CALGARY, Alta. – Hockey Canada is leaning on a familiar resource for its participation at the 2016 Deutschland Cup, naming Sean Burke as the team’s general manager.
Burke (Windsor, Ont./Montreal, NHL) will lead Team Canada’s European scouting network on player selections, and work with Scott Salmond (Creston, B.C.), vice-president of hockey operations and national teams for Hockey Canada, on selecting team staff.
“Sean’s experience and contributions to our national teams as both a player and in various management roles will be a tremendous asset to us as we build our team for this year’s Deutschland Cup,” said Salmond. “He’s been part of the process of putting together successful teams for short-term events such as this, and you can’t underestimate the value of that type of experience and the familiarity with Hockey Canada’s expectations in selecting a general manager. I’m looking forward to working with him again.”
Burke, who won back-to-back gold medals at the IIHF World Championships in 2015 and 2016 and gold at the 2015 IIHF World Junior Championship as a member of Canada’s management groups, has just one month before Team Canada assembles for its pre-competition training camp in Budapest, Hungary, Oct. 31-Nov. 2 – which will include one pre-tournament game against the Hungarian National Team on Nov. 1.
Canada will tap into its top Canadian talent playing in Europe to field its team. This will be the red-and-white’s first appearance at the Deutschland Cup since 2014.
Canada has taken part in the tournament on 17 occasions (1992-2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014), winning four gold medals (2000, 2002, 2005, 2008).
Canada’s National Men’s Team opens the Deutschland Cup, being hosted in Augsburg, Germany, on Nov. 4 against Switzerland; the team plays Slovakia on Nov. 5, and Germany on Nov. 6.
Recently hired by the Montreal Canadiens as a professional scout, Burke is Canada’s all-time goaltending leader in games played (35), minutes played (1,991), and wins (21) at the IIHF World Championship – an event at which he won two gold and two silver medals in five appearances as a player. A two-time Olympian (1988, 1992), Burke won silver at the 1992 Olympic Winter Games in Albertville, France, and is a IIHF World Junior Championship silver-medallist from 1986 in Hamilton, Ont.
For more information on Canada’s National Men’s Team and the Deutschland Cup, please visitHockeyCanada.ca or follow along on Facebook and Twitter.