15-year-old defenseman Jonah Neuenschwander makes hockey history at the 2025 WJC
It is not often we see younger players make the U20 World Junior Championship roster but Jonah Neuenschwander is making hockey history as the youngest defenseman yet to make the tournament.
The World Junior Championship is known as the most prestigious tournament for young hockey players. Often getting national coverage, watching the start on Boxing Day is a tradition for many Canadian families.
While the tournament is mostly comprised of 18-year-olds and 19-year-olds, many who have already been drafted to the NHL, and a few select players yet to be drafted but who are projected to go highly in the upcoming draft, occasionally we see players who are a year away from being drafted at the tournament.
This year, Gavin McKenna, the projected top pick in the 2026 draft will be representing Canada and could very well be their best player as he has 60 points in 30 WHL games thus far with the Medicine Hat Tigers.
While many thought McKenna would be the youngest player at the tournament, a 15-year-old Swiss defenseman named Jonah Neuenschwander has taken the title for youngest at the tournament away from McKenna after making the Swiss roster.
According to Quant Hockey, only 4 15-year-old players previously have made the tournament, none of which who were Swiss or a defenseman.
This makes Neuenschwander the first 15-year-old defenseman at the tournament and the first Swiss 15-year-old too. beating out high-caliber Swiss talents like Timo Meier (9th overall in 2015) and Nico Hischier (1st overall in 2017).
Neuenschwander will now be one of the names to watch out for in the 2027 draft alongside exceptional-status defenseman Landon DuPont who has been scoring at a point-per-game rate for the Everett Silvertips in the WHL. As it stands, it looks like one of those two will be the first defenseman selected that year.
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