MOSCOW, Jul 26 National Hockey League (NHL) clubs Montreal Canadiens and the New Jersey Devils banned their 2022 draft Slovaks Juraj Słafkowski and Szymon Nemec from playing for the national team at the Edmonton Junior World Championship, according to the website of the Slovak Hockey Federation. Słafkowski and Nemec were selected in the 2022 draft of the year under the first and second numbers, respectively. «Slavkovsky and Nemec were not allowed to the World Championship by their new employers, the NHL clubs, who selected them in the draft,» the message says. At the end of December 2021, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) stopped the youth world championship in Canadian Red Deer and Edmonton due to the spread of coronavirus among the participants of the tournament. The tournament will be completed from August 9 to 20. In March, the IIHF announced the suspension of the national teams of Russia and Belarus from international tournaments due to the situation in Ukraine, and also took away from Russia the right to host the World Youth Championship, which was supposed to be held in December 2022 — January 2023 years in Omsk and Novosibirsk, as well as the adult world championship — 2023, which was supposed to host St. Petersburg. The Russian team at the youth world championship will be replaced by the Latvian team.
