The Vegas Golden Knights made their latest bold move Sunday when they fired coach Bruce Cassidy and replaced him with John Tortorella.
Cassidy led Vegas to the Stanley Cup in 2023, and the Golden Knights (32-26-16) are third in the Pacific Division this season. But they have gone 3-5-2 in their past 10 games and 8-15-4 since Jan. 19, and are four points ahead of the Los Angeles Kings, the first team below the cut line in the Western Conference.
Tortorella hasn’t coached in the NHL since the Philadelphia Flyers fired him March 27, 2025. But he won the Cup with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2004 and ranks ninth in NHL history with 770 wins.
The 67-year-old was an assistant for the U.S. men’s hockey team that won the gold medal at the Winter Olympics in Milan last month with two Vegas players: center Jack Eichel and defenseman Noah Hanifin.
“We believe that a change is necessary for us to return to the level of play that is expected of our club,” Golden Knights general manager Kelly McCrimmon said in a statement. “With John Tortorella, we bring in a Stanley Cup champion as well as one of the most experienced and respected coaches in the NHL. His guidance will be a great asset to our team at the pivotal point in the season we currently face.”
Cassidy is the third coach to be fired this season. Rick Bowness was hired by the Columbus Blue Jackets to replace Dean Evason on Jan. 12, and D.J. Smith took over the Los Angeles Kings after Jim Hiller was fired March 1.
This is not the first time Vegas has made such a move.
The Golden Knights shocked the hockey world Jan. 15, 2020, when they fired coach Gerard Gallant, who led them to the Stanley Cup Final in their inaugural season in 2017-18, and replaced him with Pete DeBoer, whose San Jose Sharks defeated them in seven games in the Western Conference First Round the season before.
They fired DeBoer on May 16, 2022, after failing to qualify for the playoffs for the first and still only time in their history, and they hired Cassidy on June 14, 2022.
Cassidy went 178-99-43 in almost four seasons in Vegas. After defeating the Florida Panthers in five games to win the Cup in 2022-23, his Golden Knights lost to the Dallas Stars in seven games in the first round in 2023-24 and to the Edmonton Oilers in five games in the second round last season.
In 12 NHL seasons, Cassidy is 470-254-96 with nine ties with the Washington Capitals, Boston Bruins and Golden Knights. He is 62-57 in 119 Stanley Cup Playoff games.
The 60-year-old was an assistant for the Canadian men’s hockey team that won silver at the Olympics in Milan with three Vegas players: defenseman Shea Theodore and forwards Mitch Marner and Mark Stone.
“Under Bruce’s leadership, we reached our ultimate goal in 2023 by bringing a Stanley Cup to Vegas,” McCrimmon said in a statement. “Bruce will forever be remembered with the utmost regard by our organization for what he accomplished here.”
Cassidy’s approach can be blunt. Tortorella’s can be even more so. He earned a reputation for being no-nonsense over 23 NHL seasons as coach of the Lightning, New York Rangers, Vancouver Canucks Columbus Blue Jackets and Philadelphia Flyers, going 770-648-165 with 37 ties and 56-64 in 120 playoff games.
In an interview with NHL.com before this season, Tortorella talked about the end in Philadelphia.
After a 7-2 loss at the Toronto Maple Leafs on March 25, 2025, Tortorella drew attention when he said, “I’m not really interested in learning how to coach in this type of season, where we’re at right now.” The Flyers were one point ahead of the Buffalo Sabres for last in the Eastern Conference with nine games to go.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to coach the Flyers; it was that he didn’t like playing out the string. He had pushed the players hard for almost three seasons. They were about to miss the playoffs for the third year in a row under him and fifth straight year overall, and management had sold off pieces at the NHL Trade Deadline again.
“I think a coach has to change,” Tortorella said. “I think a coach has to show the players respect, that you’re not backing off, but you also care about the grind that they just went through and they’re done in another few weeks.
“That’s what I was saying. I don’t want to learn how to coach that way. I don’t know how to coach that way, and I don’t want to learn. If you can keep yourself out of those spots of playing to the end, you won’t be good at that.
“I’ve seen teams be really good playing out a season when it means nothing. You’re relaxed. I’ve seen players play better. I’ve seen coaches … I don’t want to be that guy. It was out of respect to my team that I was not doing a good job. I wasn’t.
“Do I think I should have got fired for it? No. But I have too much respect for those players to kick the (heck) out of them right to the bitter end.
“It was the right thing to do by (general manager Daniel Briere to sell at the deadline). They’re doing it the right way, and I was on board with that. But it’s hard. It’s hard for those guys, and that’s what I was trying to say after Toronto.”
Tortorella wanted to make a couple of other things clear:
“Do I want to coach again? Yeah,” he said. “I heard a couple NHL coaches accuse me (of quitting on the team). Did I quit on the team after those comments I made in Toronto? I haven’t quit on a (bleeping) thing in my life. Those comments were totally taken out of (context).
“Listen, I don’t think I explained myself totally correctly, either. But I miss it already. I miss preparing (for) camp. I miss the camaraderie of camp. Yeah, I want to coach, so we’ll see what happens.”
Now Tortorella will take over a team that is doing anything but playing out the string.
