Canada's team at the 2019 IIHF World Championship will probably be a little younger than previous editions.
That the squad will likely skew a bit younger than fans may be accustomed to was one of the bigger declarations made by Hockey Canada during a teleconference to introduce veteran head coach Alain Vigneault as the team's bench boss for the tournament.
A month ahead of the competition, which will take place in Slovakia beginning May 10, the people in charge of putting Canada's roster together were already talking about the need for a youth after a gruelling NHL campaign.
MORE: Scores, schedule and how to live stream 2019 Women's World Championship
"We look for young, energetic players who are looking to play an uptempo style, especially from our defence corps," Jason Botterill, a member of the team's management group, told reporters Wednesday. "We think this is a great opportunity for some young NHLers to represent their country and [undergo] further development that will allow them to achieve their dreams of being NHL stars."
While Botterill expressed happiness with how the roster-building has been going just days after the NHL regular season finished, he wouldn't specify which players had already committed to playing in this year's tournament.
"You've probably seen some guys in their exit meetings say that they're going to come to the world championships; at this time, we're still working on it and we don't feel comfortable making a public announcement for it," he added. "I think on the big ice you obviously want to get the best skaters possible and the other element that we're just looking for are players that are truly passionate about being Canadians and representing Canada at these tournaments.
"We understand after 82 games it's a long grind in the National Hockey League, and certainly a lot of our players have bumps and bruises, but it's been great to see some of the responses and enthusiasm of wanting to get over to the tournament and represent our country."
MORE: Oilers' Connor McDavid won't play for Canada at world championships
Botterill, who also serves as the Sabres GM, noted that although there have already been players who have agreed to don the Maple Leaf at next month's competition, there will likely be several more that will join the squad after the opening round of the NHL playoffs. It's standard practice to grab some additional players after they've been eliminated from postseason play, and he said this year's World Championship schedule makes things a bit easier.
"With the tournament being a week later [than previous editions] this year, we think that there's going to be more of an opportunity to bring some of the players who get knocked out in the first round [of the NHL playoffs]," Botterill noted. "Game 7 of the first round is about a week before we head over to Europe, so as a staff we're looking to solidify some commitments right now and also look at opportunities to get players after that first round."
With the management team's preferred playing style in mind, and with some of the players already letting it be known that they'll be available to play, Botterill, along with fellow former NHL players Ron Francis and Ron Hextall, and Hockey Canada CEO Tom Renney, wanted a coaching staff that would implement the vision they've laid out for the program. In longtime former NHL coach Vigneault and assistants Dave Hakstol, Kirk Muller and Lindy Ruff, Botterill said the management team found a quartet of coaches who could accomplish Canada's goal of winning the World Championship for the first time since 2016.
"When we started going through trying to build a coaching staff, we wanted someone that had NHL experience, had that presence, played an uptempo style that our players would want to play, and we were ecstatic to invite Alain ... to be our head coach," Botterill said. "Alain has an impressive resume over the years and has put together an impressive coaching staff here with Dave, Kirk, [and] Lindy all bringing certain attributes that's going to allow us to have success over in Slovakia."
While Vigneault has over 15 years as an NHL head coach under his belt, and several more as a head or assistant coach at the NHL and junior levels, this year's tournament will mark his first foray into international hockey at the senior level. Vigneault won gold as an assistant coach with Canada at the 1991 world juniors, and also served as an assistant with the fourth-place Canadian team at the 1989 competition.
"The last time I had the opportunity to represent my country was in 1991. That was a long time ago," Vigneault said. "For me to get this opportunity now really excites me."
Canada faces Finland in its first game of the 2019 World Championship on May 10.