Ryan Leonard, Eriks Mateiko And 10 Players Who Defined World Juniors 2025 The 2025 World Junior Championship will be memorable for so many reasons. Chris Peters identifies 10 players who will come define this year’s tournament.
OTTAWA – The 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship is among the most memorable I’ve covered. The storylines were incredible, the results sometimes shocking and we were introduced to so many personalities over the course of the tournament that hockey fans will remember for a long time.
I wanted to put a list of players together that were not the best. We have all-star teams and directorate awards and MVPs to put that on the historical record. Instead of a list like that, I wanted to put together the 10 players that I will often think about when I think back to 2025. It’s not always for on-ice exploits, though that’s a big factor. It’s about how they put their stamp on this event and the moments they provided over the two weeks we saw them in Ottawa.
So here it is, my 10 players who defined the 2025 World Junior Championship.
Ten Players Who Defined The 2025 World Junior Championship
Linards Feldbergs, G, Latvia
The 2025 World Juniors will be remembered largely for Latvia and specifically the heroics and exploits of undrafted goalie Linards Feldbergs. He stopped all eight Canadian shooters and made 55 saves during regulation and OT as Latvia beat Canada for the first time ever at the World Juniors. He turned around less than 24 hours later and faced 41 more shots from USA. He played every minute of every game and even gave Latvia a chance against Sweden.
Latvia won two games for the first time ever at the WJC, but were bounced in the quarters. Feldbergs finished with a .929 save percentage and I think probably picked up a number of all-star votes and even some MVP votes.
When my colleague Lizz Child asked Feldbergs about what he would tell himself the morning he woke up of the game against Canada, he replied “Everything is possible.” Feldbergs certainly made us believe that. I’ll never forget his performance here.
Ryan Leonard, RW, USA (WSH)The MVP of the tournament and named best forward, Leonard became a bit of a villain in Ottawa. So much so that he eventually was booed just about every time he touched the puck. In the end, Leonard had 10 points, tied for second in the tournament. He assisted on two goals in the gold-medal game including Cole Hutson’s game-tying marker. Leonard has had a decorated career and now has gold medals in three IIHF tournaments. After deciding not to turn pro following his freshman year, he’s accomplished one of his goals by helping Team USA win back-to-back golds for the first time. He took making history personally. Now he wants to help Boston College win the NCAA championship, even though he’ll probably have to go through some of his World Junior teammates to do it. Leonard has really put a nice cap on an incredible amateur career.Petteri Rimpinen, G, FinlandWe now know him as “Mr. Showtime.” But before this World Juniors, Petteri Rimpinen was an undrafted goalie who was having a breakout season in Finland’s top pro league at just 18 years old. He’ll probably find himself drafted next summer and will definitely have more eyes on him now. His performances throughout this tournament were spectacular. One of his best games may have been the World Junior gold-medal game. He did everything he could to give his team a chance to win with 36 saves including a few amazing ones in overtime.
