Kazakhstan promoted to 2025 World Junior Hockey Championship

With a dominant run at the Division IA World Junior Championship in Budapest, Hungary, Kazakhstan is off to the top division of the World Junior Championship for 2025.

Kazakhstan entered the final day of play on Saturday with a 4-0-0 record before facing off against Austria – one of the favorites as the recently demoted team – to close out the tournament.

It’ll mark Kazakhstan’s first appearance in the tournament since 2020, which marked their second time in a row in the top event. It’ll be their ninth time in the top tournament and third time since the start of the 2010s. The 2025 event will be hosted in Ottawa, with Kazakhstan having participated there during the 2009 tournament.

The Kazakhs got great goaltending from 6-foot-4 keeper Vladimir Nikitn. He was the lone NHL-affiliated player on the roster, having been drafted 207th overall by the Ottawa Senators earlier this year. He also was the top goaltender at the Division IA U-18 World Championship last year, posting a .936 save percentage and three shutouts in five games en route to a gold medal.

Other standouts included forwards Davlat Nurkenov, Yegor Smolayninov and Kirill Lyapunov, as well as defensemen Beibarys Orazov and Kirill Khan.

A total of 14 2005-born players are eligible to return to the tournament next year, including Nikitin, giving the team some experience when they return to the big stage. The 2025 tournament will run from Dec. 26, 2024 until Jan. 5, 2025 in Ottawa. Kazakhstan will replace the team that gets relegated from the 2024 event, set to begin later this month in Sweden.