Hockey Canada's Spengler Cup GM, Marc Bergevin, helped choose Michel Therrien to coach the 2025 squad. They worked together in the same positions with the Montreal Canadiens.
Michel Therrien and Marc Bergevin reunite on Canada's 2025 Spengler Cup squad.
GM Bergevin helped choose Therrien to coach the Canadian men's team for the Spengler Cup, an annual six-team tournament scheduled for Dec. 26 to 31 in Davos, Switzerland.
In June 2012, Bergevin selected Therrien to replace Randy Cunneyworth as coach of the Montreal Canadiens. The two worked together on the Canadiens for parts of five seasons before Bergevin fired Therrien in February 2017 and brought in Claude Julien.
Rounding out Canada's coaching staff for the Spengler Cup are assistant coaches Drew Bannister, Rob Cookson and Patrice Lefebvre, as well as video coach Jeremy Coupal. Associate GM Stacy Roest helped choose the staff with support from Scott Salmond, Hockey Canada's senior VP of high performance and hockey operations.
The squad will look to win the Spengler Cup for the first time since 2019.
"Michel's extensive resume as a head coach in the National Hockey League will allow him to be a great leader for our team, and Drew, Rob, Patrice and Jeremy bring many years of experience in the NHL, American Hockey League and Europe, as well as in international competition, and we look forward to representing Canada in Davos," Bergevin said in the team's announcement.
Therrien's coming out of coaching retirement to lead this Spengler Cup squad. The 62-year-old announced his retirement on Montreal radio in September.
He most recently served as an assistant coach with the Philadelphia Flyers from 2019 to 2021. He also coached the Pittsburgh Penguins to the Stanley Cup final in 2008 and the Canadiens in his first stint from 2000 to 2003. Before his NHL coaching career, he led QMJHL Granby to a Memorial Cup win in 1996.
During Therrien's second stint as Habs coach, the team made the playoffs three times, making the Eastern Conference final in 2013-14 and the second round in 2014-15.
Former Blues Coach Highlights Rest Of Coaching And Support Staff
Bannister returns to the bench after coaching the St. Louis Blues for parts of two seasons.
The 51-year-old became the Blues' interim coach in December 2023 after the team fired Craig Berube. He finished the season 30-19-5 and earned a two-year contract as permanent Blues coach.
Twenty-two games into that new contract, the Blues fired Bannister days after fired Boston Bruins coach Jim Montgomery became available to hire. St. Louis had a 9-12-1 record at the time, and Montgomery helped the Blues make the playoffs.
Cookson, meanwhile, is in his first season as an assistant coach for Lausanne of the Swiss National League. He's also been an assistant coach for nine seasons between the ZSC Lions and Lugano.
Cookson, 64, was also an assistant coach for the Calgary Flames between 2005 and 2011, the Ottawa Senators from 2016 to 2019 and the Chicago Blackhawks in 2021-22. He won the Spengler Cup as an assistant coach for Canada in 2016.
Lefebvre, 58, is in his first season as head coach of Forward Morges HC in Switzerland's Div. I league and their U-21 club. He's been a head coach for teams in the Italian Hockey League, Alps Hockey League and Sky Swiss League.
The support staff includes equipment manager A.J. Murley, physiotherapist Scott Cyr, massage therapist Andy Huppi, physician Dr. Jim Thorne, managers of hockey operations Mitchell Furlotte and Kurt Keats, and co-ordinator of hockey operations Miah Armitage.
This year's six teams in the Spengler Cup are hosts HC Davos, club teams HC Fribourg-Gotteron, IFK Helsinki and HC Sparta Praha, Team Canada and the newly-formed U.S. Collegiate Selects.
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