Hockey Canada has officially named Rick Tocchet, Bruce Cassidy, and Peter DeBoer as assistant coaches for the 2026 Olympic men’s hockey team, joining head coach Jon Cooper behind the bench.
The trio previously worked together with Cooper during the 2025 NHL 4 Nations Face-Off in February, where they led Canada to victory. None of the four coaches have ever served behind the bench at the Olympics before.
Tocchet, 61, recently took over as head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers following three seasons with the Vancouver Canucks. He won the Jack Adams Award in 2024 after guiding Vancouver to an impressive 50-23-9 record and a return to the playoffs. However, after a disappointing 2024-25 campaign where the Canucks went 38-30-14, Tocchet chose to leave the team and accept a new role in Philadelphia. While Tocchet represented Canada at the Canada Cup in 1987 and 1991 as a player, he never competed in the Olympics.
Cassidy remains at the helm of the Vegas Golden Knights. His team went 50-22-10 last season before falling to the Edmonton Oilers in the second round of the playoffs. Cassidy led the Golden Knights to a Stanley Cup title in his first year with the team following a six-year stint coaching the Boston Bruins.
DeBoer, 57, is currently without an NHL job after being let go by the Dallas Stars in June. Despite that, his recent coaching résumé is strong—he guided the Stars to three consecutive Western Conference Finals and has appeared in the final four six times in the last seven seasons with Dallas, Vegas, and San Jose. However, none of those runs resulted in a Stanley Cup Final berth.
Earlier this summer, Hockey Canada unveiled the first six players selected to the 2026 Olympic roster: forwards Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, Brayden Point, and Sam Reinhart, along with defenseman Cale Makar.
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