Former Rangers coach lands Vegas gig in shocking late-season shakeup
He’s baaack! Former New York Rangers coach John Tortorella was hired Sunday by the Vegas Golden Knights with two weeks left in the regular season, after they fired Bruce Cassidy as coach.
It’s simply a stunning turn of events.
Considered one of the preseason favorites to win the Stanley Cup, the Golden Knights are third in the Pacific Division, three points behind the second-place Edmonton Oilers and four up on the Los Angeles Kings, who sit fourth in the division. However, they lost three in a row (0-1-2), six of seven (1-4-2), and are 4-10-2 since Feb. 27.
So concerned is general manager Kelly McCrimmon that he pulled the plug on the coach who led Vegas to its only Stanley Cup championship in 2023. Under Cassidy, the Golden Knights reached the Stanley Cup Playoffs in each of his first three seasons before this one and finished first in the Pacific Division twice. He was 178-99-43 with the Golden Knights and is their all-time winningest coach.
But now, enter Torts.
“With the stretch run of the 2025-26 regular season upon us, we believe that a change is necessary for us to return to the level of play that is expected of our club,” McCrimmon said in a statement released by the Golden Knights.
“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. We look forward to welcoming John to Vegas.”
The unsaid here is that McCrimmon believes the Golden Knights need a major kick in the rear end before this season devolves completely. And the fiery Tortorella is well known for getting immediate positive results with the teams he coaches, even if he’s mellowed some in recent years.
Vegas is his sixth stop on the NHL coaching carousel. He previously coached the Rangers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Vancouver Canucks, Columbus Blue Jackets, and, most recently, Philadelphia Flyers, who fired Tortorella late last season.
Tortorella’s won 770 games as a coach in the NHL, ninth most all-time, and is the second-winningest United States-born coach in League history, behind another former Rangers bench boss, Peter Laviolette (846). His 1,620 games coached in the NHL is sixth most.
The 67-year-old led the Lightning to their first Stanley Cup championship in 2004. But he missed the playoffs his past four seasons in the League — three with the Flyers and one with the Blue Jackets. Tortorella last coached in the postseason in 2020, when he was behind the Blue Jackets bench. He is 56-64 all-time in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
John Tortorella helped turn the Rangers around as their coach earlier this century
Tortorella had a stormy, yet impactful, tenure on Broadway with the Rangers. Hired Feb 23, 2009, to replace Tom Renney, Tortorella coached through the 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs, when he was fired following a second-round loss to the Boston Bruins. His 171 regular-season wins are fifth all-time in Rangers history and his 319 games coached (including four when he was promoted to interim coach after John Muckler was fired near the end of the 1999-2000 season) is sixth most.
The Rangers returned to the playoffs under Tortorella in 2010-11, and then finished atop the Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference with 109 points in 2011-12. After winning a pair of Game Sevens against the Washington Capitals and Ottawa Senators that spring, the Rangers ran out of gas and lost the conference final to the New Jersey Devils in six games.
The next season was a major challenge, with nearly half the the campaign lost to the NHL lockout. The gritty Black and Blueshirts weren’t as successful in 2013, though they did return to the playoffs again. However, by that time, Tortorella wore out his welcome in New York and was replaced by Alain Vigneault, who guided the Rangers to the Stanley Cup Final in 2014 and Eastern Conference Final in 2014-15.
The Rangers were 19-25 in the postseason under Tortorella. Those 19 playoff wins are fourth most in Rangers history.
There were whispers a year ago that Tortorella might return to Broadway as an assistant under new Rangers coach Mike Sullivan. However, that proved not to be the case, though Sullivan did hire David Quinn, a former Rangers coach, to return as an assistant.
Tortorella worked alongside Sullivan and Quinn as an assistant with Team USA, helping the United States win the gold medal at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics.
Now, he gets the chance to coach one of the biggest stars on that U.S. roster — center Jack Eichel — with the Golden Knights, and chase a second Stanley Cup title.
