Canada staff named for 2017-18 Olympic campaign

Sean Burke will serve as general manager of Team Canada in 2017-18 with former Canucks coach Willie 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.

Other management members are Hockey Canada’s Tom Renney, Scott Smith and Scott Salmond.

Desjardins’ coaching staff will include assistants Dave King, Scott Walker and Craig Woodcroft.

“This is an exciting time for Hockey Canada and for our National Men’s Team program, and it will be an exciting season for Canadian hockey fans,” Renney said. “The goal is always to field the best possible team in all upcoming competitions, including this February when we hit the world’s biggest sporting stage in Pyeonchang. The faces on our Team Canada rosters may be different than in previous years, but the expectations will be the same; with the addition of Sean, Martin, Willie, Dave, Scott, and Craig, we have assembled some of the best hockey minds out there to help us meet those expectations of on-ice success.”

Hockey Canada says the team will play at least seven international tournaments in 2017-18, starting with two Russian events — the Sochi Hockey Open Aug. 6-9 and the Tournament of Nikolai Puchkov in St. Petersburg, Aug. 14-17.

“These first two events allow us to continue a player evaluation process that began last season with our Deutschland Cup and Spengler Cup teams,” Salmond explained. “We will continue to look at the best available players to us – these two tournaments being the next opportunity to see some of the talent we can select from.”

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