CJHL, News, Team MJHL

Team MJHL staff named for 2020 Junior World Cup

by ksaurette

The Manitoba Junior Hockey League (MJHL), in partnership with the Canadian Junior Hockey League (CJHL) and Hockey Canada, is pleased to announce the coaching and support staff who have been selected to lead Team MJHL at the 2020 Sirius Junior Club World Cup (JCWC2020). The JCWC2020 is an IIHF sanctioned international event hosted by the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), held August 21 – 28 in Sochi, Russia.

Paul Dyck (Steinbach Pistons) has been named Head Coach of Team MJHL. Well respected amongst his peers in the league and across the country, Dyck brings a tremendous amount of experience and success to Team MJHL. The six-time coach of the year finalist, winning twice, has led the Pistons to two league championships (2013, 2018) and has had an outstanding track record of developing players onto to university and major junior hockey. Dyck has also had success on the international stage winning gold as an assistant coach with Team Canada West in 2015.

Gord Burnett (Winnipeg Blues) and Kelvin Cech (Winkler Flyers) will join Dyck on the bench as Assistant Coaches. Burnett has extensive experience with high performance programs including Hockey Canada National U-17 Development Camp (2018, 2019), Team Canada West Selection Camp (2019), and assistant coach of U-16 Team Saskatchewan at the WHL Cup (2016, 2017) and head coach at the 2019 Canada Winter Games. With previous coaching experience in the NCAA and Western Hockey League (WHL), Burnett and the Blues’ commitment to development this season has led to a late surge into the last 2020 playoff spot. Cech in his first season with the Winkler Flyers was recently awarded MJHL Coach of the Year as voted by his peers and was previously selected to coach at the 2020 MJHL-SJHL Showcase. Before joining the MJHL, Cech was assistant coach for three seasons with the University of British Columbia (U Sports).  Cech provided an amazing turnaround in Winkler within just one season improving the club by 15 wins and a third overall regular season in 2019-20 compared to ninth in 2018-19.

Joining the coaches as integral pieces of Team MJHL will be support staff Kate Wiens (Swan Valley Stampeders) and Jeffrey Eidse (Steinbach Pistons) overseeing athletic therapy and equipment management responsibilities of the program.

“The Manitoba Junior Hockey League is thrilled to be participating in the upcoming Sirius Junior Club World Cup in August 2020 in Sochi, Russia. This event is a highly competitive international Junior hockey tournament and the MJHL is proud to represent the CJHL and Hockey Canada. The chance to travel to Russia for an event of this nature is unique and the MJHL office will be doing all it can to provide the staff with the necessary tools and support required to win a medal out of the eight competing teams/countries” comments Kim Davis, MJHL Commissioner.

Dates for travel are tentatively set for August 14 – August 29 and will feature three to five days in Moscow for a pre-tournament camp with the remaining portion in Sochi for the event. The MJHL will also host a pre-event training camp in Winnipeg from Monday, August 10 – Friday, August 14.  Player evaluations are currently ongoing with roster selection expected to be finalized in April 2020.

In 2019 the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL) represented the the CJHL at this prestiges international junior hockey event.  In 2019 teams from Austria, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland and USA competed in the 8-team field, featuring many 2020 NHL draft prospects and eventual 2020 World Junior Championship selections. Winning the 2019 gold was Lokomotiv Yaroslavl (Russia) defeating Team AJHL (Canada) in the final.