CALGARY – Hockey Canada announced Wednesday that Lindy Ruff will be Canada’s head coach at the 2013 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship with Doug Shedden serving as an assistant coach.

Lindy Ruff, 53, was an associate coach under Mike Babcock at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, winning gold. Ruff was Canada’s head coach at the 2009 IIHF World Championship in Switzerland, winning a silver medal. The native of Warburg, Alberta, was the head of the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres for more than 15 years, becoming the winningest coach in franchise history, and ranks second all-time in the NHL in most games coached with one franchise and most wins with one franchise, trailing only Al Arbour of the New York Islanders in both categories.

Prior to joining Buffalo, Ruff was an assistant coach with the NHL’s Florida Panthers for three seasons. As a player, Ruff appeared in 691 regular season games, including parts of 10 seasons with Buffalo, and three seasons with the New York Rangers.

Doug Shedden, 51, won gold in his first appearance as head coach of Canada’s National Men’s Team at the 2012 Spengler Cup, after three appearances as an assistant coach. He was head coach of Finland’s national team in 2007/2008 and led Finland to a bronze medal at the 2008 IIHF World Championship.

Shedden is the head coach of EV Zug in the Swiss National League A, a position he has held since 2008. He has a wealth of international coaching experience and NHL playing experience, totaling 325 points over 416 games with Pittsburgh, Detroit and Toronto from 1981-91, and has previously coached in the Finnish Elite League, AHL, CHL, UHL and ECHL.

Hockey Canada will be completing its coaching staff, as well as naming support staff members and players over the coming weeks.

Hockey Canada also announced that Canada’s National Men’s Team management group will serve as the management group for Canada at the 2013 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship, led by executive director Steve Yzerman.

Hockey Canada’s National Men’s Team management group was named in March 2012, and is comprised of executive director Steve Yzerman (Tampa Bay), along with Doug Armstrong (St. Louis), Ken Holland (Detroit), Kevin Lowe (Edmonton), Bob Nicholson (Hockey Canada) and Brad Pascall (Hockey Canada). Peter Chiarelli (Boston) will serve in an advisory capacity.

The management group will be overseeing all operations for Canada’s National Men’s Team at the World Championship, including staff selection, player identification and selection as well as team operations. Hockey Canada’s senior director of national teams and hockey operations, Scott Salmond, will continue to oversee team logistics, working closely with the management group.

The 2013 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship runs from May 3-19 in Stockholm, Sweden, and Helsinki, Finland. Canada will be based out of Stockholm for the duration of the event, opening on May 4 against Denmark. All of Canada’s games will be broadcast on TSN/RDS, Hockey Canada’s official broadcaster.

– with files from Hockey Canada