Bruce Cassidy, Rick Tocchet and Pete DeBoer were named Canada assistant coaches Wednesday for the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off from Feb. 12-20 in Montreal and Boston.
The tournament will be held with teams of NHL players from Finland, Sweden, Canada and the United States competing in a round-robin tournament. It will be the first best-on-best tournament since the World Cup of Hockey 2016 in Toronto.
Cassidy, DeBoer and Tocchet will join Jon Cooper (Tampa Bay Lightning), who was named coach June 25.
Cassidy is entering his third season as Vegas Golden Knights coach and guided them to their first Stanley Cup championship in 2023. DeBoer was hired as Dallas Stars coach June 21, 2022, and has taken them to the Western Conference Final in each of his first two seasons. He’s coached two teams to the Stanley Cup Final (New Jersey Devils, 2012; San Jose Sharks, 2016).
Tocchet won the Jack Adams Award voted as NHL coach of the year last season after guiding the Vancouver Canucks to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the second time since 2014-15. The Canucks won 50 games, third-highest in their history, and ascended from sixth place in the Pacific Division to first before losing the Western Conference Second Round in seven games to the Edmonton Oilers.
Tocchet is a two-time Stanley Cup champion as a Pittsburgh Penguins assistant (2016, 2017) and won it as a Penguins forward in 1992.
"It was quite an honor," Tocchet told the Canucks website. "It's the same feeling coaching as it is playing for your country. There's obviously a lot of pride and the whole country will be backing us. I'll have to take the Vancouver jersey off and be honed in for Team Canada and help the players in whatever capacity."
Sidney Crosby (Penguins), Brad Marchand (Boston Bruins), Nathan MacKinnon (Colorado Avalanche), Connor McDavid (Oilers) and Brayden Point (Lightning) were named to Canada's roster in June.
Stars assistant Misha Donskov and video coach James Emery were also named to Canada’s staff Wednesday.
"I am excited to welcome Bruce, Peter, Misha, Rick and James to the coaching staff for the 4 Nations Face-Off, as this is a highly skilled group of coaches that bring impressive accolades and experience at all levels of the game," Cooper said. "I know our players will greatly benefit from this world-class coaching staff, and I look forward to working alongside all five and representing Canada in international competition in February."
