Habscheid on Wednesday agreed with Hockey Canada on a three-year deal, two days after resigning as coach of the Memorial Cup champion Kelowna Rockets of the Western Hockey League.
"Just being a part of the national program is what's so exciting," Habscheid said in an interview Wednesday. "I was part of it as a player and part of it as a coach at the world juniors. The draw of the Maple Leaf was really the main thing."
Habscheid, 41, will coach Canada through 2007, including the world hockey championships as well as the Spengler Cup, Deutschland Cup, Slovak Cup and Hungarian Cup.
Marc Habscheid on Wednesday was named coach of the Canadian men's hockey team. (CP File Photo)
He'll have a chance at extending Canada's gold medal run at the men's world championship next spring in Austria. Canada has won back-to-back world championships.
"It's something that people in the spring have become more accustomed to watching on TV and players now are more excited about going," Habscheid said. "That should be an exciting challenge."
Since Hockey Canada disbanded its full-time men's team program in 2000, the governing body of hockey in Canada has had a men's coach to serve either as head coach or as an assistant on national teams for the world championship, Olympics, Spengler Cup and other tournaments.
Wayne Fleming filled that role until he joined the Philadelphia Flyers' coaching staff and was replaced by Mike Pelino. The job had been vacant since Pelino left Hockey Canada last summer.
Habscheid is guaranteed a spot on the coaching staff for the 2006 Olympic team, and likely the head coaching job if there's no NHL participation in Turin.
With the NHL unlikely to commit to Turin because of its current labour problems, Hockey Canada needed to plan ahead. It appears Canada's Olympic team will be comprised of the best non-NHLers available, as was always the case before the NHL went to Nagano in 1998 and Salt Lake City in 2002.
Habscheid, who coached Canada to world junior silver in January 2003, guided the Rockets to the Canadian Hockey League championship last month.
"Marc has had tremendous success at the junior level, winning the Memorial Cup last month, as well as doing a great job with our under-18 and national junior team program, and we feel that he brings the right mix of experience and ability to lead our national team on the international stage," Hockey Canada president Bob Nicholson said in a statement.
A native of Swift Current, Sask., Habscheid played 14 NHL seasons for Edmonton, Minnesota, Detroit and Calgary, and also played for the Canadian national team in 1987 and 1988 when there was a full-time men's team. He also played for Canada at the 1988 Olympics and 1992 world championship.
Habscheid, the leading scorer on the Canadian junior team that won gold in 1982, was also an assistant coach on Canada's world champion under-18 team in August 1999.
with files from Canadian Press
