in 2022. After announcing back on February 28th that Belarus and Russia have been banned from IIHF sanctioned events, they've finally revealed who will take their places in these tournaments.

Starting with the next tournament on the IIHF calendar, the 2022 U-18 World Championship, which is set to take place in Germany in late-April. The tournament was supposed to be played with ten teams and instead of bringing two nations up from a lower division, the IIHF restructured the event so it now has two groups of four.

Group A: Canada, USA, Czechia, Germany.
Group B: Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Latvia.

As for the Men's World Championship in May, which is set to be held in Finland, Belarus and Russia have been replaced with Austria and France. These are the groups:

Group A: Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Slovakia, Denmark, Kazakhstan, Italy, France.
Group A: Finland, USA, Czechia, Sweden, Latvia, Norway, Great Britain, Austria.

The IIHF has also slightly restructured the lower divisions for the Men's World Championship. Lithuania has moved up to Division 1A, which now includes five teams, Korea, Slovenia, Hungary, Romania, and Lithuania. The top two teams in the tournament will be promoted to the top group for the 2023 World Championship.

For the Women's U-18 World Championship in June, Slovakia will come up and replace Russia. It's unclear if the groups will be restructured based on IIHF ranking.

The Women's World Championship, in late-August in Denmark, will see Sweden come up to the top division as the replacement for Russia. Sweden will be in Group B, but it's unclear which team will be moved to Group A. If it's based on IIHF ranking, then it will be Japan.

As everyone knows, the 2022 World Juniors were cut short in late-December after a few teams had players with COVID-19. The IIHF decided they were going to postpone the tournament for August, which will be played entirely in Edmonton, according to TSN's Darren Dreger.

Latvia will come up from Division 1A as the replacement for Russia. There will also be no relegation for the 2022 World Juniors, as Belarus won the Division 1A tournament earlier this year. The tournament structure and location for the 2023 event will be determined at a later date.

🔥BREAKING🔥

France🇫🇷 & Austria🇦🇹 to play at #IIHFWorlds. Division I adjusted with Lithuania🇱🇹 moving to IA.
Latvia🇱🇻 joins 2022 #WorldJuniors.
Sweden🇸🇪 joins 2022 #WomensWorlds.
Slovakia🇸🇰 joins 2022 #WW18.

READ MORE ➡️ https://t.co/v54jF8ZPSF

📷 Andre Ringuette / HHOF-IIHF pic.twitter.com/F6L44SxSpk— IIHF (@IIHFHockey) March 18, 2022

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