The Kootenay Ice are looking ahead to Christmas with the appointment of Mike Dyck to the coaching staff, who will step on the bench when Ryan McGill heads to Sweden for the World Junior Championship.
Dyck, a former head coach with the Lethbridge Hurricanes, has signed on to help out with the team during McGill’s absence. Dyck will be present at training camp this week, and will make the trip down from Lethbridge once a month to stay in touch with Ice staff and players.
When McGill learned he was tapped as an assistant coach for Team Canada at the World Juniors, he, along with Ice general manager Jeff Chynoweth, went to work to find someone with WHL coaching experience who could come in and give freshman Kootenay assistant coach Jay Henderson some help.
Dyck is already familiar with Sam Reinhart and Jaedon Descheneau, having coached them as the bench boss for Team Pacific in the World U-17 Hockey Challenge in 2012.
“With Ryan going to the World Juniors, and this being Jay’s first year coaching in the WHL, we felt another coach was needed during this time frame,” said Chynoweth. “We feel very fortunate to be able to add a coach with the experience that Mike has in the WHL.”
Dyck’s WHL experience also includes assistant coaching roles with the Hurricanes and the Vancouver Giants.
McGill will be absent for roughly nine games in December and January while assisting Team Canada head coach Brent Sutter in Malmo for the international U20 tournament.