The Philadelphia Flyers will have at least one representative for Team Canada ahead of the Olympic Games that are set to take centre stage in February in Milan, Italy.
Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet was named as one of the four assistant coaches headlining Team Canada. Tampa Bay Lightning’s Jon Cooper will return as the head coach with Tocchet, Bruce Cassidy, Peter DeBoer, and Misha Donskov as the 4 assistants.
The Scarborough, Ontario native will be returning to familiar stomping grounds as he was one of the assistants during the 4 Nations Face-Off that took place earlier this year. He helped Canada claim gold after they defeated the United States in overtime during the championship bout.
The assistant coaches were selected by a decorated committee of Canadian executives including Cooper, general manager Doug Armstrong, assistant general managers Julien BriseBois, Jim Nill, and Don Sweeney, as well as director of player personnel Kyle Dubas.
Team Canada is expected to enter the tournament as the odds-on favourite to capture Olympic gold. When NHL players were last able to represent their nations, Team Canada won in 2014, as well as in 2010 and back in 2002. They finished in 7th place in 2006, and they finished 3rd in 2018 and 5th in 2022 without NHL players on the roster.
With the return of NHL players at the Olympic Games, it sets the stage for some of the best international hockey we’ve seen in a very long time. Russia will not be participating due to their invasion of Ukraine, which means we won’t see Matvei Michkov in Milan. However, we could possibly see a few Canadians represented alongside Tocchet.
Travis Konecny and Travis Sanheim were both named to the 4 Nations Face-Off but could be hard pressed to find their names on the official sheet for the Olympics. Team Canada is set for a lot of interesting roster battles, which will include the two Flyers players.
Some names to keep an eye out for that didn’t make the 4 Nations roster include Zach Hyman, Nick Suzuki, Tom Wilson, Mark Scheifele, Connor Bedard, and Macklin Celebrini up front with MacKenzie Weegar, Aaron Ekblad, and emergency 4 Nations addition Thomas Harley on the back-end.
Konecny has been a great source of offense over the last few seasons and if he keeps it up to start the 2025-26 campaign, he should have a leg up. There aren’t too many Canadian players that bring his intangibles to the table and considering the chippy, aggressive nature we saw this past season, they might need it.
Sanheim unfortunately doesn’t have the same level of attention or draw as some of his Canadian counterparts but as Tocchet mentioned during his press conference earlier in the off-season, the coaching staff at the 4 Nations were very high on the 29-year-old, which was why he made the team originally. They were very impressed with what he brought to the table, despite what the national media was saying.
The tournament runs through the 11th of February to the 22nd with preliminary rounds going from the 11th to the 15th, playoffs on the 17th, quarterfinals on the 18th, semifinals on the 20th, bronze medal game on the 21st, and gold medal game on the 22nd.
There are three groups of four teams, where the winner of each group receives a bye into the quarter-finals, alongside the highest ranked team outside of the group winners. The remaining 8 teams then face-off in a playoff game to advance to the quarter-finals.
Canada is in Group A alongside Czechia, Switzerland, and France. Finland headlines Group B with Sweden, Slovakia, and host Italy, whereas the United States are in Group C with Germany, Latvia, and Denmark.
