John Tortorella’s starring performance on the Vegas Strip is over.
The all-time leader in Blue Jackets coaching wins won’t be back with the Vegas Golden Knights after a short-lived and highly successful run boosted them into the Stanley Cup Final. Two days after dropping that series in six games to the Carolina Hurricanes, Vegas announced June 16 that Tortorella won’t return.
A candidate to replace him is Ryan Craig, the Golden Knights’ AHL head coach in Henderson, Nevada and a former Blue Jackets forward who was captain of the Lake Erie Monsters in 2016 when they won the AHL’s Calder Cup.
Pierre LeBrun, of TSN and the Athletic reported June 16 that Tortorella coached the Golden Knights during the final year of a four-year contract he signed June 16, 2022, with the Philadelphia Flyers worth $16 million.
Tortorella, who was fired by the Flyers on March 27, 2025, will be a coaching free agent July 1 and has expressed interest in continuing to coach in the NHL despite filling his time between coaching stops by working with ESPN as a studio analyst.
Tortorella took over the Golden Knights from Bruce Cassidy on March 30 with eight games left. It was a last-gasp attempt by Vegas to spark a sputtering team filled with talented veterans who started the season with Stanley Cup aspirations, and it nearly worked.
The Golden Knights went 7-0-1 under Tortorella to finish the season and made their way through the playoffs in the Western Conference by defeating the Utah Mammoth, Anaheim Ducks and Colorado Avalanche, who they upset with a sweep to reach the Stanley Cup Final.
Vegas also won the first and third games against Carolina to lead the Cup Final 1-0 and 2-1 before the Hurricanes won three straight games to win the championship.
Tortorella has coached six NHL teams and holds a record of 777-648-166 with 37 ties over 1,628 games that ranks ninth all-time in wins and fifth among active coaches. He’s 70-72 in 142 playoff games and guided the Tampa Bay Lightning to the 2004 Stanley Cup as his lone championship season.
Tortorella went 227-166-54 in 447 games over six seasons in Columbus and is the only Blue Jackets coach to experience victory in a playoff series, shocking the Lightning in 2019 with a first-round sweep.
The only two NHL coaching vacancies open are with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Edmonton Oilers, who’ve caused a stir with their search by prompting an NHL investigation to determine whether they can hire former Blue Jackets coach Mike Babcock.
Dispatch Blue Jackets reporter Brian Hedger can be reached at bhedger@dispatch.com and @BrianHedger.bsky.social
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: John Tortorella out in Vegas after Stanley Cup Final loss
Reporting by Brian Hedger, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
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By Brian Hedger, Columbus Dispatch | USA TODAY Network
