Utah Mammoth fans face a dilemma: Do they cheer for their country, or do they cheer for the three Mammoth first-round picks playing for their opponents?
Tij Iginla, Cole Beaudoin and Caleb Desnoyers are all on Team Canada’s select camp roster for the upcoming World Junior Championships, and if you watched the Four Nations showdown in February you’ll be familiar with how intense the Canada/U.S. rivalry can be.
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With only four players cut, it’s likely all four will end up on Team Canada’s main roster. Team USA, on the other hand, did not invite any Utah rookies to its training camp.
“They better cheer for us,” Desnoyers joked in an interview with the Deseret News on Tuesday. “They’re Mammoth fans. We’re both great prospects in Utah.
“Hopefully they’ll be cheering for the kids. Maybe when we play Team USA, they might be cheering for Team USA, but we’ll make sure we show them we’re the best team.”
DeNoires said while he’s excited to be on the roster for tryout camp, the work is far from done.
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“Obviously it’s a great accomplishment for me, but it’s really (just) the beginning,” he said. “(I) still want to get a spot and show that I’m going to have an impact on the team and help them win gold.”
Denoyes’ coach Gardner McDougall will serve as an assistant coach on Team Canada’s bench. The pair won the QMJHL championship last season with the Moncton Wildcats, who currently sit in second place in the Eastern Conference.
Many players on the Mammoths’ current NHL roster made their names at the World Juniors. Most notably, Dylan Guenther scored the overtime winning goal in the 2023 gold medal game.
Guenther, of course, continues to score clutch goals in the NHL, scoring the game-winning goal in more than 10 percent of his games, most recently the overtime winner against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday.
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Other Mammoth gold medalists include Barrett Hayton, Lawson Krause and Clayton Keller, while Logan Cooley, Nick Schmaltz, Mikhail Sergachev and Keller Yamamoto all earned silver medals in their respective trophy cases.
It’s a tournament of the best of the best, with dozens of examples of NHL players ultimately succeeding and making a name for themselves there.
Utah Mammoths expected to compete in 2026 World Juniors
Some countries, including the Czech Republic, have announced full lists. Others are still in the selection training phase. Here is the full list of Mammoth candidates running:
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Tij Iginla, Team Canada (2024 first-round pick).
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Cole Beaudoin, Team Canada (2024 first-round pick).
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Caleb Desnoyers, Team Canada (2025 first-round pick).
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Max Pšenička, Czech Republic (2025 second-round pick).
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Veeti Väisänen, Finland (2024 third-round pick).
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Štěpán Hoch, Czech Republic (2025 third-round pick).
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Ludwig Johnson, Switzerland (2025 sixth-round pick).
Beaudoin, Vesanen and Johnson all competed last year. Vesanen went home with a silver medal, while Beaudoin and Johnson got nothing and can only hope for better competition next year.
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What is the World Youth Championship?
The World Junior Championship, often referred to as the World Junior Championship, is comparable in size to the NCAA Tournament in college basketball.
Like March Madness, the tournament is largely populated by amateurs. Many of them will become NHL stars, but for many more, this will be the pinnacle of their careers.
Unlike March Madness, players compete to represent their country. Wearing your country’s colors on the international stage brings an extra sense of pride and responsibility that translates to intensity on the ice.
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The event rotates the host country every year. This is the first time it has been held in the United States since 2018 and the first time it has been held in Minnesota since 2005.
As always, it starts the day after Christmas. Please see the IIHF website for the complete schedule.
