Canada will bring back Jon Cooper's entire staff from 4 Nations for Olympics
CALGARY — 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.
Article content
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.
Article content
Article content
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.
Article content
Article content
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.
Article content
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.
Article content
'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 release.
Article content
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Canada News.Net
2 hours ago
- Canada News.Net
Canada names assistant coaches for 2026 Olympics
(Photo credit: Winslow Townson-Imagn Images) The Team Canada coaching staff for the 2026 Winter Olympics will have a very familiar appearance. The same NHL head coaches that helped bench boss Jon Cooper guide the Canadians to gold in the 4 Nations Face-Off in February will don jackets and ties for the Milano Cortina competition in Italy. Vegas Golden Knights head coach Bruce Cassidy, former Dallas Stars coach Pete DeBoer and new Philadelphia Flyers coach Rick Tocchet will work with NHL players in the Olympics for the first time in a dozen years. The NHL has not allowed players to participate since the 2014 Sochi Olympics. '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,' Cooper, head coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning, said in a statement. 'I look forward to working alongside all seven as we look to replicate our 4 Nations success on the Olympic stage in February.' Cassidy, 60, guided Vegas to a Stanley Cup title in his first season at the helm in 2023. He previously served as bench boss in Washington (2002-04) and Boston (2016-22), leading the Bruins to a berth in the finals in the 2018-19 season. DeBoer, 57, has served as a head coach for 17 NHL seasons, leading Florida (2008-11), New Jersey (2011-15), San Jose (2015-19), Vegas (2019-22) and Dallas (2022-25). He piloted the Stars to three consecutive Western Conference finals, but could not get to the Stanley Cup Finals, as he did with the Devils (2012) and Sharks (2016). Tocchet, 61, was hired to lead the Flyers in May after three campaigns with the Vancouver Canucks. He won the Jack Adams Award, given to the league's top head coach, in 2024. Tocchet, who enjoyed 18 seasons a rugged forward in the NHL (1984-2002), also had coaching stints in Tampa Bay (2008-10) and Arizona (2017-21). Team Canada general manager Doug Armstrong (St. Louis Blues GM) headed up the group that made the selections, along with assistant GMs Julien BriseBois (Tampa Bay), Jim Nill (Dallas) and Don Sweeney (Boston), director of player personnel Kyle Dubas (Pittsburgh) and Cooper. 'It was important to bring back our elite coaches and support staff from the 4 Nations Face-Off, as this is a group that provides familiarity to our team and brings a desire to help our athletes perform at their best,' Armstrong said. 'Each individual brings unique NHL and international experience to our team, and all staff members will play a key role in Team Canada's preparation and performance. We know everyone is excited for the opportunity to represent Canada at the Olympic Winter Games and wear the Maple Leaf with pride in Italy.' The men's hockey competition in Milan will take place Feb. 11-22, 2026.
CTV News
2 hours ago
- CTV News
Onus on athletes to let drug testers know where they are under 'whereabouts' rules
Canadian swim star Penelope Oleksiak has been notified that she committed three whereabouts failures within a 12-month period between October 2024 and June 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young A chunk of an Olympic and Paralympic athlete's life is spent telling drug testers where they will be every day and every night. Failure to provide that information can damage an athlete's eligibility to compete, even if they've never taken a banned substance. Penny Oleksiak won't be on Canada's swimming team at world championship starting Saturday in Singapore after running afoul of 'whereabouts' requirements. From staying at a friend's house overnight in the off-season to training in remote mountains, athletes must be found for testing in order to avoid sanctions. The onus is on athletes to submit that information through the web-based Anti-Doping Administration and Management System (ADAMS) on a computer or on a mobile-phone app. Athletes must provide, on a quarterly basis, their addresses (home, hotel or otherwise) and every day must have an overnight accommodation entry. Also required is contact info, training and competition schedules and locations, time and location of school, work or medical appointments, and a 60-minute window each day that they're available for testing. If a grocery run or spontaneous decision to go to a movie conflicts with the 60-minute window an athlete offers as available for testing, ADAMS must be updated beforehand to provide an alternative hour. But athletes can also be tested at any time and any place with no advance notice. Whereabouts information must be sufficiently detailed so they can be found for testing. Swimming Canada said Oleksiak made 'an administrative mistake' and failed to keep her whereabouts information up to date. Whereabouts and ADAMS are constants in an elite athlete's life. 'It is part of our job,' said Canadian race walker and Olympic medallist Evan Dunfee. 'It is something that we sign up for.' He recalled a 2017 vacation in Iceland where he was travelling in a recreational vehicle. 'We didn't know where we were going to be stopping each night,' Dunfee recalled. 'We were just going to drive until we found somewhere nice and set up shop.' That required a consultation with the Canadian Centre For Ethics in Sport. 'I actually had to chat with CCES beforehand and say, 'hey, how do I follow the rules in this situation?' They said 'to the best of your ability, update it as best you can.' I think I ended up putting in my latitude and longitude,' Dunfee said. The World Anti-Doping Code (WADA) defines a whereabouts failure as any combination of three missed tests or filing failures in a 12-month period, which the International Testing Agency stated Oleksiak did between October 2024 and June 2025. Oleksiak withdrew from the world championship and accepted a voluntary provisional suspension under World Aquatics anti-doping rules. The 25-year-old from Toronto stated in a since-deleted social media post her violation 'does not involve any banned substance' and added, 'I am and always have been a clean athlete.' Under World Aquatics rules, if an athlete in the testing pool submits 'late, inaccurate or incomplete whereabouts that lead to (them) being unavailable for testing, (they) may receive a Filing Failure.' Canadian athletes receive training on how to navigate ADAMS and what information is required, said CCES Sport Integrity executive director Kevin Bean. 'What we do with each registered testing pool athlete is they're required to do an online e-learning course, and they have a specific module that outlines how they work through the process to submit the whereabouts information, what ADAMS is, where it's located, the type of information that you need to submit, what the deadlines are,' Bean said. 'They're required to take that course upon entry and then it's available to them every year thereafter if they remain in the registered testing pool, but it is no longer mandatory for them to take it in the years after.' The deadline for submitting whereabouts info for each quarter is the last day of the month preceding that quarter. Athletes receive email reminders a month before and 15 days out from that deadline, Bean said. There is flexibility to update ADAMS information after that quarterly deadline, Dunfee said. 'Doing that three months in advance doesn't mean you can't change it,' he said. 'We have a specific email address that we can send to, and a text message line that we send last-minute emergency changes to our whereabouts, too, if for whatever reason we can't access the app, if there's an issue with it.' Fluid schedules in different time zones can cause whereabouts mistakes, Dunfee said. 'I had a case one time in Australia, where because of just getting my days confused, I missed the filing deadline for that quarter,' he recalled. 'It sent a lot of things into chaos and it was some very panicked emails an hour after I was supposed to have done this, sorting it out. I managed to correct it and get it OK.' Dunfee says he spends about an hour a month inputting his information in ADAMS because knows his schedule fairly well in advance. He acknowledged keeping whereabouts information current is hectic for his more nomadic teammates. 'I completely understand for some athletes, it's way more onerous than it is for me,' he said. 'We have athletes who are hoping to get into these races in Europe. 'They might be on a start list for a race in Norway and a race in Belgium on the same weekend, and they're just waiting to find out which one they get into. Certainly there are cases that are much more complicated than mine.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 21, 2025. Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press
Edmonton Journal
3 hours ago
- Edmonton Journal
'Throw you a little bone': Oilers look to ink key veteran d-men, insider says
Article content Top NHL insider Bob Stauffer was back from vacation today and doing what he does best, spinning highly credible and provocative rumours about the future of the Edmonton Oilers franchise. Article content Among the items that Stauffer mentioned on Oilers Now was his certainty that the Connor McDavid contract will get done, but he added fans might well see a few contracts before that happens, including an expected new deal for d-man Jake Walman, but also an unexpected new contract for veteran d-man Mattias Ekholm, not to mention the possibility of Edmonton signing star Penn State d-man Mac Gadowsky next summer. Article content Article content On McDavid: 'Let's just cut to the chase here. I still believe 100% that Connor McDavid will be extended in the off season by the Edmonton Oilers. I know there's some people freaking out. There's one of the Toronto media guys who every day tweets an update on how many days until McDavid becomes a free agent. I would think that maybe things (on a new Edmonton deal) might get percolating a bit, maybe after Leon Draisaitl's wedding… in the first weekend of August. So away we go.' Article content Article content On Ekholm, Walman and Mac Gadowsky, son of Penn State coach Guy Gadowsky: 'Remember that name, Mac Gadowsky, a 6'3, 200-pound left-shot defenseman, one of the top offensive defensemen in the NCAA last year as a sophomore. He has transferred to Penn State… He's going to be one of the targets for (NHL) teams out there. I might know a team, they got some experience on the left side of their defense, right? A team that's got Darnell Nurse for several more years. And it wouldn't surprise me if the Oilers extended Matthias Ekholm, maybe even this summer. What about Brett Kulak? And then there's Jake Walman. He's going to get extended too. You could pretty much bet on that, though he'll likely play on the right side. But you might need some younger blood coming as a left shot.' Article content Article content Article content My take Article content 1. It was essential to get Evan Bouchard signed. Stan Bowman did so, with the price $10.5 million for four years, more than I would have liked as an Oilers fan, but I'm still glad the deal was done and believe Bouchard richly deserved such pay. He's been the Oil's best d-men at even strength by a country mile for a few years now, especially in the playoffs, and he also aced it on special teams in the playoffs, adding penalty kill work to his repetoire this playoff season. Article content Article content
