2016 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships
The 2016 World Junior Ice Hockey Championship was the 40th Ice Hockey World Junior Championship. It was hosted in Helsinki, Finland. It began on December 26, 2015, and ended with the gold medal game on January 5, 2016. This marked the sixth time that Finland has hosted the WJC, and the hosts defeated Russia 4–3 in overtime to win their fourth title in history and second in the last three years. Belarus was relegated to Division I-A for 2017 by merit of their tenth-place finish, while Finnish right winger Jesse Puljujärvi earned MVP and top scorer honors.
Player eligibility
A player is eligible to play in the 2016 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships if:- the player is of male gender;
- the player was born at the earliest in 1996, and at the latest, in 2001;
- the player is a citizen in the country he represents;
- the player is under the jurisdiction of a national association that is a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation.
Top Division
Match officials
The IIHF selected 12 referees and 10 linesmen to officiate during the tournament:Referees
- Alexei Anisimov
- Andris Ansons
- Stefan Fonselius
- Brett Iverson
- Daniel Konc
- Mikael Nord
- Vladimir Pešina
- Daniel Piechaczek
- Christopher Pitoscia
- Aleksi Rantala
- Jean-Philippe Sylvain
- Marc Wiegand
- Nicolas Chartrand-Piché
- Matjaž Hribar
- Rene Jensen
- Roman Kaderli
- Pasi Nieminen
- Brian Oliver
- Alexander Otmakhov
- Henrik Pihlblad
- Hannu Sormunen
- Alexander Waldejer
Format
The four best ranked teams from each group of the preliminary round advance to the quarterfinals, while the last-placed team from both groups play a relegation round in a best-of-three format to determine the relegated team.Preliminary round
''All times are local. ''Relegation round
Note: was relegated to the 2017 Division I AStatistics
Scoring leaders
| Pos | Player | Country | GP | G | A | Pts | +/− | PIM |
| 1 | Jesse Puljujärvi | 7 | 5 | 12 | 17 | +8 | 0 | |
| 2 | Sebastian Aho | 7 | 5 | 9 | 14 | +9 | 4 | |
| 3 | Patrik Laine | 7 | 7 | 6 | 13 | +8 | 6 | |
| 4 | Auston Matthews | 7 | 7 | 4 | 11 | +6 | 2 | |
| 5 | Matthew Tkachuk | 7 | 4 | 7 | 11 | +7 | 6 | |
| 6 | Alexander Nylander | 7 | 4 | 5 | 9 | +5 | 0 | |
| 7 | Zach Werenski | 7 | 2 | 7 | 9 | +10 | 4 | |
| 8 | Denis Malgin | 6 | 1 | 8 | 9 | −1 | 6 | |
| 9 | Olli Juolevi | 7 | 0 | 9 | 9 | +6 | 4 | |
| 10 | Christian Dvorak | 7 | 3 | 5 | 8 | +8 | 0 | |
| 10 | Adrian Kempe | 7 | 3 | 5 | 8 | +1 | 8 |
Source: IIHF
Goaltending leaders
| Pos | Player | Country | TOI | GA | GAA | Sv% | SO |
| 1 | Linus Söderström | 295:28 | 7 | 1.42 | 94.70 | 2 | |
| 2 | Alex Nedeljkovic | 325:52 | 9 | 1.66 | 94.27 | 1 | |
| 3 | Thomas Lillie | 185:00 | 10 | 3.24 | 91.45 | 0 | |
| 4 | Kaapo Kähkönen | 214:13 | 9 | 2.52 | 90.91 | 0 | |
| 5 | Adam Húska | 292:30 | 19 | 3.90 | 89.89 | 0 |
Tournament awards
Reference:Most Valuable Player
- Forward: Jesse Puljujärvi
- Goaltender: Linus Söderström
- Defencemen: Olli Juolevi, Zach Werenski
- Forwards: Jesse Puljujärvi, Patrik Laine, Auston Matthews
- Goaltender: Linus Söderström
- Defenceman: Zach Werenski
- Forward: Jesse Puljujärvi
Final standings
| Rank | Team |
| 4th | |
| 5th | |
| 6th | |
| 7th | |
| 8th | |
| 9th | |
| 10th |
Note that due to the lack of playoff games for determining the spots 5–8, these spots were determined by the preliminary round records for each team.