Team Canada turns to Lowry for 2016 world juniors in Helsinki

When Canada tries to recreate their golden moment from world junior championships in December, they’ll have a familiar face behind the bench.

On Monday, Dave Lowry, an assistant coach from the gold-medal winning 2015, was chosen to lead the 2016 squad in Helsinki. The 50-year-old, was in charge of the defence last year when Canada won its first gold since 2009.

“It’s simple,” said Lowry in a conference call. “We’re going to continue to build on the momentum that we generated in 2015 and my mandate moving forward will be that we will, once again, look to take the best players and we’re going to make the players buy into playing the game a certain way and that’ll be our way.”

Lowry, who is head coach of the Western Hockey League’s Victoria Royals, will be joined on the bench by assistants Dominique Ducharme, head coach of the Halifax Mooseheads, and D.J. Smith, head coach of the Oshawa Generals.

Drummondville Voltigeurs coach Martin Raymond, Canada’s “eye-in-the-sky” at last year’s tournament in Toronto and Montreal is the only other returnee on the coaching staff.

“It’s a formula that works,” said Lowry of the successful 2015 squad. “Everybody wants to be part of a successful program. You look at the players… we had on the 2015 team and how they encompassed the team game, the team approach, and the team philosophy.”

Depending on what happens in the next year with their prospective NHL clubs, Canada has the chance to return six players from the team that defeated Russia in the final in Toronto to return. Defenceman Joe Hicketts and forwards Connor McDavid, Brayden Point, Lawson Crouse, Jake Virtanen and Robby Fabbri would all be eligible to suit up again for Canada.

“Your leadership group carries the message,” said Lowry of the potential returnees. “These guys are all a part of a winning team and they understood how hard it was, how hard we worked and how much fun we had trying to accomplish that (victory). That’s something we will expect them to pass on.”

The prospect of McDavid – the consensus top pick for June’s NHL draft – returning, however is slim to none. He’s already represented Canada twice at the world juniors, so it’s not like he’d be missing out on the experience either.

Hockey Canada’s vice-president of hockey operations, Scott Salmond, said the plan for the team’s summer camp will be similar to the one held last year in Montreal and Brossard, Que. The camp is likely to be held in Calgary with the Czech Republic and Russia already signed on to attend. Last year Canada played exhibition games with the same two countries as part of the week-long camp.

In addition, Hockey Canada also announced that Brandon Wheat Kings head coach and general manager Kelly McCrimmon would coach the Under-18 team. Sheldon Keefe of the Soo Greyhounds and Darren Rumble of the Moncton Wildcats will serve as his assistants.