This year's Canadian World Junior Hockey team will once again have some Sarnia Sting flavour.
Sting Head Coach Alan Letang will lead the team behind the bench, after capturing gold in 2023 as an assistant.
Hockey Canada announced him as head coach on Friday.
He'll be joined on the bench by assistants Gilles Bouchard (Sherbrooke, QMJHL), Shaun Clouston (Kamloops, WHL) and Scott Walker (Guelph, OHL), as well as goaltending consultant Justin Pogge (Penticton, BC) and video coach James Emery (Calgary, AB).
The 48-year-old Letang is no stranger to international competition.
In 2018 he was named assistant coach for Team Canada Black at the Under-17 World Hockey Challenge. He also played a big part in Team Canada’s World Junior Hockey Championship in 2020, serving as the team’s pre-scout coach.
Letang was also an assistant with Canada’s National Men’s Summer Under-18 Team when it won gold at the 2022 Hlinka Gretzky Cup.
He was an original member of the Sarnia Sting when the team moved to the city from Newmarket in 1994. As a defenceman, he tallied 41 points in 62 regular season games at the Brock Street Barn, the original home of the Sting.
Letang went on to have a 20-year professional hockey playing career after being drafted into the NHL by the Montreal Canadiens in 1993.
In addition, three-time Stanley Cup champion and Olympic gold medallist Brent Seabrook will serve as a member of the management group alongside Peter Anholt (Lethbridge, WHL).
Anholt helped select the staff alongside Benoit Roy (Sudbury, ON), senior manager of hockey operations.
Canada’s National Junior Team will gather at the Sixteen Mile Sports Complex in Oakville, Ontario for a four-day selection camp, December 10 to 13, before selecting a final roster ahead of the 2024 IIHF World Junior Championship.
The selection camp will include a pair of games against a team of U SPORTS all-stars on December 12 and 13.
The tournament is scheduled to start on Boxing Day in Sweden.
