Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament

The Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament ( German  Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament ) is an annually since 1991 hosted a in August under different names Hockey Tournament for Under-18 national teams . Since 2006 it has been named after multiple world champion Ivan Hlinka , who died in 2004 , before Wayne Gretzky's name was added in 2018 and the event has since been known as the Hlinka Gretzky Cup . By far the greatest number of tournament victories was achieved by Canada .

The tournament is not sanctioned by the International Ice Hockey Federation , which instead organizes the U18 Junior Ice Hockey World Championship every April . Nevertheless, the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament is considered an important event in junior ice hockey.

history

year	Tournament name
1991	Phoenix Cup
1992-1993	Pacific Cup
1994	La Copa Mexico
1995-1996	Pacific Cup
1997-2006	Nations Cup
since 2006	Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament
2018-2022	Hlinka Gretzky Cup

Starting in 1991, the competition was held four times in Japan in the first five years . The first edition took place under the name Phoenix Cup , then the tournament management decided on the name Pacific Cup . An exception was the year 1994, when the tournament took place in Mexico and operated under the name La Copa Mexico . In 1996, the medals were played for the first and only time in Canada.

From 1997 the Czech Republic and Slovakia began the tournament, which was now called the Nations Cup , to alternate between them for the next five years . Furthermore, it grew from three to eight participating nations. In 2002, the two host countries began to divide the events. On the Czech side, Břeclav and Hodonín served as the venue, in Slovakia Piešťany . The organizers adapted the current name Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament in 2006, two years after the death of the Czech ice hockey legend Ivan Hlinka .

Historically, the tournament is clearly dominated by Canada , which won 21 of the 27 events and did not make it into the medal ranks only three times. The tournament is particularly important there, as the actual U18 World Championship collides with the play-offs of the leagues of the Canadian Hockey League in April . This means that the Canadian ice hockey association Hockey Canada can only deploy its best U18 players in August.

In January 2018 it was announced that the tournament will be held under the name Hlinka Gretzky Cup until 2022 and that the venue will change annually between Canada and the Czech Republic during this period.

Winners list

year	gold	silver	bronze	Venue (s)
1991	USSR	Canada	United States	Sapporo , Yokohama
1992	Canada	Russia	Japan	Tokyo
1993	Russia	United States	Canada	Yokohama
1994	Canada	United States	Russia	Mexico city
1995	Russia	Canada	United States	Yokohama
1996	Canada	United States	Finland	Nelson & Castlegar , both British Columbia
1997	Canada	Czech Republic	Slovakia	Jihlava , Žďár nad Sázavou , Znojmo
1998	Canada	Czech Republic	Slovakia	Bratislava
1999	Canada	United States	Czech Republic	Havlíčkův Brod , Třebíč , Znojmo
2000	Canada	United States	Czech Republic	Kežmarok
2001	Canada	Czech Republic	Russia	Kolín , Mladá Boleslav , Nymburk
2002	Canada	Czech Republic	Russia	Břeclav , Piešťany
2003	United States	Russia	Czech Republic	Břeclav, Piešťany
2004	Canada	Czech Republic	Sweden	Břeclav, Hodonín , Piešťany
2005	Canada	Czech Republic	Finland	Břeclav, Piešťany
2006	Canada	United States	Russia	Břeclav, Piešťany
2007	Sweden	Finland	Russia	Hodonín, Piešťany
2008	Canada	Russia	Sweden	Hodonín, Piešťany
2009	Canada	Russia	Sweden	Břeclav, Hodonín, Piešťany
2010	Canada	United States	Sweden	Břeclav, Piešťany
2011	Canada	Sweden	Russia	Břeclav, Piešťany
2012	Canada	Finland	Sweden	Břeclav, Piešťany
2013	Canada	United States	Czech Republic	Břeclav, Piešťany
2014	Canada	Czech Republic	United States	Břeclav, Piešťany
2015	Canada	Sweden	Russia	Břeclav, Bratislava
2016	Czech Republic	United States	Russia	Břeclav, Bratislava
2017	Canada	Czech Republic	Sweden	Břeclav, Bratislava
2018	Canada	Sweden	Russia	Edmonton & Red Deer , both Alberta
2019	Russia	Canada	Sweden	Břeclav, Piešťany
2020	canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic

Medal table

rank	team	gold	silver	bronze	total
1	Canada	22nd	3	1	26th
2	Russia Soviet Union	4th	4th	9	17th
3	United States	1	9	3	13
4th	Czech Republic	1	8th	4th	13
5	Sweden	1	3	7th	11
6th	Finland	0	2	2	4th
7th	Slovakia	0	0	2	2
8th	Japan	0	0	1	1

Web links

• Official website

Individual evidence

1. ^ Hlinka Gretzky Cup introduced in Edmonton. hlinkamemorial.com, March 2, 2018, accessed August 18, 2018 .