Cassidy fired as Golden Knights coach, replaced by Tortorella

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.