Dylan Hunter to lead London Knights while his father Dale is coaching Team Canada

Dale Hunter has full confidence in his son and nephew taking the reigns of the London Knights when he leaves to be the head coach of Team Canada’s U20 team.

Dylan – Dale’s son – will be the head coach, while his nephew Rick Steadman will work with the defencemen. Associate general manager Rob Simpson will join them to be a third man on the bench.

“We just do it by how many years we’ve been here,” said Dylan, with a smile when asked why he gets the main title.

“I’ve been here a little bit longer (than his cousin Steadman). We’ve all been together for a better part of ten, 12 years now and he’s (Steadman) is going to take over the “D”(defence), and then I’ll do more of the forwards.”

So, Dylan gets the job, even though his cousin is older?

“Not by much though,” joked Steadman.

“Only by a couple days and he was here a couple of years before.”

The team is in a similar position to 2020 when Dale and Mark Hunter left their junior team to lead Team Canada to a gold medal at the U20 tournament.

The Hunter brothers have full confidence in their young relatives to lead the way.

“Dylan has been around hockey a long time,” said Dale.

“He is around the guys is a lot and he knows what to do with drills and how to run a bench”.

Dale has been grooming his assistant coaches for years now. He gives them all the media responsibilities, and you rarely see him do much in practice. Dylan and Rick do all the drills.

“He gives us a lot of responsibility for sure,” said Steadman.

“We do a lot of the interviews, and he lets us do a lot of systems on the ice including looking after the powerplay. We’ve just got to step up and make sure we keep on things same way.”

Dylan does aspire to be a junior hockey head coach. It’s something he’s talked about with his father, but for now, if Dale is in charge, he’s happy in his current role.

Over the next few weeks, he’s ready to root on his family with Team Canada and he’s even had a hand in scouting the Canadian Hockey League players for the 27-man training camp roster.

“It’s our pastime, we’re all Canadians,” said Dylan.

“Boxing Day games, growing up watching it and all the different players, it’s cool. I’ve been watching tape for the last month and it’s fun but a lot of work. We all just watch tape together and then see who we all like and talk about it. This tournament is big and there are some good teams coming in, so you never really know how it’s going to go.”

Team Canada training camp begins Friday in Niagara Falls and the Knights could play up to 10 games with Dylan leading the way if Dale and Canada make it to the final on Monday Jan. 5, 2026.