OverDrive - Hunter on Canada at the World Juniors, the team's roster and improving from previous tournaments

Episode Date: December 18, 2025

Canada World Juniors head coach Dale Hunter joined OverDrive to discuss the headlines around Canada's roster for the tournament, the breakdown of the team, the goaltending strength, looking to improve from previous tournaments, Gavin McKenna's spotlight on the team and more.

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There's Dale Hunter. Dale is allowed to call you Hunts during the tournament on TSN. Yes, for sure. He called me a lot worse on the ice. Sure, you said nothing but nice things to him. I always say nice things on the ice. I always did. I'm sure, I'm sure.

Well, it's great to see it. Thank you for doing this. How did that feel last night? get back behind a bench, get the team together, and kind of get everything in motion, so to speak. Yeah, it felt good. You know, we were practicing like three or four days here, and, you know, just to go play a game. The boys really wanted to practice as one thing, playing against each other, but to actually play a real game against a good team.

And it was a good challenge for us. How do you keep these guys focused on just the task at hand and not have the purpose? pressure of the last couple years hans i mean there was disappointing performances in europe and then in in in ottawa but it's not on these guys they just got to go ahead and do their thing don't they yeah they do you know it's you know it's like you you talk about it early and then we don't talk about it's a different team different season different uh a year and uh so they're they're they're all pumped up about it they they know that uh they're we're in it's a good it's a good tournament that's where it's tough. Like last night, two-one game, that's a tough game.

Yeah. Well, and Gavin McKenna, who was a part of the team last year, came out and said, you know, unacceptable, and that's not what Canadians expect. And I appreciated that honesty, and I like that type of mentality on the outside looking in. How do you approach that type of commentary from a guy like that, an important player for you? Do you get the impression that permeates the group? Like, all these guys understand that, you know, the standards are high and the expectations are high? Yeah, you know, all the guys have talked about it, and they know it is, and it's important for Gavin to be one of the leaders, one of the returning players, to actually acknowledge it, and as soon as you acknowledge it and grip it,

we know it's there. It's not, no sense hiding it. It just go out and talk about it, and we have to vote in the form, and definitely the pressure is there. That's what's all about. That's why we love playing hockey. Yeah, we saw you brought in some specialists to help this. team prepare for a tournament where

you know so much of it can come down to a big power play or or in this case a shootout in the world juniors we had so many great Canadian moments in the shootout. I know you brought in Kyle Taurus. What did you see from Taurus kind of tutoring the players on the shootout and

what kind of value do you hope he added? No, it's definitely, we've been working on our shootouts just not for the shootout but also for breakaways and in the game you usually get one or two a game. So, and there are always one goal game, so it's so important.

So he's got it down really well, Kyle, and he knows how to, what angles to come on, what you're thinking. It's your thinking is the most important thing. Don't think about 10 things, think about two things. And he slowed it down for the guys, and it was

really good. And the best of it all is he came down and he dropped it to escape, kicked it up, and scored. So he just sealed all the guys with that goal. Yeah, what do you think, guys? that, like, for instance, Perak, guys that have had some NHL experience, what do you expect them to do

as opposed to acting like a big shot and trying to big league everybody? What are they supposed to bring to the table and how can they help with that experience? Well, definitely they can come back. And, you know, some know, once you go to the pros and when you go to camps, but these guys actually stayed up and played games

and they just watched the older guys. You have to show your stuff. Well, Dale, one thing that's changed, year. Like I saw you guys, the email came out that you sent three players back to their junior teams. It's such a different world than what it used to be. Oh, you've told the story about waking up at 4 in the morning,

waiting for a call, thinking you might get cut or what have you, and it used to be this kind of three-ring circus that hockey Canada. Oh, it's a big production. The guy's getting cut. It was terrible. Right. It was very tough on the players. I'm sure tough on the coaches. Like, how much easier is, I know it's tough to tell the three

kids that are going back. It's still tough for them. But it's not as much of a kind of circus like it used to be. What do you make of the new process? Well, you know, I just wanted, you know, we brought in a couple extras. We didn't have a real camp, like 40 guys coming in. We went out, scouted, Mark and L,

and made sure we got the right guys in here, and they spent a lot of time at it. And now we came back here, and we just had to make a few cuts. And we wanted to make it early. So right tomorrow, we start with our line. playing our team's going to play in Kitchener I mean in London we're going to play our regular lines and we sat out a couple boys last game to get everybody a shot to see who can play and

we made her choices tough choices too because you know they're very good players and it was tough and there's no there's no enjoyment of letting kids go and it's it's it's tough but we have to make our choices yeah I know you're coaching the team you're coaching in the here and now but you know Canada's had a couple of as O pointed out a couple of disappointing finishes in this event the past two times. How much can we look at those two, you know, quarterfinal losses and learn lessons, if any, and how much have you looked at them and how much do you have to sort of pay

attention to the idea that these guys, you know, there is a pressure element here? Yeah, it is. You know, it's like you look at it, you watch the games, you learn from your past, and then you've got to move on. You know, it's, you know, it is what happened. and everybody knows it, and it's one of those things. That's why every game, like last night, it was a one-goal game, and you've got to learn to play in them one-goal games,

like either to hold it or try to tie it. And by playing a tight game like last night, it's a good lesson for us that how tight we have to play and how disciplined as much as we can be, discipline that we don't take penalties, and also how to play with a one-go-leet. Are you on babysittering? sitter duty right now dale what's going on over there i'm outside and a couple kids just

walked by so okay all right we got you it's all good fun that's what matters exactly that's the main that's the main thing well uh we wish you nothing but success as always we'll be rooting for you guys always going to be down there so i'm sure he'll be poking around looking for he's a new bob mackenzie i don't know if you're aware of that but he'll be breaking news and looking for insights yeah Absolutely. So good luck and Merry Christmas. Happy New Year. Thanks for doing this. Okay. Thanks, guys, for everything. Okay, bye. You got it. There's Dale Hunter. I'm Dylan Playfair. And I'm Tyler Smith.

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