Mike Sullivan has been named head coach of Team USA for the 2025 Quad National Championship and the 2026 U.S. Olympic men’s hockey team, USA Hockey announced today.
The 2025 Four Nations Faceoff is an international tournament featuring NHL players from the United States, Canada, Finland, and Sweden, and will be held from February 12-20, 2025. There are still two more tournaments to be held. Cities in North America are named. One in the US and one in Canada. The 2026 Olympic Games will be held from February 6th to 22nd, 2026 in the Italian cities of Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo.
Sullivan, 56, will be representing his country at the international level for the fifth time as a coach. He previously served as an assistant coach at the 2006 Olympics. He also represented his home country as the head coach of Team USA at the 2007 World Championships and as an assistant coach at the 2008 World Championships and his 2016 World Cup. He was named the head coach of the 2022 Olympic team, but did not attend because NHL players will not be participating in the Olympics.
The Marshfield, Mass., native becomes the third U.S. Olympic head coach in the past 20 years with his connection to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Herb Brooks was a Penguins scout in 2002 when he led the Americans to a silver medal in Salt Lake City, and Dan Bylsma was Pittsburgh’s head coach in 2014 when he was bench boss for the U.S. Olympic team.
Sullivan has proven to be one of the league’s most successful coaches since being hired by the Penguins midway through the 2015 season. He led Pittsburgh to back-to-back Stanley Cup titles in 2016 and 2017, becoming the first American-born manager to do so. Coach who won two Stanley Cups. Sullivan is the second head coach in NHL history to win a Stanley Cup off the bench in his first two years with the team, joining Montreal’s Toe Blake.
Since being named the Penguins’ head coach on December 12, 2015, Sullivan has compiled a record of 375-219-77. His 375 regular season wins with the Penguins are the most of any head coach in franchise history, and he is tied for fourth in the NHL in regular season wins during that span.
Sullivan has a career record of 445-275-115 as an NHL head coach with Pittsburgh and the Boston Bruins, joining John Tortorella and Peter Laviolette as one of only three American-born players to reach 400 wins. He is one of the head coaches. Last season, he played in his 800th NHL game as a head coach on February 6, 2024. His 430 wins through his first 800 NHL games rank 11th in NHL history.
Prior to his coaching career in Pittsburgh, Sullivan was the head coach of the Boston Bruins from 2003 to 2006 and had stints with the Tampa Bay Lightning (2007-09), New York Rangers (2009-13), Vancouver He served as an assistant coach with the Canucks (2013). He also served as a development coach for the Chicago Blackhawks in 2014-15. Sullivan also spent time in the American Hockey League as the head coach of the Providence Bruins from 2002-2003 and the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins from 2015-16.
As a player, Sullivan played in the NHL with the San Jose Sharks (1991-94), Calgary Flames (1994-97), Boston Bruins (1997-98), and Phoenix Coyotes (1998-2002). played a season. He played in 709 games in the NHL, scoring 54 goals, 82 assists, and 136 points.
Internationally, Sullivan represented the United States as a player at the 1988 World Junior Championships and the 1997 World Championships.
Sullivan played four seasons of college hockey at Boston University from 1986 to 1990, scoring 61 goals, 77 assists, and 138 points in 141 games. He captained the Terriers during his senior season.
