DeBoer relishing role as 'short-term assistant' for Team Canada at Olympics

MILAN -- Pete DeBoer stood inside the auxiliary practice rink Wednesday, thinking back to his first trip to help Team Canada prepare for the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026. It was in early October, just four months ago.

"Nothing was built," he said. "This was a patch of dirt, and the main rink, you couldn't get to. The village wasn't done."

Now the Canadians had just skated inside a tent outside Santagiulia Arena, where they will open against Team Czechia on Thursday (10:40 a.m. ET; Peacock, USA, ICI Télé, CBC Gem, RDS2, CBC) in their first of three preliminary-round games. They've enjoyed some time at the Olympic Village, meeting other athletes.

Everything is done. The city is buzzing. Time to drop the puck.

"Fabulous," DeBoer said. "… It's just a great energy to the whole Games."

DeBoer has a unique role with Canada and perspective on these Olympics.

The 57-year-old has spent 17 seasons as an NHL coach. He's 21st all-time in games (1,261) and 17th in wins (662) during the regular season, and seventh in games (179) and fifth in wins (97) during the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

But since the Dallas Stars fired him June 6, he hasn't had an NHL job. He has been able to focus on his role as an assistant with Canada in a way others have not. Coach Jon Cooper is also coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Two assistants are coaches of NHL teams: Bruce Cassidy with the Vegas Golden Knights, Rick Tocchet with the Philadelphia Flyers.

DeBoer visited Milan in early October to gather firsthand knowledge of the situation on the ground. He watched video of players, attended management meetings and contributed to discussions on roster construction.

"That was totally different for me and an exciting kind of wrinkle in what we usually normally do as coaches," he said.

He helped general manager Doug Armstrong communicate with Cooper.

"As a head coach, he knows the rhythm of a head coach, so he could get that information to 'Coop' at a more appropriate time than maybe I would have," said Armstrong, who also is GM of the St. Louis Blues. "I'm doing my job at home, and Pete was able to really focus in on that, and it's been great."

DeBoer arrived at the Olympics a week ahead of the main contingent of coaches and players.

"He went on the train," Armstrong said. "He went on the subway. He went to the village. He went to the hotel. So when everyone got here, he had a wealth of information that he could share that just helped us along."

DeBoer downplayed that, deferring to Scott Salmond, Hockey Canada's senior vice president of high performance and hockey operations.

"Got lost a few times," DeBoer said. "I was just kind of along for the ride on that. … The work behind the scenes Hockey Canada did as far as how we're going to move around the city, how we're going to move back and forth to the rink, all the way down to pregame meals, things like that, it was months of work."

It was important, because Team Canada landed Sunday morning, giving the coaches and players four days to adjust and prepare for their first game.

"A lot of the grunt work is done, whether that's video or technical packages, scheduling," DeBoer said. "We did as much of that as we could to try and alleviate the pressure on the group that was just arriving."

The fun part was that DeBoer got to live at the village and attend the Olympic opening ceremony, something most of the NHL contingent didn't get to do.

Now he's responsible for the defense corps and penalty killing.

"I love it," DeBoer said. "I've said all along: I've represented Canada numerous times as an assistant coach, and I love the different role as opposed to the responsibilities that come with being a head guy.

"It's a great learning opportunity. It's a great opportunity for perspective. You always come back with a little more appreciation for your assistant coaches after you come to one of these and are an assistant, so I think you always come back a better head coach."

And make no mistake: DeBoer wants to come back to the NHL as a head coach.

"Oh yeah," he said with a laugh. "I'm a head coach, yeah. I'm a short-term assistant coach."