Report: Hockey Canada make-over begins with Scott Niedermayer hiring

According to a report from TSN hockey insider Darren Dreger, legendary Hall of Fame defenseman Scott Niedermayer has been hired by Hockey Canada and will be part of the organization's Spengler Cup team in 2023.

From Dreger:

Interesting...

Obviously Niedermayer has the resume to guide a team's defensive corps, what's most interesting to me is that this hiring looks to represent a bit of a change in direction for Hockey Canada. To my knowledge they haven't made any significant hirings since this past summer's scandal and I wouldn't be surprised if that's because players and executives of Niedermayer's stature and pedigree may have been scared off. I wouldn't blame anyone for steering clear of Hockey Canada these days... aligning yourselves with them at the height of controversy seems like a bad career move.

But this Niedermayer hiring signals a bit of a change to me. And again, that's not me reporting, it's purely speculation on my part. Still, I can't help but feel like Niedermayer's addition is the first bit of good news to come out of Hockey Canada in quite some time. Here's hoping it works out for both sides.

Hockey Canada deserves all of the scrutiny and criticism that they've received over the past six months. The people who operated Hockey Canada and made sure that its transgressions were hid from the public deserve to be held accountable. Full stop. Having said all of that though, Hockey Canada also deserves the opportunity to rebuild itself. The fact of the matter is that Hockey Canada is one of the best and largest hockey development programs in the world. I know that there are many fans who'd love nothing more than to see it burned to the ground, but I think that's a foolish approach. We gain nothing from torching a once-proud and dominant program, but we stand to gain so much from rebuilding it from the ground up and creating a newer, better more transparent Hockey Canada. Maybe I'm just a silly idealist, but I'm hopeful that the organization's hiring of a classy individual like Scott Niedermayer is a sign that things are moving more in that direction.