EDMONTON - Canadian Hockey announced today that the general manager of Team Canada's entry in this summer's World Cup of Hockey, Glen Sather, will also coach the team with the assistance of Eddie Johnston and Marc Crawford.

Sather is no stranger to international hockey. His extensive international coaching and management background has seen him guide Team Canada to the 1984 Canada Cup, and then he was instrumental on the management committee of both the 1987 Canada Cup team and the NHL All-Star team which participated in Rendez-Vous Œ87 in Quebec City. In 1994, Sather was the general manager of Canada's gold medal winning team at the World Championships in Italy.

He is also very familiar with the majority of the players on the roster for the World Cup. He took six players (Coffey, Gretzky, Claude Lemieux, Mario Lemieux, Messier, and Stevens) into the 19 Canada Cups, and worked with another five (Brind'Amour, Kariya, Sakic, Shanahan and Verbeek) at the 1994 World Championships.

Eddie Johnston brings a wealth of experience to the coaching staff, having guided the Pittsburgh Penguins for six seasons in two different stints. For the past three seasons, the Penguins have recorded one of the best records in the NHL. He also coached the Chicago Blackhawks to a first-place Smythe Division finish in 1979-80 and was the general manager with Pittsburgh from 19. He then held the same post with the Hartford Whalers from 19. Johnston enjoyed an illustrious 16-year career as a goaltender in the NHL, and was the last goaltender to play every minute of a season when he played all 70 games for the 1963-64 Bruins.

Marc Crawford, during a very short period of time, has assembled outstanding coaching credentials, culminating in the four-game sweep this year by the Colorado Avalanche in the Stanley Cup finals. He started his career behind the bench in Cornwall of the Ontario Hockey League before joining the Toronto Maple Leafs farm club in St. John's, Newfoundland. He let that squad to the Calder Cup final and was selected American Hockey League Coach of the Year. Crawford joined the Quebec Nordiques' franchise in 1994, and he then guided the Nordiques to the NHL's second best record in the 1994-95 season. He was honored for that accomplishment by becoming the first and only Nordiques coach to be named NHL Coach of they Year.

Team Canada will be managed by Sather, along with delegation head Ron Robison of Canadian Hockey, Pat Quinn of the Vancouver Canucks, Bob Gainey of the Dallas Starts, and Neil Smith of the New York Rangers.