March 27 (UPI) — The Philadelphia Flyers fired John Tortorella during his third season as coach, the NHL franchise announced Thursday. Tortorella led the Flyers to a 28-36-9 record this season.
Flyers associate coach Brad Shaw was named interim coach.
“Today I made the very difficult decision to move on from John as our head coach,” Flyers general manager Daniel Briere said. “John played a vital role in our rebuild. He set a standard of play and re-established what it means to be a Philadelphia Flyer.
“John’s passion on the bench was only equaled by his charitable work in our community. As we move into the next chapter of this rebuild, I felt this was the best for our team to move forward. I’d like to thank John for his tireless work and commitment to the Flyers.”
The Flyers hired Tortorella in 2022. They went 31-38-13 in his first season. The Flyers were 38-33-11 the next year, but never made the playoffs during Tortorella’s tenure.
Tortorella led the Columbus Blue Jackets to a 227-166-54 record from 2015-16 through 2020-21 before becoming Flyers coach. That six-year run included four playoff berths.
Tortorella also coached the Tampa Bay Lighting, Vancouver Canucks and New York Rangers. He led the Lightning to a Stanley Cup during the 2003-04 campaign. His overall record includes 770 wins, 648 losses, 37 ties and 165 overtime/shootout losses.
“On behalf of the entire Flyers organization, we would like to thank John for his dedication over the past three seasons,” Flyers owner Dan Hilferty and president of hockey operations Keith Jones said. “We fully support Danny’s decision in making this change as he continues to do what is needed for the future of our organization.
“John Tortorella has made a positive impact throughout the Flyers organization, and we are grateful and appreciative of the opportunity to work with him. We wish John, Christine and their family all the best moving forward.”
The Flyers will host the Montreal Canadiens at 7 p.m. EDT Thursday in Philadelphia.
