Team Canada is promoting from within for the upcoming IIHF World Junior Championship.
Alan Letang will serve as head coach of the squad, Hockey Canada announced Friday. The 48-year-old was an assistant coach on the Canadian side that claimed gold in Halifax last winter.
Letang has been the bench boss for the OHL's Sarnia Sting since 2021. He previously occupied the role of interim head coach with the same league's Owen Sound Attack after joining them as an assistant in 2016.
Letang guided Canada's summer under-18 team to the gold medal at the 2023 Hlinka Gretzky Cup and was an assistant coach for the team that won the tournament one year earlier. He did the same for the championship squad at the 2020 world juniors.
The Canadian coaching staff will also include Gilles Bouchard of the QMJHL's Sherbrooke Phoenix, Shaun Clouston of the WHL's Kamloops Blazers, and Scott Walker of the OHL's Guelph Storm.
Former NHL defenseman Brent Seabrook is joining the team's brass in an unspecified position. He'll make his international management debut after playing 15 NHL seasons. Seabrook represented Canada numerous times as a player. He won Olympic gold in 2010, silver and gold at the WJHC in 2004 and 2005, respectively, and gold at the under-18 worlds in 2003.
The 2024 world junior tournament will take place from Dec. 26, 2023, through January 5, 2024, in Gothenburg, Sweden. Team Canada - the two-time defending champion - will hold its selection camp in Oakville, Ontario, from Dec. 10-13.
Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.