Mike Sullivan Adds Close Friends to Team USA Coaching Staff

Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan is an esteemed member of the NHL coaching fraternity. As the second-longest tenured coach in the NHL and three Stanley Cup rings, he was a natural choice to lead Team USA in both the Four Nations Face-Off tournament this February and in the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Wednesday, Sullivan named his assistant coaches for the Four-Nations tournament, and they are both close Sullivan compadres. Philadelphia Flyers head coach John Tortorella and David Quinn, now an assistant under Sullivan with the Penguins, will be the assistant coaches.

(Clarification: Sullivan has two Stanley Cup rings as a head coach with the Penguins, one as the Chicago Blackhawks development coach in 2015).

The tournament runs from Feb. 12-20 in Montreal and Boston.

“We’ve got a highly accomplished coaching staff leading our team, and we couldn’t be more excited about the group,” said Team USA Bill Guerin via press release on TeamUSA.com. “Their experiences, both unique and shared, will be a big benefit to our country as we look to bring home a championship come February.”

Tortorella is in his third season behind the Flyers’ bench. He has coached the Columbus Blue Jackets, Vancouver Canucks, and New York Rangers and won a Stanley Cup as the boss of the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Sullivan was an assistant under Tortorella for seven years, beginning in Tampa Bay in 2007 and including stops in New York and Vancouver. The pair split in 2014 when Vancouver terminated them. Sullivan joined the Blackhawks organization in 2014, and Tortorella took over Columbus in 2015.

Sullivan and Quinn are famously close. Their relationship dates back to their college days at Boston University, where they were teammates in the late 1980s. Quinn later coached BU.

Penguins president of hockey operations/GM Kyle Dubas hired Quinn in June, a few weeks after firing associate head coach Todd Reirden.

Quinn was previously the head coach of the New York Rangers and San Jose Sharks before being relieved of his duties in San Jose following last season.

Quinn and Tortorella would presumptively be the favorites to become Team USA assistant coaches for the 2026 Olympics, as well. Sullivan was to be the Team USA head coach at the 2022 Olympic Games, but the NHL did not participate.

The Sullivan connections run deep with Team USA, too. Hynes was already named an assistant coach. Hynes coached the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins beginning in 2010. He is currently the Minnesota Wild head coach, and Guerin, a former Pittsburgh Penguins player and assistant GM, is now the GM of Minnesota.