The Winnipeg Jets will not be the best-represented NHL club at the 2026 World Junior Ice Hockey Championship (WJC) in Minneapolis-Saint Paul this holiday season, but one squad — Sweden — could feature a trio of Winnipeg prospects.
Here, we’ll dive into the candidates who could suit up in the exciting and high-profile under-20 hockey event that begins Boxing Day and runs through Jan. 5, and also take a look at a player who won’t be going despite his excellent play.
Sascha Boumedienne
Boumedienne, the Jets’ 2025 first rounder (28th overall), should feature heavily on Sweden’s blue line.
The defenseman, a 6-foot-2 left shooter who was born in Finland but is a Swedish national, has two goals and four assists for six points along with 18 blocked shots in 15 games this season for Boston University. The 18 year old recorded 13 points (three goals, 10 assists) in 40 games for the Terriers last season as a rookie.
His offensive potential from the back end is something any team would want in a short and often high-scoring tournament, and Sweden — who left the 2025 WJC in Ottawa without a medal after losing in the bronze-medal game — will be depending on him to play a key role.
“I describe myself as a two-way defenseman who plays really hard all over the ice and uses his skating to my advantage,” Boumedienne said after being drafted in June. “I like to join the rush and create offense and kind of make quick plays and a quick shot and kind of create offence from there. So, a defenceman who will play hard all over the ice and kind of do a little bit of everything.”
Boumedienne represented Sweden at the 2025 U18 World Championship and broke the single-tournament scoring record for a defenseman by racking up 14 points in six games en route to being named the tournament’s best defenseman.
Alfons Freij
Another player likely to patrol Sweden’s blue line is Alfons Freij.
The Jets’ 2024 second-round pick (37th overall) hasn’t produced any offense this season in the Swedish Hockey League (SHL), with zero points in 23 games for Timra IK, but the fact he’s only 19 and playing in Sweden’s top professional league is impressive in and of itself. The experience he’s gaining against players much older and more experienced than him will serve him well in an under-20 tournament.
Related: Projecting Sweden’s Roster for the 2026 World Junior Championship
Last season, Freij had two goals and six assists for eight points in 29 games for the second-tier league HockeyAllsvenskan’s Bjorkloven IF. The Solvesborg product has represented Sweden in various tournaments, most recently at the 2024 U18 World Championship, where he recorded two goals and four assists for six points in seven games and won bronze.
Viktor Klingsell
Klingsell is a longer shot to crack Sweden’s roster, but his strong play may make him impossible to ignore.
The left winger, the Jets fifth round in 2025 (156th overall), piled up the points for Skellefteå AIK’s under-20 club this season, with 34 (13 goals, 21 assists) in just 17 games. The 18 year old has now been promoted to the Skellefteå AIK SHL club, where he has one goal in five games.
Klingsell has done extremely well internationally — he was the leading scorer at the 2024 Hlinka Gretzky Cup with 12 points (four goals and eight assists) and also had eight points (two goals, six assists) in seven games to help Sweden silver at the 2025 U18 World Championship.
“He demonstrated elite playmaking skills in both tournaments, fulled by his excellent vision of the entire ice,” The Hockey Writers’ Jim Bay wrote earlier this year.
Kieron Walton Not on Canada’s Radar
Based on Canada’s World Junior Summer Showcase roster, a Jets’ prospect in his final year of junior hockey appears to not be on the WJC radar despite an outstanding 2024-25 and 2025-26 thus far.
Kieron Walton, (2024, sixth round, 187th overall) absolutely lit it up last season with the Sudbury Wolves, notching 38 goals and 54 assists for 92 points in 66 games to finish first in team in scoring and ninth in the Ontario Hockey League. The towering, 6-foot-6, 217-pound 19 year old has racked up 35 points already this season (17 goals and 18 assists) in 22 games to once again lead the Wolves.
Unfortunately, the Toronto product simply seems a victim of a numbers’ game and Canada’s embarrassment of riches up front heading into the tournament.
Keep following THW for extensive WJC coverage leading up to and through the tournament.
