Letang Named Assistant Coach for Canada at 2023 World Junior Championships
With less than two months until the puck drops on the 2023 IIHF World Junior Championship, Hockey Canada has named the staff that will lead Canada’s National Junior Team in its gold medal defence in Halifax, N.S., and Moncton, N.B.
Among those named to the staff was Sarnia Sting Head Coach Alan Letang.
The coaching staff was selected by Alan Millar (Tottenham, Ont.), director of player personnel, James Boyd (Midland, Ont./Ottawa, OHL), who returns as the U20 lead for the Program of Excellence management group after helping assemble the team that won gold at the 2022 IIHF World Junior Championship, and Scott Salmond (Creston, B.C.), senior vice-president of hockey operations.
Letang served as an assistant coach with the Canada’s National Men’s Summer Under-18 Team that won gold at the 2022 Hlinka Gretzky Cup this summer. He is in his second season as head coach of the Sarnia Sting of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), and previously spent five seasons with the OHL’s Owen Sound Attack as an assistant coach (2016-19) and head coach (2019-20). Letang also won a gold medal as an assistant coach with Canada’s National Junior Team at the 2020 IIHF World Junior Championship.
“The coaching and support staff for Canada’s National Junior Team is a well-rounded, experienced group that have been integral to the recent success of Hockey Canada’s national teams,” said Salmond. “We know these individuals will play a major role in the success of our team at the World Juniors, and we look forward to the opportunity to once again compete for a gold medal on home ice in Halifax and Moncton.”
Canada’s National Junior Team will gather at the Avenir Centre in Moncton for a four-day selection camp, Dec. 9-12, before selecting a final roster ahead of the 2023 IIHF World Junior Championship. The selection camp roster will be announced in the coming weeks.
