USA Hockey Finalizes Coaching Staff For 2026 Worlds
USA Hockey has rounded out its coaching staff for next month’s 2026 World Championship in Switzerland, the organization announced Thursday. Former Sabres bench boss Don Granato was previously announced as the head coach in March as the Americans aim to win back-to-back gold medals at the event for the first time ever.
Joining Granato as assistants will be Canucks assistant Kevin Dean, Predators assistant Darby Hendrickson, Rangers assistant Ty Hennes and University of Michigan head coach Brandon Naurato. Sharks goaltending coach Thomas Speer is joining in the same role, while Predators video coach Lawrence Feloney and Islanders video coordinator Matt DeMado have also been added to the staff.
It’s a very similar group to the contingent that led the Americans to the promised land last season. Dean, Speer, and Feloney are all returnees, as are general manager Brett Peterson and assistant general manager Jeff Kealty.
Dean had no previous national team experience up until last year’s tournament, but they obviously liked what they saw, then under Sharks head coach Ryan Warsofsky. He’ll be primarily responsible for the defensemen and penalty kill, the same role he holds in Vancouver, although the Canucks had a league-worst 71.5% penalty kill success rate and ranked 29th in the league in shots against per game with 29.8 in Dean’s first season behind the bench there. He had previous stints with the Bruins (2017-22) and Blackhawks (2022-25) as an assistant.
In Nashville, Hendrickson is more of a roving assistant focused on player development. This marks his first national team appearance as a coach, although he scored 14 points in 44 World Championship games for the U.S. as a player in six tournaments (1996-2001) and also suited up for them at the 1994 Winter Olympics.
Hennes returns to the United States bench after first serving as an assistant coach at the 2024 Worlds. The Americans went 5-1-1 in group play that year but were upset by the host Czechia in the quarterfinals. Hennes is coming off his first season with the Rangers, following Mike Sullivan to New York last summer after spending the previous three seasons under him as an assistant with the Penguins.
Naurato, one of the brighter coaching prospects in the sport, is 41 years old and just wrapped up his fourth season heading up the Wolverines’ bench. A former player development consultant with the Red Wings from 2018-21, he spent only one season at Michigan as an assistant before earning the promotion. During that time, he’s won a pair of Big 10 championships and got Michigan to its fourth Frozen Four in the last five years, although they’ve been bounced in the national semifinal each time.
Rangers Hire David Quinn, Joe Sacco As Assistant Coaches
4:19 p.m.: The Rangers have officially announced their new hires, according to a team statement.
8:38 a.m.: The Rangers are nearing a deal to bring David Quinn back to the organization as an assistant coach under new bench boss Mike Sullivan, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports. They’re also expected to add former Bruins interim head coach Joe Sacco to Sullivan’s staff after Boston declined to remove his interim tag and hired Marco Sturm today instead. Sullivan’s third and final assistant will be Ty Hennes, who had been on Sullivan’s staff with the Penguins for the last few years, Friedman adds.
Quinn, whose first NHL head coaching job was in New York from 2018 to 2021, spent last year as an assistant under Sullivan in Pittsburgh as well. He also worked with Sullivan as an assistant for the United States at the 4 Nations Face-Off.
It’s exceedingly rare to see a coach return to a team so quickly after he’d been let go, especially in a reduced capacity, but he’ll take the chance to continue working with Sullivan after coming up short in a couple of head coaching searches. The Kraken and Penguins both reportedly interviewed Quinn for their vacancies this offseason.
Quinn will presumably work with a Rangers power play that had its fair share of struggles this year. After clicking at 26.4% in their Presidents’ Trophy-winning 2023-24 season, their man-advantage units converted at just a 17.6% rate this year, fifth-worst in the league.
Sacco heads to MSG after an 11-year run in Boston that began as an assistant in the 2014-15 season. The Massachusetts native survived two head coaching changes before getting a chance himself as the interim for most of this year following Jim Montgomery‘s firing in November. He coached the Bruins to a 25-30-7 record, undoubtedly dragged down by a 5-11-2 post-deadline stretch after trading away captain Brad Marchand and top-four defenseman Brandon Carlo.
The 56-year-old’s previous NHL stops include a four-year run as head coach of the Avalanche from 2009-10 to 2012-13 and one year with the Sabres as an assistant in 2013-14. He also coached the United States to a bronze medal at the 2013 World Championship.
Hennes, the tertiary assistant, is by far the least experienced among the group. The 45-year-old has only ever worked in Pittsburgh at the NHL level, only working on the bench since November 2022. Before that, he worked with the Pens for four years as a skating skills coach.