Will ex-Rangers coach be back with Vegas after coming up short in Cup Final?
John Tortorella transformed the struggling Vegas Golden Knights into a Stanley Cup finalist after being hired to replace Bruce Cassidy with eight games left in the regular season. The question now is what’s next for the former New York Rangers coach, whose contract with Vegas expires at the end of the month.
Tortorella told Sportsnet last week that “end of June, I’m done, as far as with Vegas.” But he was much less definite Sunday after the Carolina Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup by blanking the Golden Knights 3-0 in Game 6 of the Final.
“I haven’t even [considered it],” Tortorella said when asked if he’d be back behind the Golden Knights’ bench next season. “I’ve got to swallow this a little bit.”
Vegas GM Kelly McCrimmon hired Tortorella on March 29 as a short-term solution after the Golden Knights dropped to third place in the Pacific Division. They were 7-0-1 with Torts behind the bench to win the division, then defeated the Utah Mammoth and Anaheim Ducks in six games each before sweeping the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference Final.
Tortorella can be fiery and mercurial — back in his Rangers days, he told one NHL writer after the Blueshirts’ lost to the Islanders in their first look at 2009 No. 1 overall pick John Tavares that “I don’t give a f*** about Tavares. I only care about the Rangers.” After Vegas lost 4-2 in Game 5 at Lenovo Center, he made a point of saying he was leaving his clothes at the team hotel in Raleigh, citing his confidence that Vegas would force a Game 7.
He also cost the Golden Knights their second-round choice in next week’s NHL Draft when he violated NHL policy and refused to speak to the media or open the Vegas locker room following their series-clinching win over the Ducks in the second round. The NHL also fined Tortorella $100,000.
Ex-Rangers coach ponders next career move after Final loss with Vegas
But Tortorella is also No. 9 on the NHL all-time list of winningest coaches with 777 regular-season victories. He guided the Tampa Bay Lightning to their first Stanley Cup championship in 2004, got the Rangers to the Eastern Conference Final in 2012 and is a two-time winner of the Jack Adams Award as NHL coach of the year (2004 with the Lightning and 2017 with the Columbus Blue Jackets).
He was the first U.S.-born coach to reach 500 wins and is second all-time behind another former Rangers coach, Peter Laviolette, who was hired by the Los Angeles Kings last week. Laviolette coached the Rangers to franchise records in wins (55) and points (114) in 2023-24, but was fired after the Blueshirts went from winning the Presidents’ Trophy to missing the playoffs in 2024-25.
Tortorella began his coaching career by going winless 0-3-0 with one tie in four games with the Rangers at the end of the 1998-99 season, then returned to Broadway in February 2009 and was 171-115-29 before being let go after the 2012-13 season.
After that, he spent one season with the Vancouver Canucks, six with the Blue Jackets and three with the rebuilding Philadelphia Flyers, who fired him late last season after three straight playoff misses.
The Golden Knights, a veteran team with a history of success, were a good fit for Torts — he said often during in the past month that his players taught him as much as he did them. After the loss Sunday, he thanked owner Bill Foley, team president (and former Rangers forward) George McPhee and McCrimmon for giving him the opportunity to get back behind the bench and get within two wins of another Cup championship.
“I feel very fortunate how this all came about, and just kind of in a weird way at the end of the year,” Tortorella explained. “And then to get locked in with these guys, I just feel fortunate to get to know the team, get to know the organization, first-class organization, and just to have the opportunity.
“Like I said, I’ve wanted to coach, I want to coach. And to jump into this with this gang, I feel so fortunate.”
If he’s back in the fall, Tortorella said he likes the team’s chances of making another deep playoff run. The Golden Knights have one of the League’s more talented rosters that includes players such as Mitch Marner, Jack Eichel and Mark Stone. McCrimmon will have to figure out how to keep his top goal-scorer, Pavel Dorofeyev, who can become a restricted free agent on July 1.
But the Golden Knights are an organization that invariably finds a way to get the talent it wants — something that would attract any coach.
“I know we’re on the wrong end of it here, but I just feel that’s a strong room,” Tortorella said. “I’m anxious to see what happens next year because it has another chance.”
