The 2024 IIHF World Junior Championship kicks off on Boxing Day in Sweden, and teams are beginning their preparations for the annual tournament. Slovakia has announced their 27 player preliminary camp roster for the World Juniors.

Among those named to their roster is Calgary Flames prospect Samuel Honzek.

Honzek is vying to represent Slovakia for the third consecutive year at the World Juniors. He was on the team in 2022 and 2023, but suffered a skate laceration early in the 2023 tournament that caused a pretty significant alteration to his season.

Slovakia has been a country on the rise recently in international hockey, notably winning bronze at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing – their senior level success hasn’t translated to the junior level yet, but they’re consistently a tough out. Case in point: just last year they pushed Canada, the eventual gold medallist, to overtime in the quarterfinal round.

Of the 27 players invited to Slovakia’s preliminary camp, 14 are returnees from last year’s team – including Honzek. 11 of the invitees are NHL draftees: in addition to Honzek, there’s goaltender Adam Gajan (Chicago), defenceman Maxim Strbak (Buffalo), and forwards Alex Ciernik (Philadelphia), Dalibor Dvorsky (St. Louis), Filip Mesar (Montreal), Martin Misiak (Chicago), Juraj Pekarcik (St. Louis), Servac Petrovsky (Minnesota) and Adam Zlnka (Arizona). (Rangers prospect Adam Sykora is expected to join the team in time for the tournament, while Devils prospect Simon Nemec may be available… or maybe not.)

Slovakia’s camp is slated to take place in Zvolen from Dec. 11-15, with a second, final camp taking place in Kungsbacka, Sweden starting on Dec. 18. The World Juniors begin in Gothenburg, Sweden on Boxing Day.