Assistant coaches Cassidy, DeBoer, Tocchet round out Canada's Olympic men's hockey staff

Hockey Canada announced Monday that Bruce Cassidy, Peter DeBoer and Rick Tocchet will serve as assistants on Jon Cooper's staff for the 2026 Olympic men's hockey tournament, as they did at the 4 Nations tourney earlier this year.

Along with head coach Jon Cooper, they were behind bench for 4 Nations tourney

Composite of Canadian Olympic men’s hockey assistant coaches Bruce Cassidy, Peter DeBoer and Rick Tocchet
From left: Bruce Cassidy, Peter DeBoer and Rick Tocchet will return to Canada's bench as assistants, the same role in which they served at the 4 Nations Face-Off tourney in February, won the Canadians over the United States. (CBC Sports composite: Ethan Miller/Getty Images, LM Otero and Matt Slocum/Associated Press)

After leading Canada to victory at this year's 4 Nations Face-Off, head coach Jon Cooper is getting his same support staff for the Milan-Cortina Olympics.

Hockey Canada announced Monday that Bruce Cassidy of the Vegas Golden Knights, Rick Tocchet of the Philadelphia Flyers and former Dallas Stars coach Peter DeBoer will once again serve as assistants on Cooper's staff for the 2026 Winter Games.

Former Stars assistant and Hockey Canada vice-president of hockey operations Misha Donskov returns as an assistant coach, while goaltending consultant David Alexander, director of performance analysis James Emery and video co-ordinator Elliott Mondou round out the staff.

The group led Canada to victory at the NHL's 4 Nations Face-Off, the first international tournament to have league participation since the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.

Connor McDavid scored in overtime as Canada beat the United States 3-2 in Boston to win the tournament, which replaced this season's NHL all-star weekend.

The men's Olympic hockey tournament runs Feb. 11-22 in Milan, Italy. Canada won its third gold medal in four Games the last time NHL players participated in the Olympics in 2014.

"After a successful 4 Nations Face-Off, I am excited to welcome Bruce, Peter, Rick, Misha, David, James and Elliott back to Canada's coaching staff for 2026 Olympic Winter Games, as this is a highly skilled group of coaches that bring impressive resumes to our staff," Cooper said in a news release.

"This group of coaches will provide consistency and a winning pedigree to our team, and I know our players will greatly benefit from this world-class coaching staff."

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