Golden Knights fire Bruce Cassidy, hire John Tortorella

vegas golden knights Bruce Cassidy was fired on Sunday and replaced by John Tortorella, a move they hope will help them make the playoffs with eight games left in the regular season.

Cassidy was hired by Vegas in 2022 and guided the Golden Knights to the Stanley Cup in 2023.

But Vegas (32-26-16) has struggled of late this season, losing its last three games and six of its last seven. On Sunday it moved up to third place in the Pacific Division, six points behind first place anaheim ducks but beyond four Los Angeles Kings For the final divisional playoff spot.

Now, the Golden Knights will turn to Tortorella in search of another title through the challenging Western Conference.

“We thank Bruce Cassidy for his dedication to our hockey club and community over the past four seasons,” general manager Kelly McCrimmon said in a statement. “Under Bruce’s leadership, we reached our ultimate goal of bringing the Stanley Cup to Vegas in 2023. Bruce will always be remembered with the utmost respect by our organization for what we accomplished here.

“With the 2025–26 regular season looming upon us, we believe a change is necessary to return to the level of play expected of our club.”

A franchise that is defined by its win-at-all-cost approach has been struggling to do so over the past two months.

The Golden Knights went on a seven-game winning streak in mid-January and lost seven of their next eight games. After winning three games around the Olympic break, they lost six of seven games. And now his current slump has cost Cassidy, who holds the record for most wins by a coach in Golden Knights history, his job.

Tortorella will be Vegas’ fourth head coach since the inaugural 2017–18 season. he coached last philadelphia flyers But he was fired in March 2025 during his third season with the team.

Cassidy’s time with the Golden Knights transformed them into one of the stronger defensive teams based on underlying metrics. According to Natural Stat Trick, they entered Sunday allowing the fewest shots and fewest high-danger chances per 60 minutes, and they were in the top 10 allowing fewest scoring chances per 60.

But one issue that has troubled him is achieving his goal. According to Natural Stat Trick, Vegas has the lowest team save percentage in 5-on-5 play at 88.45%.

This isn’t the first time that Tortorella, who has won 770 career games, will be accused of trying to turn a team’s season around. He was an in-season hire when he took over lightning During the 2000–01 season and won the Stanley Cup with Tampa Bay in 2004. New York Rangers He was hired with 21 games remaining in the 2008–09 season and he led the club to the quarterfinal round of the playoffs.

Now he will be tasked with finding solutions, in a limited window of games, that can allow the Golden Knights to challenge in a Western Conference landscape in which five teams from the Central Division could reach the playoffs, a group that includes three of the NHL’s top six teams in points (colorado avalanche, dallas stars, minnesota wild).

“With John Tortorella, we bring in a Stanley Cup champion as well as one of the most experienced and respected coaches in the NHL,” McCrimmon said. “His guidance at a critical point in the season we are currently facing will be a great asset to our team.”