CALGARY — Hockey Canada has confirmed Shane Doan as the general manager of Canada's men's hockey team at the Beijing Olympics, while Claude Julien has been named head coach.
Hockey Canada announced its management team Friday with the opening ceremony at the 2022 Winter Games three weeks away.
Doan and Julien replace St. Louis GM Doug Armstrong and Tampa Bay head coach Jon Cooper, who vacated their positions on the national team when the NHL pulled out of an agreement to send its players to the Olympics last month.
"We are excited to announce our experienced management group and coaching staff that will lead Canada’s men’s Olympic team at the 2022 Olympics," Tom Renney, chief executive officer of Hockey Canada, said in a statement.
"With less than a month until the men’s tournament gets underway at the Olympics, we are excited to continue working with the entire staff as it prepares to represent Canada and build a roster that Canadians can support as it looks to bring home an Olympic gold medal."
Doan and Julien were widely expected to take up the team's leadership in the event of a second straight Olympics without NHL players when they were named GM and coach of Canada's team at the Channel One Cup in Russia and the Spengler Cup in Switzerland.
The international events were considered a contingency plan to evaluate European-based Canadian talent should the NHL deal fall through. Canada finished third at the Channel One Cup, while the Spengler Cup was cancelled due to COVID-19 concerns.
"We want to try to prepare for any scenario," Hockey Canada senior vice-president of hockey operations Scott Salmond said before the Channel One Cup. "One of the scenarios in front of us is there is a potential for the NHL to not participate (in Beijing). We feel confident with the staff we put in place, with the list of players that we have — no different than the experience we had in 2018 — that we can be competitive.
"I don't think that we would be doing our job, and I think we would be doing a disservice, if we didn't have an alternate plan."
Salmond will be assistant GM in Beijing and Blair Mackasey will join Doan's front-office staff as director of player personnel. Nolan Baumgartner, Jeremy Colliton and Tyler Dietrich will be Julien's assistants behind the bench.
Julien owns a 667-445-162 coaching record in 1,274 regular-season NHL games with the Montreal Canadiens, New Jersey Devils and Boston Bruins.
The Ottawa native, who won the Stanley Cup with Boston in 2011, was fired from his second stint with the Canadiens in February.
The winner of the Jack Adams Award as NHL coach of the year in 2009 with the Bruins, Julien helped Canada win the 2016 World Cup of Hockey as an assistant, and was on the staff that secured gold at the 2014 Sochi Olympics in Russia.
He was also an assistant with the world junior program on two occasions, winning silver in 1999 and bronze in 2000.
Doan won gold with Canada at the 2021 world championships as assistant GM. As a player, he represented Canada at six world championships — winning gold three times — and also competed at the 2004 World Cup of Hockey and 2006 Olympics.
He is currently the Arizona Coyotes' hockey development officer.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 14, 2022.
The Canadian Press
