After naming the first four players to its roster ahead of the CHL-USA Prospects Challenge, Team CHL has officially announced its coaching staff.
As we inch closer to the CHL-USA Prospect Challenge, Team CHL has continued to announce it will look like when players, coaches, and staff converge in Quebec City and Chicoutimi on December 1 and 2.
Today, the CHL announced the coaching staff and general manager, leaning on the group that led Canada to the gold medal at the Hlinka-Gretzky Cup this past August.
All five coaches held the same roles with Canada this summer, giving the group some familiarity and chemistry heading into the event.
Yanick Lemay (Drummondville, QMJHL) returns as GM after serving in the role in 2025 at this event. He was the assistant GM this summer for Team Canada. He will be looking to avenge the loss that Team CHL were handed by the U.S. NTDP U18 at this event last year.
Oulahen will be taking part in the CHL-USA Prospect Challenge for the second time, having been an assistant coach in the inaugural event in 2024 where Team CHL was victorious over the American U18 squad.
Choosing to reunite a staff in this was is an interesting choice as it allows them to work with many of the same players they coached just a few months ago.
Oulahen and his coaches have seen what many of the players across the three CHL leagues look like when brought together, and can lean on their experience at the Hlinka with what is likely to be a largely similar group.
McDonald and Chipchura then coached Canada Red and Canada White to gold and silver, respectively, in 2025. At that event, they both coached many of the same players that are likely to be named to the CHL roster later this month.
That includes Brock England (Seattle, WHL) and Alexis Joseph (Saint Johns, QMJHL), two of the players named last week as the first four on the Team CHL roster. Dima Zhilkin (Saginaw, OHL) and Carter Meyer (Quebec, QMJHL) were the other two named to the team early.
Englund and Joseph were also part of the Hlinka Gretzky Cup team that represented Canada this past summer under this coaching staff. Zhilkin was participating at the World Junior Summer Showcase in Windsor, ON where he was one of Canada’s most impactful players at the annual U20 summer warm-up for the World Junior Championships.
Oulahen and Lemay will be leading this staff as Team CHL looks to win this event after an extra-time loss to the U.S. NTDP U18 team last year when the event was held out west. Keep up to date with the latest from the CHL-USA Prospects Challenge as we cover the event in it’s entirety at The Hockey News.
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