In 2020, Mark and Dale Hunter led Canada to gold in Czechia at the world junior hockey championship.
This coming December, they will attempt to repeat the feat in Minnesota.
On Tuesday, Hockey Canada announced that Mark Hunter will be back as Canada’s general manager and Dale Hunter will return as head coach for the next world junior tournament.
Canada is coming off consecutive quarter-final losses in 2025 and 2024 in Ottawa and Gothenburg, Sweden, respectively.
Dale admits that an opportunity like this feels special every time you are asked.
“As a player or as a coach, every time you get a chance to represent Team Canada is awesome. It’s a challenge and it’s fun and it’s going to be a battle because all of the teams are good and we will have to be ready.”
Team Canada’s first order of business will be the World Junior Summer Showcase, which will bring together Canada, Sweden, Finland and the host Americans, who have won world junior gold two years in a row.
Team Canada and Team USA will have two squads at the event, making for six teams in total.
It will run from July 25 to Aug. 2 at Ridder Arena on the campus of the University of Minnesota.
Knights defenceman Henry Brzustewicz will be a part of Team USA at the showcase.
That week can help to establish a foundation for the team that will take to the ice when the big event begins in Minnesota on Dec. 26.
“It’s a puzzle,” Dale Hunter says. “You need to have the right combination of players and styles of games. We like a good, skilled team so we will aim to develop that and remember some of your best players are always playing in the National Hockey League and won’t be able to help you so you have to plan for that.”
In 2020, Canada’s toughest opponent was Russia. A 6-1 loss to Russia in the round-robin led to a fair bit of pressure heading into a tournament rematch with the gold medal on the line.
When Russia scored to make it 3-1 at the 8:46 mark of the third period, a repeat looked likely, but goals by former London Knight and current Washington Capital Connor McMichael and by Barrett Hayton, who now plays for the Utah Mammoth, knotted things up 3-3.
That’s when Dale Hunter’s gut instinct took over behind the bench.
“I was kind of scrambling around for lines right then and trying to see who was going the best and just by knowing Akil (Thomas) and all of the big goals he had scored against (the Knights) … he has a knack for the net and I played a hunch and put him out there and he ended up getting a breakaway and scoring the winning goal.”
Canada will be in Group B in 2026 and will face Finland, Czechia, Latvia and Denmark in round-robin games.
Group A will comprise two-time defending champion Team USA, Sweden, Slovakia, Switzerland and Germany.
Games will be played at the Xcel Energy Center, which is the home of the Minnesota Wild, and also on the campus of the University of Minnesota.
Canada leads all other countries with 20 gold medals dating back to 1977.