Mitch Love has been named as one of three coaches tasked with leading Canada’s National Men’s Summer Under-18 Team at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup, which debuts in Alberta and runs August 6th through the 11th in Edmonton and Red Deer.
Love will be an assistant to Gilles Bouchard, who coaches in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.
Love was named head coach of the Saskatoon Blades of the Western Hockey League in May after eight seasons as an assistant coach with the Everett Silvertips.
Love served as a guest coach at Canada’s National Men’s Summer Under-18 Team selection camp.
He was also an assistant with Team Canada Red at the 2016 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge, and added a gold medal with Team Canada White in 2015.
As a player, Love spent five seasons in the AHL, playing for Albany, Houston, Lake Erie, Lowell and Peoria, before spending the 2010-11 season with the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs of the Central Hockey League.
Before beginning his professional hockey career, the Quesnel, B.C. product played 320 games in the WHL with the Moose Jaw Warriors, Swift Current Broncos, and Everett Silvertips.
The Hlinka Gretzky Cup features the best under-18 players from around the globe in a premier best-on-best international hockey tournament.
In the 27-year history of the event (formerly known as the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Cup), Canada has won 21 gold medals, including capturing gold last year in Breclav, Czech Republic.