Red Wings' Lalonde named assistant on Team USA world championship team

Detroit — Derek Lalonde was named an assistant coach for Team USA Friday by USA Hockey for the upcoming men's world championships.

Lalonde and Red Wings goaltending coach Alex Westlund were added to the coaching staff, along with Jack Capuano (Ottawa Senators), Ty Hennes (Pittsburgh Penguins) and Greg Moore (USA Hockey) to support previously announced Team USA head coach John Hynes (Minnesota Wild).

The world championships run from May 10-26 in Ostrava and Prague, Czechia.

Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin and goaltender Alex Lyon were among the first 15 players announced earlier in the week by USA Hockey to its roster for the upcoming tournament.

Lalonde just completed his second season as Wings head coach and will be serving as assistant coach for Team USA at the world championships for the second consecutive season. Lalonde has been involved with Team USA on the international stage on two other occasions, helping the U.S. junior select team to championships in the world Junior A Challenge in 2013 as head coach and as assistant coach in 2012.

At his season-ending press conference, Lalonde strongly expressed an interest in joining the Team USA staff if the opportunity were presented to him.

"If they call, I'll go 100 percent," Lalonde said. "I've never said no to USA Hockey and I never will. If they need me, I will be going to that tournament."

Team USA will train in Bratislava, Slovakia, starting May 5 and play a pre-tournament game there against Slovakia on May 7. The U.S. will open play in the tournament against Sweden on May 10 in Ostrava, Czechia, at 8:20 p.m. local time (2:20 p.m. ET).

All U.S. games in the tournament will air live on NHL Network.

The U.S. has finished in the top four of the IIHF men's world championship in seven of the last 10 tournaments with four bronze medals to its credit (2013, 2015, 2018, 2021).

tkulfan@detroitnews.com

@tkulfan