Dan De Palma (Image Credit: Kamloops Blazers/File Photo)
By Victor Kaisar
World Juniors

Blazers’ Dan De Palma to coach at third consecutive World Juniors

Jul 21, 2026 | 5:15 PM

KAMLOOPS — Make it three World Juniors in a row for Dan De Palma.

The Kamloops Blazers director of goaltending development has been named to Canada’s coaching staff for the 2027 IIHF World Junior Championship in Edmonton and Red Deer. De Palma and Brad Lauer, the head coach of the Spokane Chiefs, will represent the WHL on Canada’s coaching staff.

Lauer was named as an assistant coach alongside Sault Ste. Marie’s Drew Bannister and Saint John’s Jim Hulton. They’ll join head coach Misha Donskov and WHL alumnus and former Anaheim Duck, Ryan Getzlaf, who will make his international coaching debut.

De Palma won a bronze medal with Canada at the 2025 tournament in Minnesota, an improvement over the fifth place finish at the 2024 tournament in Ottawa.

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De Palma won back-to-back gold medals with Team Canada at the U18 World Championships in 2024 and 2025. He also won gold at the 2024 Hlinka Gretzky Cup and a silver at the 2016 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge.

This will be the seventh consecutive year in which the Kamloops Blazers have had some kind of representation on Canada’s World Junior Team. Head Coach and General Manager Shaun Clouston was an assistant coach on the 2024 team that also finished in fifth place.

Logan Stankoven and Caedan Bankier played on the 2023 team that won gold, Stankoven and Dylan Garand won gold in 2022, while Garand and Connor Zary won silver in 2021.

Canada is schedule to begin preparations for the annual holiday tournament at the World Junior Summer Showcase, which runs July 26 to Aug. 1 in Windsor, Ontario. Finland, Sweden and the United States will also be participating at this tournament.

Team Canada is currently scheduled to play Czechia, Switzerland, Latvia and Norway in round-robin action at the World Juniors, which gets underway on Boxing Day. Defending champions Sweden, Finland, the United States, Slovakia and Germany will square off in the other group.

A tournament schedule has not yet been released.

by Victor Kaisar

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