When HC Christian Wohlwend was brutally honest about Switzerland's chances against Canada's stacked 2018 World Junior Championship roster

The IIHF World Junior Championships are approaching, bringing together the best young ice hockey teams from around the world to compete for the coveted title. Many current superstars have participated in the event, with Team Canada being the most successful side.

In 2018, Canada's junior team featured players like Cale Makar, Carter Hart and Dillon Dube, among others. In the quarter-final of the tournament, they faced Switzerland. Prior to the matchup, Swiss coach Christian Wohlwend's candid remarks about their opponents caught everyone's attention.

In the clip, Wohlwend enumerates Canada's quality on paper, describing their team as junior players already drafted to the NHL, with even their fourth-round picks having NHL experience. In contrast, his Switzerland team had significantly fewer resources.

"They're faster, they're bigger, they're stronger, they can shoot better, they can pass better, they can do everything better... And we try to fight against. What [can I] say? They have how many first rounders? How many?"

"Seven (first rounders) and the rest in the second round, yeah, and one in the fourth round [who played] the most NHL games so far. So what I want to tell against that, we just [have] to battle... and try to battle. We have one [player drafted] in the fourth round, two... and the rest is not drafted," Wohlwend had said.

Canada completely outplayed their opponents that night, winning 8-2. They continued their dominant performance in the semifinals against the Czech Republic and in the final against Sweden, ultimately being crowned champions.

Christian Wohlwend's different reaction one year later

A year later, the two teams faced off again. This time, the Swiss team delivered a much more spirited performance, nearly pulling off a shocking upset but ultimately losing 3-2 in the second game of the group stage. Wohlwend praised his team and the coaches for their efforts in improving the players' quality.

"Again, I say that one year ago, we had 14 under ages. They are all one year bigger and stronger. Now we are bigger and stronger and faster and everything, and that's why we can compete. And that's crazy. That's crazy. We have 16,000 juniors. You guys have 440,000."

"Our Swiss coaches, who works every day with our Swiss players with this amount, with this less amount, they do a fantastic job, a fantastic job that we are able to compete against the best nations who have just by far more players," Wohlwend said.

Wohlwend's team made a run to the semi-finals in 2019, even outranking Canada, which fell in the quarter-finals against Finland.

It remains to be seen how well Canada and Switzerland will perform at this year's event, as they have been drawn into separate groups.