This will include games in the World Junior Championship host cities of Montreal and Toronto as well as farther afield.

A schedule for the "RBC Road to the World Juniors" was announced by Hockey Canada in conjunction with presenting partner RBC.

Montreal will play host to a first game between Canada and Finland on December 19.

Slovakia will face Sweden in Cornwall on the same day, while Russia will take on Denmark in Kingston the next day.

United States will play Switzerland in Oshawa and Canada will face Czech Republic in Ottawa on December 21.

Three games will then take place on December 22.

Latvia will take on Denmark in Chateauguay while Slovakia will be up against Finland in Sherbrooke and Russia will play Sweden in Kingston.

The US will then be up against Czech Republic on December 23 in Kingston as Canada face Switzerland in Toronto. 

“A tremendous amount of work and planning goes into bringing an international event such as the IIHF World Junior Championship to Canada," said Tom Renney, Hockey Canada's President and chief executive.

"But whether it’s World Juniors or one of our national events, Hockey Canada works closely with our partners such as RBC, the host-communities, and our provincial members to ensure we are positively impacting the greatest number of people we can.

“These players provide inspiration to Canadians to take up the game; to work with RBC to bring this level of competition and the ensuing development programs to so many communities across Ontario and Quebec allows us to showcase these young stars of the game, while building on our nation’s passion for [ice] hockey.”

The World Junior Championships is due to take place from December 26 until January 5 at the end of next year.

Games are due to take place at the Bell Centre in Montreal and the Air Canada Centre in Toronto.