By Dave Pollard, guelphstorm.com exclusive

When David Milek was hired to coach the Ontario team at the Canada Winter Games, it wasn't just good news for the Guelph Storm.

It was doubly good news.

Not only did Milek get the chance to call the shots on a team of elite players, he also got a huge jump on scouting for the 2011 OHL draft. The Canada Games, for the first time ever, was a competition for under-16 teams -- the norm has been for the provinces to send under-17 teams to the quadrennial event -- and that allowed the Storm's assistant coach to get a handle on the best of the 1995-born crop while advancing his own career.

Basically, it was a win-win for Milek and the Storm.

"We're elated," Storm general manager Mike Kelly said of Milek's involvement with Team Ontario. "I think it's an honour for him and for the organization. I had a chance to go out and was there for three of Ontario's games and got to watch David run the bench for the first time as his own man, so to speak, at that level. I thought he did a real good job with it. He's been quick to say how much he learned and enjoyed it.”

"We try to push all our guys who get an opportunity with that development model to do it. They always come back better hockey guys for it."

Storm head coach Scott Walker echoed Kelly's sentiments.

"I don't think this organization or many organizations hold people back," Walker said. "You want to see people go on, that's what it's all about. We're thrilled not only to bring attention to our coaching staff but also the organization. We're putting good people through here."

The Ontario team failed to win a medal at the tournament in Halifax, losing 5-2 to eventual-champion British Columbia in the semifinals before falling 5-3 to Alberta in the bronze-medal game.

Despite the result, Milek enjoyed the opportunity to be the head coach for the first time since he guided the junior B St. Thomas Stars a few years back.

"The experience was awesome," Milek said. "When we got there, right away it was expressed that if you never go to the Olympics, this is as close as you'll get. It's a massive multi-sport event. There were some good teams, some well-prepared teams, and we certainly competed hard.

"It's just another feather in (my) cap, really. To be identified as that guy to coach that team, on top of how many guys who applied for it, was awesome. It's frustrating we didn't medal but when you go to those competitions, it's elite coaches, elite competition."

After finding out he's been selected to coach the Ontario under-16 team last spring, Milek started the building process for the Canada Games last summer when he coached the Ontario Minor Hockey Association team at the under-16 evaluation tournament in Kitchener. Then he and Team Ontario general manager Matt Rabideau started scouting the best of the best across the province, trying to pin down the 20 players they wanted to take to Halifax.

Of course, it didn't hurt that he was also watching players the Storm might be interested in drafting come May.

"I scouted probably around 100 games and Matt Rabideau was out to about 200 so we had about 300 between the two of us," Milek said. "We identified the elite guys. Every year there's a group of elite players. We left some elite guys off but you can only take 20."

Not only did Milek scout them, he also coached 20 of the top players so he's got an inside track on what makes them tick, a real edge for the Storm in the draft.

 "I've got a good relationship with all 20 and there wasn't a bad kid on that team, they were all good kids," he said. "Probably the next 20 that almost made the team, there's a relationship there, too."

But the real education for Milek came during his time behind the bench during tournament games and on the ice for practices. For an assistant coach in the OHL, it's all about absorbing as much as you can when opportunities to take the reins come around.

"It's a learning experience not to win because I had all the success in the summer time and then didn't win (at the Canada Games)," Milek said. "You're always left panicking because you're the guy in charge, you've got your neck on the line, but that's part of learning. I'll certainly be applying for the (under) 17s moving forward, and looking to continue to develop, just to work with and around some elite coaches to see what they do. You have to learn every day."

 Some of that knowledge will wind up being imparted on the Storm players, too. Just perhaps not the X's and O's, strategic or systemic thinking you might expect.

"I think it broadens him (in other ways), quite frankly," Kelly said. "Not so much even the involvement in the Ontario team but seeing where the Ontario team fit with other teams in the country. I think they tried to pick the best 20 kids in Ontario and there might have been some kids selected because of particular roles.

"I think it helps David to see that being one of the 20 best in Ontario maybe makes you only one of the top 60 in Canada. Then you mix in the U.S. kids and ten those in Europe, all of a sudden they might only be in the top 120 in the world. That's still pretty good. But a lot of kids at that age think they're going to go from first-round OHL pick to first-round NHL and we all know it doesn't happen that way.”

"David can now come back and say, whoa boys, I understand it at a world level. Don't be satisfied being one of the better ones on the Guelph Storm, don't be satisfied being one of the better ones in the Ontario Hockey League. It's abroad world of hockey out there. He'll be better prepared to give that message to the kids."

 Milek also learned a valuable lesson earlier this season when Jason Brooks was replaced, first as GM then as head coach. Milek has been with the Storm since 2007 but it was the first time in his tenure that one of the coaching or management team was fired.

But Milek remained philosophical about the mid-stream coaching change.

"I guess if you want to be involved in hockey at the higher levels, you've got to get used to it and be able to deal with it," he said. "You always have to realize you're not going to be the first or the last coach fired and/or hired. That's the way it is and you have to accept it. One bit of advice Jason gave me is to do things your way.

"Then you go down swinging your way. If that works, great. If it doesn't, at least you did it your way."