According to TSN’s Darren Dreger, an announcement is expected from the IIHF as early as this morning that the upcoming World Junior Championship will go ahead as planned and will be played inside the Edmonton hub.

Announcement coming from IIHF. This years World Junior Championship will be hosted in the Edmonton Hub. Next years also hosted in Alberta, hopefully in healthier times.

— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) September 17, 2020

When you consider how well things have gone in the Edmonton Hub in terms of player safety for the NHL playoffs, it’s no surprise that our city remains as the ideal spot for the previously scheduled World Junior Championship. Despite being announced as the host for the WJC back in December of 2018, a lot has obviously changed since then and because of COVID-19, it was uncertain whether or not this year’s tournament would happen at all, but fans of the annual event should be happy to hear that the show will go on.

What we don’t know, however, is what this means for the upcoming NHL season, which was supposed to get started sometime in December. To me, the seemingly obvious answer is that there won’t be any NHL hockey until the new year but we’ll have to wait and see how the plan actually shakes out. Will the National Hockey League be pushing back into January? How long has that been the plan? Will the dates for the Christmas break be changed to allow for the WJC tournament to take place without affecting the regular season schedule?

Regardless of what happens with the National Hockey League, the WJC will be happening in Edmonton as planned despite the oddness of the circumstances. For some, this morning’s news will be a welcomed sight, but for others, this will create even more questions and uncertainty about what will happen with the 2020-21 NHL season. We wait.