[6] Canale began coaching ice hockey with midget age level teams in the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce area of Montreal.
[8] Canale's season was cut short on February 20, 1978, when he was arrested by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, charged with drug trafficking at a coffeehouse in Montreal, and later pardoned.
[5][7] During this time he won a playoff championship, a bronze medal at the 1983 Winter Canada Games, and coached Pierre Turgeon, Stéphane Fiset and Patrice Brisebois.
[15][17] The Quebec teams played on home ice at the Colisée de Québec, and faced the Spokane Chiefs from the Western Hockey League (WHL), and the Sault Ste.
[15] Canale's team lost 7–1 against Spokane, in a game which included eight players ejected, a brawl in the third period, and 226 total penalty minutes.
[23] In the 1992–93 QMJHL season, Canale repeated the third-place finished in the Dilio division,[24] and Chicoutimi were swept in four games in the first round of the playoffs by the Sherbrooke Faucons.
[26][27] Two years later, he was named an assistant coach for the Canada men's national junior ice hockey team, working with head coach Perry Pearn at the 1993 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships, in which the Canadian team won the gold medal.
[31][32] Author Gare Joyce said that Canale was considered a controversial selection to be the head coach, but he left a lasting impression on his players.
[33] Canale felt pressured to win a gold medal based on past results, and stressed the importance of building team chemistry and character.
[35] Canale selected his team on the need balance skill with size and strength,[36] and said that it was more difficult to choose the two goaltenders, Jamie Storr and Manny Fernandez.
[42][44] Canada was scheduled to play Sweden in the final game of the round-robin, with the winner finishing first overall, and claiming the gold medal.
[45] Canada prevailed with a 6–4 victory over Sweden, giving Canale a second gold medal at the World Juniors.
[5][6][7][12][13] He later assisted Dave King at a preparatory camp for the Japan men's national ice hockey team in advance of the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano.
During the 1993–94 QMJHL season while playing home games at the Aréna Marcel-Bédard, he nicknamed it "le petit cabane" in French, or "the little shack" in English.
[53] Beauport finished first place in a round-robin of the remaining six teams, then lost in the third round of the playoffs in five games to the Hull Olympiques.
[2][56] Canale joined the Medicine Hat Tigers in the Western Hockey League on January 6, 1996, after the team fired head coach Brad McEwen, and his assistants.
[55] The remainder of the 1995–96 WHL season was his first opportunity to coach full-time speaking in English, outside of the Canadian junior team.
[65][66] Canale asked for an escape clause in his contract in case a professional team hired him, and did not come to terms with Medicine Hat.
[66] Canale was hired to be head coach of the Sarnia Sting for the 1996–97 OHL season, signing a two-year contract with an escape clause.
[68] In November 1996, Canale admitted that he was losing motivation to coach in the juniors, but remained as he still had a desire to win a Memorial Cup.
[79] In the last minute of game four, Canale protested the decision of the referee, by climbing on the bench and banging on the boards with a hockey stick, while screaming and making an obscene gesture, and was ejected from the match.
[10][80] Another incident broke out between the two teams with four seconds remaining in the game, and Canale returned to the bench and was involved in a stick-swinging altercation with spectators.
[87] In August 2001, Canale was found guilty of assault with a weapon as a result of the incident in the 2000 playoffs, and given an absolute discharge without a fine or jail time.
[80][84][85][88] Canale took over as head coach of the Drummondville Voltigeurs with twenty games remaining in the 2001–02 QMJHL season, replacing Daniel Bissonnette.
Canale was described by Perry Pearn as "showing emotion, fairly vocal, straightforward, good communicator, and demanding".
[95] He served as the technical director of the Quebec Midget AAA Hockey League from 2004 to 2015, and advised and assisted its coaches.