Hockey Canada taps Yzerman, Armstrong, Doan as advisors
TLDR: Hockey Canada has a new National Teams Advisory Group: Steve Yzerman, Doug Armstrong and Shane Doan, 3 former Olympic GMs, will help Scott Salmond choose Canada's next management group.
Darren Dreger broke it Wednesday afternoon, and he laid out the main job in a single tweet.
Hockey Canada will name an advisory group to assist Scott Salmond, VP of Hockey ops. Doug Armstrong, Shane Doan and Steve Yzerman will work with Salmond on World Cup,World Championship and the Olympics, identifying next management group, process,and overall planning.
So it's World Cup, World Championship and Olympics, and most importantly, deciding who runs those teams. According to Daily Faceoff, Yzerman and Armstrong will advise the men's program on picking management groups for the IIHF World Championship, the 2028 World Cup of Hockey and the 2030 Olympics. Canada is basically asking the guys who built its last few best-on-best rosters to help hire the next guys who will.
Look at the résumés. Yzerman ran Canada's men's team at the 2010 and 2014 Olympics, both gold, plus World Championships in 2007, 2008 and 2013. Armstrong was GM at the 2026 Olympics and the 2016 World Cup and is now president of hockey ops in St. Louis. Doan was GM at the 2022 Olympics and owns the WHL's Kamloops Blazers now. Whoever lands Canada's next big management job is going to be vetted by people who've already done it.
There was more to it, and Dreger had the rest about 2 minutes later.
Brad Treliving is also working with Canada’s National Junior team, while a separate captains club has been created with Shane Doan to mentor Canadian Captains at all levels and programs. 3 former Olympic GM’s now part of Hockey Canada’s larger group.
Treliving is the interesting one. He's out of Toronto after 3 seasons as Maple Leafs GM, and now he's going to the World Junior program. According to Daily Faceoff he'll work on player evaluation, scout NCAA games and sit in on scouting meetings before the tournament. Bruce Cassidy is in the group too, and he'll keep working with the women's national team's management group and coaching staff through the 2026 Women's World Championship. Doan's captains club might be the most Canadian thing ever invented: a guy who wore the C for years teaching every Canadian captain, from the kids up, how to wear it.
Not everything at Hockey Canada was this smooth on Wednesday. With the women's tournament Cassidy is helping with about to start, there's a mess over the sweaters.
Canada will have to wear a IIHF-designed generic sweater, rather than its usual design, when the women's world championship opens Friday in Denmark because of a commercial rights dispute. Hockey Canada officials still haven't seen what they'll be required to wear in 48 hours.
Hockey Canada now has a high-powered advisory group full of guys with Olympic and Cup rings. It also has a women's team that doesn't know what it's wearing in 48 hours. Next up: the first names this group pushes for Canada's 2028 World Cup and 2030 Olympic management groups. With Yzerman and Armstrong vetting them, it's hard to see the jobs going to anyone who hasn't earned them.
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