- NHL upholds the $100,000 fine on John Tortorella and the Knights’ forfeited 2026 second-round pick
- Tortorella skipped his postgame presser and Vegas kept its locker room closed after clinching against Anaheim
- Read below for what the league weighed Tuesday and where the Bruce Cassidy standoff stands
Vegas took its swing at the NHL’s discipline and came up empty.
The league denied the Golden Knights’ appeal Tuesday morning in New York, per ESPN’s Emily Kaplan. The $100,000 fine on head coach John Tortorella and the forfeiture of Vegas’s 2026 second-round draft pick will stand exactly as the league handed them down last week.
After Vegas clinched the series 5-1 in Game 6 at Anaheim on May 14, Tortorella blew off his postgame press conference and the team kept its locker room closed to reporters. The league called it a “flagrant violation” of playoff media regulations and dropped the hammer two days later.
League officials had warned Vegas before. The team scrapped a Salt Lake City press conference 30 minutes before tip in the first round, kept captain Mark Stone away from reporters after his injury return, and watched an Athletic writer lose his credential for asking Noah Hanifin about the Carter Hart signing.
Tortorella faced the cameras on Saturday and stuck to the script. He pointed to a team statement and offered nothing more:
Bruce Cassidy’s situation didn’t come up in Tuesday’s meeting, per Elliotte Friedman, so the standoff there continues. Vegas is still refusing Edmonton and LA permission to talk to their former coach about open head jobs, with the Toronto request still in limbo.
Game 1 of the Western Conference Final is Wednesday night in Denver. Vegas walks into it $100,000 lighter, with one fewer pick in next month’s draft, and a coach who still has nothing to say.
