Hay to coach Canada’s U18 team
Posted March 25, 2013 11:30 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Vancouver Giants head coach Don Hay will coach again this spring. Hay has been named Canada’s head coach for the upcoming IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship in Sochi, Russia.
“I’m really looking forward to coaching Team Canada again I think the under 18 is a unique situation, a little different than the world juniors, but again, when you represent Canada, it’s always a thrill,” Hay tells News1130 Sports.
While he hasn’t coached the under eighteen ranks, Hay is a veteran at the international level, coaching Canada to a world junior gold title in 1995 and a bronze in 2012, and has won the WHL coach of the year award twice along with three Memorial Cups between Kamloops (1994-95) and Vancouver (2007).
Hay coached at the NHL level with Calgary as an assistant, before being named head coach in Phoenix prior to the 1996-97 season. The Kamloops native never made it to the NHL as a player, but was drafted by the Minnesota North Stars in the 12th round, 193rd overall, of the 1974 NHL Entry Draft, as well as by the World Hockey Association’s Houston Aeros in the 18th round of the 1974 WHA Entry Draft.
Hay just finished his 9th season behind the Giants bench and coached his 1,000th regular season WHL game in the regular season finale against the Kelowna Rockets.
