Medicine Hat Tigers defenceman Veeti Väisänen will look to upgrade his silver medal to gold this year at the 2026 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship in Minnesota.
The 19-year-old and Team Finland lost the championship game 4-3 in overtime to Team USA last year.
Väisänen told the voice of the Tigers, Will Bryant, earlier this month that it’s a big honour to be part of Team Finland again this year.
“It’s probably the biggest tournament as a junior you can ever play,” Väisänen said.
“It’s awesome to get back.”
The thing that stood out the most from Väisänen last year is that you have to be the best version of yourself in every game.
“It’s like game seven every time when you play, like quarterfinals, semifinals and finals,” Väisänen.
“I’ve never been in a building that’s so loud as in Ottawa [last year]. It’s pretty awesome. Like, you can barely like talk to the guys when the crowd is like celebrating and stuff.”
Väisänen, in his second season with the Tigers, has 18 points in 29 games with four goals.
He had one assist through seven games at last year’s tournament with Team Finland.
The tournament kicks off on Boxing Day with four games.
Finland takes on Denmark at 1:30 p.m., with former Tigers forward Gavin McKenna and Team Canada taking on Czechia at 6:30 p.m.
Väisänen will take on his former teammate and Team Canada in a New Year’s Eve matchup, with a 6:30 p.m. puck drop.
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