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Alan Millar and Scott Salmond were sifting through the wreckage.
Canada had endured a second straight quarterfinal exit at the world junior hockey championship, this time on home soil.
The battered and bruised men’s under-20 program desperately needed a reset. Millar was promoted to a new role as the team’s full-time general manager. There would be more structural change within Hockey Canada’s approach to follow.
Millar and Salmond, the organization’s senior vice-president of high performance and hockey operations, knew the next step was finding the right person to lead.
“There was one phone call to be made,” Millar recalled. “And that was to London.”
Dale Hunter, who has built a powerhouse with the Ontario Hockey League’s London Knights, is back as head coach at the world juniors — after leading Canada to the top of the podium in 2020 — for a country desperate to rebound.
“They’ve built one of the best programs in the Canadian Hockey League,” Millar said of Hunter and younger brother Mark, who is also part of Canada’s management group for the tournament. “Their success speaks for itself. We felt with the results the last couple years, and to get this thing back on track, Dale needed to be the guy.”
The Hunters have won the Memorial Cup three times, captured six OHL titles and graduated a boatload of players to the professional ranks.
So, what has led to their championship and talent-developing pedigree? “Really great hockey minds,” said St. Louis Blues centre Robert Thomas, who played three seasons with the Knights. “They care about their players and want to see them grow. They won’t put them in a position to fail. They’ll always be really patient and make sure everything progresses nicely before they put them in those big positions.
“That’s something that I really learned — you’ve got to be patient and continue to work.”