Earlier this afternoon, the Vegas Golden Knights sent waves through the NHL by firing head coach Bruce Cassidy and replacing him with veteran bench boss John Tortorella. Still, the Golden Knights didn’t give Tortorella a long leash.
According to TSN’s Darren Dreger, Tortorella’s contract with Vegas only runs through the rest of the 2025-26 season. He’ll be guaranteed the last eight games of the regular season for the Golden Knights, and, assuming they make the playoffs, their last game of the postseason. Unless an extension is agreed to beforehand, the Golden Knights may be looking for a new head coach in a few months.
It’s a similar move to what the Columbus Blue Jackets did with Rick Bowness, albeit with much more time remaining in the season. However, even if the Tortorella experiment isn’t fruitful, the Golden Knights could explore a reunion with Peter DeBoer, hire Jay Woodcroft away from the Anaheim Ducks, or take a run at David Carle at the University of Denver. That’s all before any other teams make changes leading into the summer.
Additional evening notes:
- The Boston Bruins were without one of their top-four defensemen in their comeback win over the Blue Jackets earlier today. Before the game, Boston’s play-by-play broadcaster, Ryan Johnson, shared that Mason Lohrei is dealing with a minor lower-body injury and is considered day-to-day. Despite the Bruins’ success, Lohrei has had a difficult month, scoring one goal and two points in 14 games with a +2 rating.
- On the other side of the game, the Blue Jackets lost middle-six forward Mathieu Olivier to an upper-body injury during the game, as announced by the club. Olivier skated in 3:06 of action across six shifts, registering one shot on goal and two hits. His injury is likely connected to fighting Bruins forward Mark Kastelic late in the first period.
- Already dealing with a few injuries to their forward corps, the trend continues for the Dallas Stars. During their ongoing contest against the Philadelphia Flyers, the Stars shared that Michael Bunting is unlikely to return due to a lower-body injury. Bunting has not returned after skating for six shifts, and the injury update was vague.
Kelly McCrimmon doesn’t give any coach a long leash, Vegas has employed four capable, And high profile bench bosses in the first 9 seasons of the clubs existence.
Hopefully they are out in the first round. Perfect fit though; ahole coach with an ahole GM
Provided they even make the playoffs,they’re in a freefall
Love it when you bitter guys pop to spew.
The Flyers may just darn well make the playoffs afterall! 😮
Excellent move with perfect timing. They should make the playoffs now.
But the goaltending is disastrous. They’ll have trouble in the playoffs even in their weak division.
To stay on, Tortorella must win at least one series.
Gbear, one thing the Flyers have mastered is producing just enough points to miss the playoffs. If they stumble in, please check back and and I will issue a mea culpa. Thanks.
The curse of Mitch Marner continues…….
How does Torts keep getting jobs….
Just like in Boston… Cassidy’s message got stale…
Perfect contract for Torts to Vegas.
They’ll either miss the playoffs or get eliminated early and realize he’s not worth keeping around and find someone else. So give him a couple weeks and they’ll get rid of him now than waiting a year to do it
Been awhile since Torts had an upper echelon roster to work with.
Edmonton should hire Cassidy pronto.