GM, coach named
Burke, Desjardins to lead Team Canada in 2017-18 hockey campaign
Sean Burke and Willie Desjardins have been charged with finding and leading non-NHL talent for Team Canada at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.
Burke will serve as Canada’s GM for the 2017-18 season with former Canucks coach Desjardins behind the bench.
Burke, a pro scout with the Canadiens, will be aided on the management side by another former goaltender in Martin Brodeur, assistant general manager of the St. Louis Blues.
With the NHL electing not to participate in South Korea, Canada will be without the marquee names that won gold at the 2002, 2010 and 2014 Olympics. Pyeongchang ends a streak of five consecutive Winter Olympics with NHL players.
While many have called this Plan B, Hockey Canada CEO Tom Renney sees it differently.
“This is our plan, it is our Plan A,” he told a media conference call Tuesday.
“It’s a twist of fate for sure, but we love the opportunity thanks to the gentlemen that we have introduced earlier today,” he added.
Other management members are Hockey Canada’s Scott Smith and Scott Salmond.
Desjardins’ coaching staff will include assistants Dave King, Scott Walker and Craig Woodcroft.
Hockey Canada says it has already been scouting players, with two tournaments next month in Russia kicking off the road to Pyeongchang.
The rosters for those events — the Sochi Hockey Open Aug. 6-9 and the Tournament of Nikolai Puchkov in St. Petersburg, Aug. 14-17 — have already been stocked with the likes of former NHLers Max Talbot, Derek Roy, Mason Raymond, Ben Scrivens, Justin Peters, Cam Barker, MarcAntoine Pouliot and Carlo Colaiacovo — all now playing in Europe.
“We’re going to play these two events in August, hopefully find out a lot of things that we have. But we’re going to have to also find out some of the things we don’t have,” said Burke.
“Any player that’s eligible, whether he’s playing in North America on an AHL contract
or in college, junior, we don’t want to leave any stones unturned.”
Still, he expects the bulk of Canada’s Olympic roster to come from European-based players.
The Olympic hockey tournament is slated for Feb. 9-25, with the IIHF World Championship following in May in Denmark.
Burke has served Canada in a variety of management roles at the IIHF World Championship, Spengler Cup and Deutschland Cup. A two-time Olympian (1988, 1992), he won silver in 1992 at Albertville, France.
Burke is Canada’s all-time goaltending leader in games played (35), minutes played (1,991), and wins (21) at the IIHF World Championship where he won two gold and two silver medals in five appearances
as a player.
Desjardins, fired by Vancouver in April, was an assistant coach with the Canadian national team 1998-99 and as assistant at the 2009 IIHF World Junior Championship.
King, whose international coaching career dates back to 1982, was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in the builder category in 2000-2001.
Brodeur, a three-time Stanley Cup champion and fourtime Vezina Trophy winner, earned Olympic gold in 2002 and 2010.
While the new Team Canada management has experience, it lacks the star power of Sochi in 2014 when Tampa GM Steve Yzerman’s management group included Ken Holland, Kevin Lowe and Doug Armstrong in addition to Hockey Canada representatives.
Toronto’s Mike Babcock returned to coach in Sochi with help from assistants Ken Hitchcock, Claude Julien, Lindy Ruff, and consultant Ralph Krueger.
The NHL cited a number of reasons why its owners were against Olympic participation, with having to take a lengthy break in February to accommodate the Games a major obstacle.
There were also disagreements over who should pay for travel, insurance and accommodations costs for the players. The league also pointed to injuries suffered at the Games as well as the negative effects of a compressed schedule.
The NHL Players Association called the league’s decision “short-sighted.”
More than 700 players have participated in the Winter Olympics since 1998.
“Any player that’s eligible, whether he’s playing in North America on an AHL contract or in college, junior, we don’t want to leave any stones unturned.”
General manager Sean Burke