Flyers’ John Tortorella selected to assist Team USA bench in 2025

The Philadelphia Flyers and the Pittsburgh Penguins are set to work together in 2025. Flyers fans…. say it ain’t so! It would have to be for the best cause, right? As it turns out, that’s precisely the case, as they will be collaborating to benefit the United States of America. Specifically, the team’s head coach will be.

Philadelphia Flyers head coach John Tortorella will find himself in an unfamiliar role as an assistant coach for Team USA at the National Hockey League’s 4-Nation’s Face-off in Feb. 2025. The National Hockey League’s 4-Nation’s Face-off will feature teams of the NHL’s best from the United States, Canada, Sweden, and Finland in hockey’s version of a mid-season,  mini-World Baseball Classic. The week-long hockey showcase will take place from Feb. 12-20, 2025, and will replace this season’s edition of the NHL All-Star Game. 

The tournament will begin with games at Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, before finishing the round-robin style tournament at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. The two teams with the best record following three games will advance to battle one another in the Championship Game on Thursday, February 20. All seven games will be broadcast on TNT, ESPN, and ABC in the United States.

Tortorella, 66, will join the American coaching staff for the fifth time in his hockey coaching career. This will be the veteran Tortorella’s second assistant coaching opportunity standing behind the bench for the United States of America. The Boston native was an assistant coach for the Team USA group that captured a silver medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Most of Tortorella’s experience has come as a decision-making head coach, with four appointments for that job, the most recent opportunity coming in 2016 at the World Cup of Hockey. Team USA enjoyed victory in their first game before dropping their next three contests.  

John Tortorella is joining head coach Pittsburgh Penguins bench boss Mike Sullivan’s squad for the inaugural edition of the 4-Nations hockey tournament in 2025. Minnesota Wild head coach John Hynes and Pittsburgh Penguins assistant coach David Quinn are joining Tortorella as the other assistants on staff. 

Several NHL players have already been announced as participants for Team USA next year. Jack Eichel, Matthew Tkachuk, and Auston Matthews are the announced forwards for America, while Adam Fox, Quinn Hughes, and Charlie McAvoy will represent the start of the defensive anchor for the group. All six players have played for the United States National Team Development Program, or NTDP, at some point during their hockey careers. The remainder of the roster for the United States of America will be decided at a later time.