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On Wednesday, Bruce Cassidy, Rick Tocchet, and Pete DeBoer were appointed as Canada’s assistant coaches for the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off. The tournament will take place in Montreal and Boston from February 12-20.

The tournament, featuring teams of NHL players from Finland, Sweden, Canada, and the United States, will follow a round-robin format. This will be the inaugural best-on-best tournament since the 2016 World Cup of Hockey in Toronto.

Jon Cooper (Tampa Bay Lightning), who was named coach on June 25, will be joined by Cassidy, DeBoer, and Tocchet.

Cassidy is now heading into his third stint as the coach of the Vegas Golden Knights, leading them to their inaugural Stanley Cup championship in 2023. Meanwhile, DeBoer was appointed as the coach of the Dallas Stars on June 21, 2022, and has since guided them to the Western Conference Final in both of his initial two seasons. He has also coached two teams, the New Jersey Devils in 2012 and the San Jose Sharks in 2016, to the Stanley Cup Final.

Last season, Tocchet was voted the NHL’s coach of the year, earning him the Jack Adams Award. This was due to him leading the Vancouver Canucks to their second Stanley Cup Playoffs since the 2014-15 season. The Canucks had an impressive run, winning 50 games, which was the third-highest in the team’s history. They climbed from sixth place in the Pacific Division to first but were defeated in the Western Conference Second Round by the Edmonton Oilers after seven games.

Tocchet won the Stanley Cup twice as an assistant for the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2016 and 2017, and once as a Penguins forward in 1992.

“Tocchet expressed his feelings on the Canucks website, stating, “It was indeed a great honor. The feeling of coaching parallels the feeling of playing for your country. There is a lot of pride involved and the entire nation will support us. I’ll need to remove my Vancouver jersey and focus on Team Canada, assisting the players in any way I can.”

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.

On Wednesday, Misha Donskov, the assistant of Stars, and James Emery, the video coach, were also appointed to the staff of Canada.

Cooper expressed enthusiasm about welcoming Bruce, Peter, Misha, Rick, and James to the coaching staff for the 4 Nations Face-Off. He highlighted their remarkable achievements and diverse experience in the game, emphasizing that this group of highly skilled coaches will greatly enhance the players’ performance. He also shared his anticipation for working with the five coaches and representing Canada at the international competition in February.