The Vegas Golden Knights went 39-26-17 last season, winning the Pacific Division and Western Conference titles, coming just two wins short of another Stanley Cup championship. Considering all the successes along the way that got the organization to their third Final in nine seasons, most fans would think there weren’t a whole lot of bad decisions along the way.
Well, according to Bleacher Report, the Golden Knights occupied a spot on their Worst Decisions of 2025-26 list with former head coach John Tortorella. What exactly did they say?
Why was Tortorella’s tenure with the Golden Knights so short?
Many Vegas fans will spend the rest of their lives wondering why Tortorella used a coach’s challenge on a possible goalie interference call in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final, citing that moment as a turning point in the series. Although the game was tied 2-2 at the moment, the Carolina Hurricanes scored 25 seconds later on the power play for the head coach’s failed challenge. A few minutes later, Mark Stone would tie it, but the visitors won the game in overtime, tying the series before heading back to Carolina.
If anyone thought that was the worst thing that could happen for Tortorella or the Golden Knights, it actually only got worse. When Vegas signed Carter Hart to a deal on October 24, 2025, he had a rocky start, his first NHL action in over a calendar year, going 6-3-3 in his first 12 games with a .871 SV% and 3.00 GAA. But those were the totals from early December to January. When Hart came back to finish the season under Tortorella, who was hired on March 30, the 27-year-old was a perfect 6-0-0 with a .930 SV% and 1.66 GAA, earning him the starter's job for the playoffs.
Hart carried the Golden Knights through the first two rounds with an 8-4 record before steamrolling the Presidents’ Trophy winners, the Colorado Avalanche, in a four-game sweep in the Western Conference Final, giving up just seven goals in 12 periods. However, when the Stanley Cup Final began, the wheels fell off, and Hart struggled, giving up four goals in every game, prompting the media to ask about Adin Hill’s availability with the series tied 2-2. In the end, Tortorella stuck to his guns and rode Hart until the final buzzer, which came on June 14 in a 3-0 shutout on home ice, ending the season and his tenure behind the bench.
What about the forfeited Golden Knights’ second-round draft pick?
First, Tortorella made a bad decision on a coach's challenge, and then he left Hart in the net for too long, which contributed to Vegas not hoisting the Stanley Cup. Yet, that may not be the worst decision of his tenure. Upset at the league and their on-ice decisions following the Golden Knights' win over the Anaheim Ducks, Tortorella skipped the mandatory post-game press conference, for which the league then stripped the franchise of a second-round pick in 2026 for disobeying the rules.
If Vegas won the Stanley Cup, all might have been forgotten. Still, they didn’t win, and Tortorella didn’t even last in the organization for the late June draft, meaning that several of his decisions cost the Golden Knights more than just another banner at T-Mobile Arena. Ultimately, Bleacher Report isn’t wrong to include Tortorella in their list of worst decisions from last season; it’s just fascinating to look back at the significant impact he had on the club in just three months.
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