John Tortorella hasn't been biggest factor in Golden Knights' turnaround

The Vegas Golden Knights shocked the hockey world when they fired Bruce Cassidy with eight games to play in the regular season, just a couple of years removed from him leading the team to its first Stanley Cup, and replaced him with John Tortorella. 

At this point, it is hard to argue with the results as Vegas has not only gone 19-4-1 (regular season and playoffs combined) under Tortorella, but is also back in the Stanley Cup Final for the third time in nine years.

It is easy to draw a line in the sand and say that Tortorella's arrival was the spark Vegas needed. 

He has almost certainly played some role in the turnaround.

But he also might not even be the biggest factor in the team reaching the threshold of another championship.

A healthy Mark Stone, William Karlsson and goaltending have been the biggest game-changers

Coaching matters.

But coaching doesn't matter enough if you do not have the players.

While Vegas had its share of issues throughout the 2025-26 regular season, the absence of some key players, including forwards Mark Stone and William Karlsson, played major roles in the disappointing record.

And that does not even get into the team's season-long goalie issues. 

Missing games has been nothing new for Stone throughout his career, and especially during his tenure in Vegas, and it always has an impact on how the team plays. 

Even at 33 years old, he is still one of the best, most impactful two-way players in the NHL and can control a game in a way that few wingers can. He still scores at a top-line rate (73 points in 60 games during the regular season) and is one of the best defensive forwards of his era. 

In his 60 games during the regular season, Vegas outscored teams by a 50-31 margin when he was on the ice during 5-on-5 play with a 59% expected goal share.

When he was not on the ice, Vegas was outscored 124-141 with only a 52% expected goals share. That is a significant gap, and it just proves what a game-changing player he can be.

But he's not the only player that's had a big hand in this.

Getting Karlsson (only 14 games during the regular season) back in the lineup for the playoffs has also played a major role in the Knights' postseason run. He has already produced five points in 10 games this postseason while greatly improving their center depth.

None of this even gets into the improvement they have had in net.

Even under Cassidy's watch for most of the season, Vegas consistently had some of the best defensive metrics in hockey during 5-on-5 play and was routinely winning the scoring chance and possession battle in games.

The two biggest things working against them were the temporary absence of Stone and the long-term absence of Karlsson, and the simple fact they were not getting any saves from any of their goaltenders.

And that includes starter Carter Hart.

Hart's regular-season performance with the Golden Knights was dreadful, resulting in him posting an .891 save percentage and allowing 4.2 goals more than expected (via MoneyPuck). As a team, Vegas' all-situations save percentage in the regular season was 27th in the NHL (out of 32 teams).

In the playoffs, Hart has already posted a .922 save percentage and saved 7.7 goals above expected, while Vegas' all-situations save percentage is second-best in the playoffs (out of 16 teams). 

There is no doubt that a late-season coaching chance can get a team's attention.

Tortorella also has an extensive track record of success in the NHL, and he has almost certainly put some of his imprint on the team.

But he said himself early on that one of the best things he can do with a veteran team is just stay out of the way. 

A healthy Stone, Karlsson and solid goaltending have been the real game-changers here. You do not necessarily need the best goalie. You sometimes just need the hottest goalie. You not only need a good roster, you also need them healthy at the right time. All of those things are meeting for Vegas at the perfect time.