Canada's Westlake comes out of Para hockey retirement, seeks 6th Paralympic Games

A man who knows what it takes to win a Paralympic hockey gold in Italy has come out of retirement hoping to help Canada do it again.

Five-time Paralympian Greg Westlake of Oakville, Ont., spent the past two seasons as an assistant coach of the Canadian para hockey team.

The 39-year-old put his practice jersey back on at a Canadian training camp in Calgary that concluded Tuesday.

"I absolutely love this game. I love this team," Westlake said. "It's hard to make that decision on when you want to retire because you're kind of planning your life in these four-year segments, because that's when the Paralympics are.

"I certainly wouldn't have stepped away at 36, but looking four years ahead, I didn't know if I'd still be able to still be going at 39, especially if I played every season over the past few years.

"Hockey doesn't define who I am. There are so many other great things going on. I just get to come here and be with an amazing group of guys, the culture in that room is so fantastic, and just have fun doing my favourite thing one last time."

Westlake was 18 years old when Canada won Para hockey gold in Turin, Italy, in 2006.

He was on teams that finished fourth in Vancouver in 2010, took bronze in 2014 and lost a pair of finals to archrival United States in 2018 and 2022.

Westlake then stepped into the coaching ranks, while he and his wife, Catherine, became parents to two children.

"I've played with probably half the team anyways and honestly if I wasn't doing a bit of the coaching I don't know if I'd be sitting here right now because it kept me close to the environment, it kept me close to guys and it actually made it easier to come back and play right now, because even the guys I haven't played with I still had a