John Tortorella. Eric Hartline-Imagn Images

Vegas Golden Knights make stunning coaching change, hire John Tortorella

By Adam Gretz | Last updated Mar 29, 2026 5:26 PM ET

The Vegas Golden Knights just became a lot more interesting. In one of the more stunning head-coaching changes in recent history, the Golden Knights announced on Sunday that they have fired Bruce Cassidy and replaced him with John Tortorella.

Cassidy coached the Golden Knights since the start of the 2022-23 season, coaching the team to its first Stanley Cup championship in his debut season. They lost in the first round of the playoffs the following season and the second round a year ago.

Golden Knights decision to hire John Tortorella seems like desperate move

There are a lot of layers to this decision that make it so stunning.

You can look at the fact that the Golden Knights have just eight games remaining in the 2025-26 regular season and are a playoff team as one of those stunning layers. It is not a totally unprecedented move for a playoff team to fire a coach this late in the season, but it is extremely rare. The most successful of these moves came back in 2000 when the New Jersey Devils fired Robbie Ftorek late in the season, replaced him with Larry Robinson, and then went on to win the Stanley Cup.

The fact that Tortorella is their coach of choice is also staggering.

He is a big name, which Vegas loves. He is also extremely volatile and could take this thing in any number of directions.

Tortorella has a strong track record of success in the NHL with multiple teams, but his only Stanley Cup win came back in the pre-lockout, pre-salary cap NHL during the 2003-04 season. He is also the type of coach who can quickly wear out his welcome with players due to his demanding style and push for gritty, physical play.

He is by no means a bad coach. But whether or not he is the right coach for Vegas remains to be seen.

The Vegas Golden Knights have relieved Bruce Cassidy of his duties as head coach.

John Tortorella has been named head coach.#VegasBorn https://t.co/TSTwVqXlbQ
— Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) March 29, 2026

Tortorella's strengths are in his ability to squeeze every possible point in the standings out of under-talented teams. He will maximize everything he can out of a team that is lacking in elite talent, especially defensively, and make them competitive. There is a lot to be said for that.

His weaknesses, and especially recently, are working with talented players and high-end rosters, mostly due to his demands for them defensively. While he maximizes the under-talented teams, he tends to struggle to maximize the talented rosters.

Vegas has a lot of good two-way players that could excel under Tortorella's style, but also a lot of high-end, high-talent players.

Will that marriage work?

Despite all of the talent and big-money players on the roster, Vegas has badly underachieved this season and has not played like the Stanley Cup contender it was always expected to be. The biggest reason for that is a lack of consistent goaltending.

Unfortunately for Vegas (and Tortorella), that may not be the thing a coaching change can help.

Adam Gretz

Adam Gretz is a freelance writer based in Pittsburgh. He covers the NHL, NFL, MLB and NBA. Baseball is his favorite sport -- he is nearly halfway through his goal of seeing a game in every MLB ballpark. Catch him on X @AGretz

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