Clement Jodoin – Canadiens Assistant Coach

Canadiens assistant coach Clement Jodoin will assist German National Team coach Pat Cortina in preparation for the Deutschland Cup tournament which begins Thursday and will run through Sunday at the Olympic Hall in Munich.

Jodoin coached the Hamilton Bulldogs last season and was promoted to a Canadiens assistant coaching position by new general manager Marc Bergevin in July.

The highly regarded Cortina, a St. Leonard-Montreal native who has coached the National Teams of Italy and Hungary in the past,  was appointed to the position of German National Team Coach in September.  He doubles as head coach of EHC Red Bull Munich in the German Elite League.  Cortina approached Jodoin in mid-Octoober about the possibility of assisting him when it became clear the NHL lockout was going to be anything but short term.

The Deutschland Cup is a four team tourament involving Germany, Switzerland, Slovakia and a team of Canadians playing in Europe.  Former Canadiens playing on this version of Team Canada are KHL forwards  Nigel Dawes and Dustin Boyd  plus Hamilton Bulldogs Yannick Lehoux and Shawn Belle (both playing for Mannheim).

Mostly  because of insurance issues, Yannick Weber and Raphael  Diaz  were left  off the Swiss entry in the tournament as are  most of the other locked out  NHLer’s now in Europe.  Tomas Plekanec is an exception.  He will play for the Czechs at the Karjala Tournament at Turku  Finland this weekend.

EHC  Red Bull Munich, the team Cortina has coached the last six-plus years, was one of three teams along with Switzerland’s Ambri-Piotta and Fribourg with whom Canadiens forward David Desharnais negotiated a lockout style contract.  Desharnais finally settled on Fribourg.   Scott Gomez also talked to Munich.   The Munich club finally settled on Winnipeg Jets forward Blake Wheeler.

Share on Facebook