Willie Desjardins named Team Canada men’s hockey head coach for 2018 Olympics

Former Vancouver Canucks head coach Willie Desjardins will fill the same role for the Team Canada at the 2018 Winter Olympics, Hockey Canada announced Tuesday. Desjardins will lead a coaching staff that also includes Dave King, Scott Walker, and Craig Woodcroft as assistants.

The Canadian management team for the upcoming Olympics includes former NHL goalies Martin Brodeur and Sean Burke, plus Tom Renney, Scott Smith, and Scott Salmond. They’ll be tasked with putting together a roster of non-NHL players with the league’s decision not to participate in Pyeongchang.

Desjardins, 60, got his first NHL coaching gig with the Canucks in 2014 and lasted three years on the job. He was fired by Vancouver in April after failing to reach the playoffs for the second consecutive season. During his time with the Canucks, they posted a 109-110-27 record. He led the team to the playoffs with a 48-29-5 record in his first season at the helm, but the team got eliminated by the Calgary Flames in the first round.

Outside of the NHL, Desjardins has extensive coaching experience. He was the head coach of the WHL’s Medicine Hat Tigers from 2002-10 and the AHL’s Texas Stars from 2012-14. He had lots of success with those teams, winning WHL championships with Medicine Hat in 2004 and 2007, and a Calder Cup with the Stars in 2014. He was named CHL Coach of the Year in 2006.

Coaching for Hockey Canada is also nothing new for Desjardins. He was an assistant coach for Team Canada at the 2009 World Juniors, where they won the gold. A year later, he took over as the team’s head coach and won a silver medal at the 2010 World Juniors.

So Desjardins has had a lot of coaching success over the years, and now he’ll try to bring that to a Canadian Olympic team that won’t look anything like it has the past two decades. The lack of NHL players means Desjardins will have his hands full trying to get the most from a roster sourced from other places. If there’s reason for optimism, it’s all the success he’s had coaching non-NHL players in the past.