Mar 11, 2023; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Flyers head coach John Tortorella reacts on the bench against the Pittsburgh Penguins during the third period at PPG Paints Arena. Pittsburgh won 5-1. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images / Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images
Over his 25+ years in the NHL, John Tortorella has become one of the most iconic coaches in league history, but even legendary careers must eventually come to an end.
On Thursday morning, the Philadelphia Flyers fired Tortorella after three years on the job. The move doesn’t come as too much of a surprise, as the Flyers are 1-10-1 in their past 12 games and have plummeted in the standings, but the fact they didn’t even wait until the end of the season is still somewhat unexpected.
The question is, does this firing mark the end of the road for Tortorella in the NHL?
First, Tortorella is 66 and has been an NHL head coach since the 2000-01 season, leading five different teams in that time. If he decided to walk away from the game on his own volition, it would be completely understandable.
If he does decide to continue coaching, though, it may be tough to find a new home.
Tortorella is definitely more at home with a team that’s at least in the playoff mix, not one that’s in a full-scale rebuild like the Flyers are. He made that very clear in some questionable comments after a 7-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday.
“This falls on me,” Tortorella said. “I’m not really interested in learning how to coach in this type of season, where we’re at right now. But I have to do a better job. So this falls on me, getting the team prepared to play the proper way until we get to the end.”
That mindset would drastically limit his options, as naturally, most teams who are in the market for a new coach are outside the playoffs. Perhaps a promising team gets off to a slow start next season and looks to a veteran like Tortorella to right the ship, similar to what the St. Louis Blues did when they fired Drew Bannister and replaced him with Jim Montgomery in November.
Scenarios like that are few and far between, but the NHL is extremely volatile when it comes to head coaches. Of the league’s 32 teams, 28 of them hired their current head coach in 2022 or later.
If this is the end of the road for Tortorella, he’ll definitely have a place in the Hockey Hall of Fame some day. He ranks ninth in NHL history with 770 wins, won two Jack Adams awards and led the Tampa Bay Lightning to their first Stanley Cup in 2004. Despite his abrasive personality, he absolutely has a Hall of Fame resume.
