Golden Knights fire Bruce Cassidy, replace him with John Tortorella

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Bruce Cassidy is out as coach of the Vegas Golden Knights, who fired him Sunday in an abrupt late-season change and replaced him with John Tortorella.

General manager Kelly McCrimmon announced the move a day after the team lost three in a row and six of its past seven games. Vegas is in third place in the Pacific Division and on track to make the playoffs despite the recent skid.

Tortorella joins the organization for his 24th NHL season as a head coach. He was not in the league this year and was an assistant for the U.S. at the Milan Cortina Olympics when it won gold. He coached Tampa Bay to the Stanley Cup in 2004.

Cassidy led the Golden Knights to the Cup in 2023 and got fired less than three years later.

“Under Bruce’s leadership, we reached our ultimate goal in 2023 by bringing a Stanley Cup to Vegas," McCrimmon said in a statement. "Bruce will forever be remembered with the utmost regard by our organization for what was accomplished here. 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.

"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.”

The change isn't necessarily surprising given the Golden Knights' play since the Olympics break in which they have gone 5-10-2 and they have been outscored by an average of 3.2 to 2.4 goals per game. Vegas for the first time will finish a season with more defeats than victories.

But the timing with eight games remaining in their regular season wasn't completely expected, especially with the Golden Knights four points ahead of Los Angeles for the third playoff spot in the Pacific Division.

Patience isn't something Vegas is known for, however. The organization aggressively goes after the NHL's top players either through free agency or trades and holds its coaches to the highest standards. Though Cassidy is the longest-tenured coach in the club's history — he went 178-99-43 over four seasons — the Golden Knights are going with their fourth coach behind the bench as they finish their ninth season.

Expectations were high for this team going into the season after the splashy acquisition of forward Mitch Marner in a sign-and-trade with Toronto. Vegas also later landed goalie Carter Hart in a controversial signing and traded for defenseman Rasmus Andersson among other notable moves.

And going into the break, the Golden Knights stood atop the division standings. But they have not looked like a contender since the return to play, and the moves that Cassidy made to near perfection three years ago in winning the Cup didn't provide the same return this time. Vegas has left plenty of points on the ice, losing 16 games in overtime or shootouts.

Whether firing Cassidy was an act of desperation or necessity or somewhere in between, all the focus will be on Tortorella's ability to maximize what management clearly believes is a roster capable of competing for a championship. Given that five of its members played in the gold medal game at the Olympics, that assertion might not be completely unfounded.

Five teams have won the Cup since 2000 after changing coaches in the season, most recently in 2019 when St. Louis replaced Mike Yeo with Craig Berube and the Blues defeated Cassidy and the Boston Bruins. Golden Knights forward Ivan Barbashev was on that Blues team, playing alongside future Vegas teammate Alex Pietrangelo.

Tortorella figures to bring a different energy to the Golden Knights. Cassidy wasn't easy on his players, but he also loved to discuss the cerebral elements of the game. Tortorella brings the reputation into the veteran locker room of a fiery coach who doesn't back down from confrontations, often winning early before later wearing thin with his players.

He has posted a 770-648-37 career record while coaching five teams. In addition to taking the Lightning to the Stanley Cup championship early this century, he also was on Columbus' bench when the Blue Jackets swept Presidents' Trophy winner Tampa Bay in the first round of the 2019 playoffs.

The coach known as Torts has a short amount of time to work that kind of magic in Vegas, beginning with Monday night's home game against Vancouver.

___

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl