McLellan Coaching Team North America

It was no surprise that Todd McLellan won a Gold Medal at the world hockey championships for Canada and now has been named as the coach for the 23-and-under Team North America at next year’s World Cup.

Now with the Edmonton Oilers he has international and NHL experience along with his understanding with Connor McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins clearly indicates that he has what it takes to coach and understand young players.

Team North America and Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli said “He’s able to capture the attention of players and what I see in him is he makes the players ask questions and I think that’s important in a shorter period of time.”

The former Sharks bench boss is getting a taste of coaching a young group with Edmonton’s average age is just over 26.

Team North America is expected to have McDavid, Sabres Jack Eichel plus others like Montreal’s Alex Galchenyuk as well as Columbus youngstar Brandon Saad.

Regardless of the situation he had a stacked roster at the worlds, Chiarelli believes that he can do the same next fall.

Hockey Canada has not yet named its coach, but it is thought Leaf’s Mike Babcock could possibly return following Gold Medals in Vancouver and at the Sochi Olympics.

Other possibilities  for the position are Chicago’s Joel Quenneville, King’s Darryl Sutter and New York Rangers’ Alain Vigneault.

Of course the coach everyone loves to hate John Tortorella is the bench boss for the US squad and the former Oilers coach Ralph Krueger set’s the tone for Team Europe.

Joining Chiarelli and co-GM Stan Bowman on Team North America’s management staff are directors of player personnel Pat Verbeek (Tampa Bay) and Nashville’s Paul Fenton.

Also included in the star-studded line-up are special assistant to the GMs Adam Graves of the Rangers and director of operations Ryan Jankowski from Hockey Canada.

Chiarelli was impressed enough by McLellan that he hired him to coach the Oilers after several meetings in Prague during the world championships. Canada went undefeated to win its first gold medal at that tournament since 2007.

McDavid told the reporters in Edmonton “I know he’s going to do a great job with it and if I’m lucky enough to be a part of that team, there’s no one I’d rather play for than him.”

Congrats – Sportswave wishes the team all the best.