USA Hockey has announced that David Quinn will be an assistant coach for Team USA at the upcoming Olympics in Beijing.
Former Rangers assistant Mike Sullivan will be the head coach.
Quinn has a long history with USA Hockey that includes time with the US National Program and with the World Juniors and World Championship teams. Quinn was slated to be the Head Coach for the 2019 US World Junior Team but had to drop out once he became head coach of the Rangers.
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It is very likely that Quinn will reunite with Adam Fox for Team USA with Chris Kreider also a possibility.
Nashville coach John Hynes, Pittsburgh assistant Todd Reirden and recently retired goalie Ryan Miller round out the staff.
Adam Rotter: This isn’t overly surprising as Sullivan surrounds himself with two of his closest friends, Hynes and Quinn, and one of his current assistants with Pitt. I don’t know if Quinn was offered any assistant jobs in the NHL, but this is a nice opportunity for him to get back into things. He was reportedly one of the last few contenders for the Seattle job that went to Dave Hakstol, and I think that he will be back in the NHL full-time next season either as a head coach or assistant coach. It would also not be a shock to see him coach Team USA at the World Championships this spring in the same way that Gerard Gallant just did for Team Canada and Alain Vigneault did in 2019 for Canada after both of them were out of the NHL that year. I think he will get one more shot to be an NHL head coach and maybe that happens with wherever Jeff Gorton ends up.