CALGARY, Alta. – Hockey Canada, in collaboration with the Canadian Hockey League, announced Friday that Scott Walker (Cambridge, Ont./Guelph, OHL) will join the coaching staff of Canada’s National Junior Team for the 2012 IIHF World Junior Championship from Dec. to Jan. in Calgary and Edmonton, Alta.

Walker replaces Pascal Vincent (Montreal, Que.), who resigned from his position with Canada’s National Junior Team and the QMJHL’s Blainville-Boisbriand Armada to accept the position of assistant coach with the NHL’s Winnipeg Jets.

Scott Walker, 38, is in his first full season as head coach of the OHL’s Guelph Storm, taking the position on Dec.. As a player, Walker appeared in 829 NHL games with Vancouver, Nashville, Carolina and Washington. He also played for Canada at three IIHF World Championships (1999, 2001, 2005), winning a silver medal at the 2005 tournament in Austria.

Walker joins head coach Don Hay (Kamloops, B.C./Vancouver, WHL) and assistant coaches George Burnett (Port Perry, Ont./Belleville, OHL) and Ryan Huska (Cranbrook, B.C./Kelowna, WHL) on the coaching staff.

The Program of Excellence (POE) policy committee confirmed Walker’s appointment following a meeting of the committee this week. The POE policy committee is comprised of Hockey Canada president and chief operating officer Bob Nicholson, Hockey Canada chief operating officer Scott Smith, CHL president and OHL commissioner David Branch, QMJHL commissioner Gilles Courteau and WHL commissioner Ron Robison.

For more information on Canada’s National Junior Team and the 2012 IIHF World Junior Championship, please visit www.HockeyCanada.ca/2012Juniors, and follow along via social media at www.facebook.com/worldjuniors and www.twitter.com/hc_wjc.