Six former WHLers join Canada’s staff ahead of the 2025 IIHF World Championship
Calgary, Alta.- Former WHL Champion Dean Evason has been promoted to Head Coach for Canada at the 2025 IIHF World Championship, Hockey Canada announced Wednesday.
The current Columbus Blue Jackets bench boss had previously served as an assistant coach at the 2024 tournament. Evason is one of six former WHL coaches, players or staff tagged to join Canada’s staff as the National Men’s Team looks to return to the top of the podium for the first time since 2023.
Three-time WHL and Memorial Cup Champion Ryan Huska, the Head Coach of the Calgary Flames and 2000 WHL Champion Steve McCarthy, an assistant coach in Columbus, will join Evason on the bench as assistant coaches, along with 1993 Ontario Hockey League points leader Andrew Brunette (Nashville Predators).
Former Calgary Hitmen team physician Dr. Ian Auld (Calgary Flames) and past Vancouver Giants Director of Media Relations/scout Sean Kelso (Calgary Flames) have also been named to Canada’s support staff.
The group was selected by General Manager Kyle Dubas, Hitmen great and player relations advisor Ryan Getzlaf, and Scott Salmond, Hockey Canada’s senior vice-president of high performance and hockey operations, with additional input from Canada’s National Men’s Team Executive Director Doug Armstrong.
The 2025 IIHF World Championship runs from May 9-25 in Stockholm, Sweden, and Herning, Denmark.
“Dean, Andrew, Ryan and Steve are excellent NHL coaches that bring many years of professional experience and leadership, and we are thrilled that they will lead Team Canada at the 2025 World Championship,” Dubas said. “Our coaching staff will also be supported by an elite support staff that has many years of NHL experience, as well as experience at several world championships and Olympics, and we know our entire staff will create an environment for our players to succeed and wear the Maple Leaf with pride in Stockholm and Herning.”
Evason is coming off his 18th season on an NHL bench and his first campaign as the Blue Jackets’ Head Coach. The Flin Flon, Man. product made his coaching debut as an assistant with the Calgary Hitmen in 1998-99 before taking over as the Kamloops Blazers bench boss from 1999-2002, before helming the Vancouver Giants for two seasons. He returned to the Hitmen for 2004-05, where he coached Getzlaf in the future Stanley Cup-winner’s final major junior season. As a player, Evason suited up for 200 games over four seasons with the Spokane Flyers and Kamloops Junior Oilers, earning WHL West Division First All-Star Team honours in 1984 as the Junior Oilers clinched the WHL Championship.
Huska, from Cranbrook, B.C., remains a WHL titan after clinching three WHL Championships and three Memorial Cups with the dynastic Kamloops Blazers of the early-mid 1990s. His three national championships from 1992, 1994 and 1995 remain tied for the most Memorial Cup wins by any player. As a coach, he cut his teeth as an assistant and later, Head Coach of the Kelowna Rockets from 2002- 2014. Huska won a fourth Memorial Cup in 2004 as the Rockets hosted the esteemed tournament and he added two more league titles to his trophy case in 2005 and 2009- he even coached current Flames Captain Mikael Backlund and Tyson Barrie long before either would pull on the Flaming ‘C’.
McCarthy is set to make his international coaching debut in Europe. He’s coming off of four seasons as an assistant coach with the Blue Jackets. As a player, he rang in a new millennium by hoisting the Ed Chynoweth Cup with the Kootenay ICE in 1999-2000 and cracking the WHL East Division First All-Star Team. The Trail, B.C. product played more than 150 games over four seasons with the ICE, including two as Captain.
Canada opens the tournament against Slovenia on May 10 at 4:20 a.m. MST.
The preliminary round will also feature matches against Latvia, France, Austria, Slovakia, Finland and Sweden before the tournament wraps up with the medal games on May 25.
Canada’s National Men’s Team will also play a set of tune-up contests against Austria and Hungary, with the games taking place in Vienna on May 4 and Budapest on May 6.
