NHL Rumors: Things Escalated Quickly in Philadelphia

Things escalated quickly with the Philadelphia Flyers firing John Tortorella

TSN: Pierre LeBrun said that he sat down with Philadelphia Flyers GM Daniel Briere on Tuesday morning in Toronto and asked him about John Tortorella’s future. Briere said that he was going to sit down with Tortorella after the season to see how he felt physically and mentally. Things changed quickly.

“Yes, the postgame comments after the loss to Toronto were part of it, but I’m also told via sources that there was also comments from Tortorella with management behind the scenes in the last 24 hours that ultimately forced the hand of Danny Briere and Keith Jones and the management group there in Philly to decide to fire John Tortorella.

I don’t know if you want to call it a mercy fire in some ways, Gino, but the sense is that some of the things that were said both postgame, publicly, but also I think behind the scenes, led to this fire.”

TSN: LeBrun later notes that there hasn’t been a coaching search as they acted so quickly, and it was a surprise to them.

“But this got forced on Flyers’ management to act now. And, in the end, there is not a coaching search underway quite yet. This is how sort of surprised I think management was that they had to do this now, but they will undertake one. Brad Shaw, the interim head coach, will be considered an in-house candidate, but I don’t think he’ll be a front runner.”

• Kevin Kurz: “Told from a team source that “it’s fair to say” something happened between Cam York and John Tortorella in Toronto, that contributed to the coach’s dismissal on Thursday morning. Was put to me that “they probably both crossed the line.””
• Elliotte Friedman: Flyers coach Brad Shaw said last night that Cam York dressed for the game but didn’t play a shift for a discipline issue. He is expected to play on Saturday.

The NHL, NHLPA, and IIHF will be meeting to sort out 2028 World Cup of Hockey issues

TSN: Pierre LeBrun said the NHL, NHLPA and IIHF will meet next week to discuss some issues the IIHF has with when the NHL and NHLPA want to stage the event.

“We know that they have had some issues. One is the fact that the tournaments planned for February of ’28, and I think the IIHF would have preferred it to be in a September tournament.

But there are other things as well and the NHL and NHLPA is hopeful that they can iron this out with the IIHF. They’d rather have them involved than not, but at the end of the day, if they can’t figure this out – again – the NHL and NHLPA are ready to move forward with the World Cup in 28, with or without the IIHF.”