Turcotte to coach U.S. Under 17 team

Darren Turcotte played 12 seasons in the National Hockey League but he’s calling this next experience; “an opportunity of a lifetime.”

The former North Bay Skyhawks head coach and current assistant coach with the Nipissing Lakers Varsity hockey team got on a flight to Germany on Tuesday. Earlier this summer Turcotte was invited to be the head coach for the U.S. National Under 17 team at the Five Nations Cup starting on Tuesday, August 18th in Fussen, Germany.

Turcotte got the call earlier this summer after he declined the option of coaching the U.S. National Inline team at the Worlds – a job that he’s done for the past 3 summers. He was an assistant with the U.S. Under 18 Select team in 2004, and he didn’t take him long to respond when he was asked about the idea of coaching some of America’s top young ice hockey players.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to be involved with national teams in the past with the U.S. program and it’s exciting every time I go, so anytime they call I jump at the opportunity and I keep throwing it on my resume but that’s not really the reason I do it,” said Turcotte from Elitehockey.net on Monday night.

“I do it because I enjoy working with players of that calibre and I enjoy helping the kids - especially with this years group, you know with all these players going into their first international competition it will be a real eye opening experience for all of them and I will be glad to be part of it.”

Turcotte will be coaching a pair of former NHLers kids in the tournament. Connor Murphy, is the son of former NHLer defenceman Gord Murphy and Lukas Sutter happens to the son of Rich Sutter. He got a chance to evaluate the talent in late June when USA Hockey held a selection camp in Rochester, New York.

“Most of the players are just stepping into junior hockey, we have a couple that played jr. hockey last year but most of them are coming out of prep schools out of Minnesota or in the Northeast or kids that played Midget AAA hockey last year so it’s going to be exciting it’s going to be a great group of kids.”

Turcotte’s American squad will hit the ice at 10 a.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday, August 18th when they take on Slovakia.

Hockey Canada is not sending a team to this tournament.

You can view the interview with Darren Turcotte on Cogeco North Bay News on Tuesday night at 5:30 and 6:00 p.m.