From Bill Meltzer @billmeltzer / philadelphiaflyers.com
The rescheduled 2022 International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Junior Championship in Edmonton gets underway on August 9 and will run through the gold medal and bronze medal games on Aug. 20. The original 2021-22 tournament slated for late December to early January was postponed due to various positive COVID-19 tests after the tournament had already gotten underway.
The game results and team standings from the original version of the tournament will not count in the rescheduled tournament, which will begin from scratch. However, players’ personal statistics from the previous version will count toward their international career totals and be recorded separately for the 2021-22 season. Thus, officially, there are “two” WJCs in 2021-22 for record-keeping purposes, with medals being awarded for the latter only.
Eligibility rules for the rescheduled 2022 tourney have reverted back to the ones for the original tourney. Thus, even if the player has since turned 20 years old, he remains eligible for the August tournament. As long as the player did not turn 20 prior to Jan. 1, 2022, he remains eligible.
The Flyers organization’s Tyson Foerster was added to Team Canada after the Flyers’ 2020 first-round pick was unavailable to play at the original tournament due to a November shoulder injury that required surgery. Originally starting the 2021-22 season in the American Hockey League with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, Foerster was assigned to the Ontario Hockey League’s Barrie Colts after completing his rehab. He played the regular season’s final 13 games plus six playoff tilts for Barrie.
In terms of timing and game conditioning, the hard-shooting winger was clearly not yet at 100 percent even after getting into Barrie’s lineup. However, he has since fully recovered and is slated to play a prominent role for Team Canada at the WJC.
Foerster will start the tournament on Canada’s second line right wing, playing with center Logan Stankoven (Dallas Stars prospect, 109-point scorer with the Western Hockey League’s Kamloops Blazers in 2021-22) and left wing Kent Johnson (Columbus Blue Jackets 2021 first-round pick, made his NHL debut this past season after two years at the University of Michigan).
Foerster, who turned 20 on January 18, also is slated to be part of Team Canada’s power play.
Schedule-at-a-Glance
Aug 10: Canada vs. Latvia.
Aug. 11: Canada vs. Slovakia.
Aug. 13: Canada vs. Czech Republic
Aug. 15: Canada vs. Finland
Aug. 16: No games.
Aug. 17: Medal round quarterfinals (four games).
Aug.18: No games.
Aug. 19: Medal round semifinals (two games).
Aug. 20: Bronze medal game, gold medal game.
Forwards @tfoerster8 and @ElliotDesnoyers are two of our four prospects representing the Flyers at the @IIHFHockey World Juniors!
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) August 9, 2022
Preview the tournament with help from Flyers contributor @billmeltzer. https://t.co/SUe311HTQP
"He's a natural-born goal scorer. He has an NHL shot right now and definitely the future's bright for him." @JHallNBCS has the story on four Flyers prospects to watch at the 2022 world juniors: https://t.co/K35E0QiCav
— NBC Sports Philadelphia (@NBCSPhilly) August 9, 2022
We can’t wait to see @NHLFlyers prospect @tfoerster8 in action tonight against #Latvia with the U20 National WJC Team!#WDSE #TeamCanada #BringItToBroad #Flyers #NHL #Hockey #WorldJuniors pic.twitter.com/HpZvao21Tq
— WD Sports & Entertainment (@WD_sportsagency) August 10, 2022
Tyson Foerster is going to have a big WJC, I feel it. He will be featured on a line with Stankoven and Johnson:
— Jamey Baskow (@JameyBaskow) August 10, 2022
"I’ve been here the whole summer so far, so working out with these guys training and working on my legs. Getting those stronger will help my skating." - Tyson Foerster pic.twitter.com/LWHUgd2MK0