- GM Kelly McCrimmon says John Tortorella won’t return as Vegas head coach next season
- Tortorella went 7-0-1 and reached the Cup Final after taking over in late March
- Read below for the McCrimmon statement, the player reaction, and what comes next
John Tortorella’s run in Vegas is over.
Golden Knights general manager Kelly McCrimmon announced Tuesday that Tortorella won’t return as head coach next season, two days after Vegas lost to the Carolina Hurricanes in the Stanley Cup Final.
McCrimmon thanked the veteran coach for what he brought during the stretch run.
“We thank ‘Torts’ for the guidance he provided our team since joining the organization in March,” McCrimmon said. “Torts’ experience and leadership proved to be the boost that we were looking for, helping guide us to the Stanley Cup Final. We are grateful for Torts’ passion, sincerity, and commitment to our organization, and we wish him and his family the best.”
Vegas hired Tortorella on March 29 with eight games left in the regular season, swapping out Bruce Cassidy at a point where the year was slipping away. The 67-year-old flipped it fast.
The Knights closed the regular season 7-0-1 and grabbed the top seed in the Pacific. Then they rolled past Utah, Anaheim and Colorado before running out of road against Carolina in six games.
His players didn’t hide how they felt about the change at Tuesday’s locker cleanout. Shea Theodore was asked about his outgoing coach.
“Torts was awesome,” Theodore said. “I think he was really what our group needed at the end to kind of push us into playoffs. A lot of credit to him. He was a fantastic coach.”
Catch the Game 6 postgame words from Stone, Hanifin, Theodore and Tortorella:
Noah Hanifin, who won Olympic gold alongside Tortorella with Team USA this season, said the short runway made the job that much harder to pull off.
“It’s a tough situation for a coach to come in with that little time left,” Hanifin said. “Just the way he was able to kind of get us back on the right track fast and give us a chance was pretty impressive. So nothing but respect for Torts.”
Tortorella wasn’t ready to sort out his own future right after the Game 6 loss.
“I haven’t even… I’ve got to swallow this a little bit,” he said Sunday night.
He walks away with a 777-648-166 career record across stops in Tampa Bay, New York, Vancouver, Columbus, Philadelphia and Vegas, plus the 2004 Cup he won with the Lightning. The Knights now sit alongside Edmonton and Toronto as the three teams searching for a new coach this offseason.
