Canada promotes assistant coach Dennis Williams to guide world junior squad

Dennis Williams, who helped Canada win the gold medal at the 2022 world junior hockey championship as an assistant coach, will lead the staff for the upcoming 2023 tournament.

Hockey Canada announced its coaching staff for the tournament in Halifax and Moncton, N.B., on Wednesday. Joining Williams on Canada's bench will assistants coaches Stéphane Julien, Brent Kisio and Alan Letang.

Goaltending consultant Kelly Guard and video coach James Emery are also on Williams's staff.

"We are thrilled to welcome back Dennis and James Boyd following a gold medal at the 2022 World Juniors to help bring momentum and consistency from our success in the summer," Alan Millar, Hockey Canada director of player personnel, stated in a news release.

"We are also excited to welcome Stéphane, Brent, Alan, Kelly and James Emery, as each coach brings a wealth of experience and success from the Canadian Hockey League and international levels. We believe we have assembled a world-class coaching staff that will play a large part in defending our gold medal on the East Coast starting next month."

Williams, the head coach and general manager of the Western Hockey League's Everett Silvertips, was part of Dave Cameron's staff for Canada's team that won a rare summer tournament in Edmonton with a 3-2 win over Finland in the Aug. 20 gold-medal game.

He won a silver medal as an assistant with Canada's summer under-18 team at the 2019 Hlinka Gretzky Cup and served as head coach of Canada Black at the 2018 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge.

The 2022 championship was postponed from its normal time due to an outbreak of the Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus.

Canada's junior team will hold a training camp Dec. 9-12 in Moncton before selecting a final roster for the world junior championship.

The tournament stared Dec. 26 and runs through Jan. 5.