The Moose Jaw Warriors are down a defenceman and a coach this week with Daemon Hunt and Mark O’Leary on the East Coast for the 2018 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge.

This is O’Leary’s first opportunity to work with Hockey Canada at a tournament as he will serve as an assistant coach with Canada Red over the next week.

O’Leary said just being involved at the summer development camp, you can see how every player and coach raise their game up a level when working for Hockey Canada.

"When you’re around other coaches and players that are really good at what they do, it makes you play up a notch, it makes sure that you’re at your best, you’re contributing and you’re prepared as well as you need to be," said O’Leary. "Once you see that Team Canada logo, whether you’re a coach or player, it’s a real special honour."

O’Leary is in his seventh season as a coach with the Warriors, earning the promotion to associate coach prior to this season.

The Owen Sound, Ont. product has had the benefit of working with Tim Hunter over the past five seasons and has leaned on his experience with Hockey Canada, first at the Under-18 and now the Under-20 level.

"Getting an inside look at things from Alan [Millar] and Tim helps me prepare," said O’Leary. "There’s not many days that go by that there’s not a conversation with Tim about Hockey Canada, in some capacity, in terms of how they go about things, with him with the World Junior team and then Alan with the U18 team."

O’Leary will coach a team that consists of 22 players from across Canada, including six WHL players. Louis Robitaille, the head coach of the QMJHL’s Victoriaville Tigres, will serve as the team’s head coach.

The three national teams, which are made up of 66 players, that will represent Canada this year were selected following a development camp in the summer, which featured 111 players.

"The easiest part was getting to know the kids," said O’Leary. "Going into the tryouts, we talked a lot about getting to know each player, but with long days and being around the kids as much as you were, it was interesting how fast you got to know them and it made it easier to evaluate them on the ice, once you got to know them off the ice."

O’Leary will be responsible for working with the team’s forwards and running the penalty kill. He said he’s been asking a lot of questions to get ready to go, "Those are jobs that you know beforehand so you can do your homework, then once we get there, it’s about watching the other teams and making sure you’re prepared for what they look like in terms of pre-scouting and getting to know their best players," he said. "It’s a lot like it is here, but just condensed into a shorter period of time."

O’Leary and Canada Red meeting the United States on Thursday in a pre-tournament game in St. Stephen, N.B. They open the tournament for real on Saturday against the Russians.

Hunt will be on Canada Black, they face Finland in pre-tournament action on Thursday and then meet Canada White in their tournament opener on Sunday afternoon.