2026 IIHF World Junior Championship Odds, Prediction: Canada vs. Denmark
Team Canada continues preliminary round action at the 2026 World Juniors on Monday night against Team Denmark.
Canada is a heavy favourite to win on the World Junior odds, with the puckline set at eight goals and the total set at nine goals.
2026 IIHF World Junior Championship Betting Odds
This is a bit of a rare meeting as the countries haven’t faced off at the World Juniors in seven years, although they did meet in five of eight tournaments from 2012 to 2019. Canada is 6-0 all-time in head-to-head action, outscoring the Danes 50-4.
Outside of tournament history, these teams just met six days ago in pre-tournament action, with Canada cruising to a 13-2 victory. They haven’t played a tournament game against each other since Boxing Day 2018. All 19 Canadian players, including goalie Michael DiPietro, recorded at least a point in a 14-0 victory.
Canada and Denmark come in with very different tournament pedigrees. The Canadians have the record for both most gold medals (20) and most total medals (35) in tournament history. Meanwhile, Denmark has never medalled and this is only their eighth appearance in the top division and first since 2019.
After two games, Canada remains the gold medal favourite at -110 to win the tournament on the World Junior futures board. If you like a long shot, and I mean a really long shot, Denmark holds the longest gold medal odds at +100,000.
Team Canada
Canada has played two very different games to open the tournament. They started with a 7-5 barn-burner against Czechia before scraping past Latvia 2-1 in a shootout less than 24 hours later. Canada dropped a point in the shootout, so they sit second in Group B behind Finland, who won both their games in regulation. That likely means Canada needs to beat Finland on New Year’s Eve to win the group.
I’ve got Michael Hage circled for a big night against Denmark. Hage (2G, 2A) co-leads the team in points with Gavin McKenna (4A) and he has scored in both games. Ethan MacKenzie (1G, 2A) and Zayne Parekh (2G, 1A) have also contributed on the back-end.
Team Denmark
Playing in the top division for the first time since 2019, Denmark has at least kept things competitive in a 6-2 loss to Finland and a 7-2 loss against Czechia. However, their minus-nine goal differential is tied with Latvia for the worst mark in the tournament. Tomorrow’s meeting between Denmark and Latvia likely determines which teams moves on to the quarterfinals and which team heads to the relegation round.
The Danes are obviously hoping to avoid relegation as they have a roster that could be more competitive next year. Right now, 13 of 24 players are eligible to return for next year’s tournament in Edmonton and Red Deer. That roster includes just one NHL draft pick, Mads Klyvo (112th overall to Florida in 2025), and two CHL players, Tristan Petersen (17 points in 31 WHL games) and Anton Linde (12 points in 26 QMJHL games).
