Tuesday, March 16, 2010

GUY CARBONNEAU NAMED HEAD COACH OF CANADA’S NATIONAL MEN’S UNDER-18 TEAM

Press Release

CALGARY, Alta. – Hockey Canada announced on Friday that Guy Carbonneau will be the head coach of Canada’s National Men’s Under-18 Team for the 2010 IIHF World Under-18 Championship, April 13-23 in Minsk and Bobruisk, Belarus.

It was also announced that George Burnett, head coach/general manager of the OHL’s Belleville Bulls, and Rob Sumner, head coach of the WHL’s Seattle Thunderbirds, have been named assistant coaches.

The 2010 IIHF World Under-18 Championship will mark Carbonneau’s second appearance behind the Team Canada bench; he served as assistant coach at the 2001 IIHF World Championship in Germany, where Canada finished ninth.

A native of Sept-Îles, Que., Carbonneau spent parts of three seasons (2006-09) as head coach of the NHL’s Montreal Canadiens, and currently works as a colour commentator for CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada. He was also an assistant/associate coach with the Canadiens on two occasions (2000-02, 2006) and served as assistant general manager of the Dallas Stars from 2002-06.

Carbonneau played 19 years in the National Hockey League with Montreal, St. Louis and Dallas. He served as Montreal’s captain from 1989-94, captaining the Canadiens to their most recent Stanley Cup championship in 1993. He also won Stanley Cups with Montreal in 1986 and with Dallas in 1999. He was a three-time winner of the Frank J. Selke Trophy as the NHL’s top defensive forward, in 1987-88, 1988-89 and 1991-92, and in 2004-05 the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League introduced the Guy Carbonneau Trophy, given annually to the league’s top defensive forward.

Carbonneau is the fourth coach in five years to lead Canada’s National Men’s Under-18 Team after having previously been an NHL head coach, joining Greg Gilbert (2006), Trent Yawney (2007) and Pat Quinn (2008).

Burnett led Canada’s National Men’s Summer Under-18 Team to a gold medal at the 2001 Six Nations Cup in the Czech Republic in his lone previous Team Canada appearance. The Port, Perry, Ont. native is currently in his 13th full season as a head coach in the Ontario Hockey League, his sixth with the Bulls. He has also been the head coach for Niagara Falls, Guelph and Oshawa. Like Carbonneau, Burnett is a former NHL head coach – he coached the Edmonton Oilers for 35 games during the 1994-95 season. Burnett is a two-time OHL coach of the year (1990-91, 1991-92) and led the Cape Breton Oilers to a Calder Cup championship in 1993.

Sumner will join a Team Canada coaching staff for the first time. He has been head coach of the Thunderbirds since the start of the 2004-05 season, and has been on the Seattle coaching staff since 1996, first as an assistant coach. A 10th-round selection (209th overall) of the Calgary Flames in the 1990 NHL Entry Draft, Sumner played four seasons in the WHL with Victoria and Prince Albert before playing three years of professional hockey in the ECHL with Louisville and South Carolina.

Canada’s coaching staff, along with Al Murray, Hockey Canada’s head scout of men’s national teams, will help select Canada’s roster for the 2010 IIHF World Under-18 Championship from players whose Canadian Hockey League teams either missed the playoffs or suffered a first-round loss.


(Nathan also is a writer for Maineiacs Post to Post and the Maine Hockey Journal. He can be reached at fourniern@students.nescom.edu)

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